Is Art Cultural?

In the Ted talk video that was assigned for this week Denis Dutton, an art philosopher, looks at what beauty really is and what makes art. He gives us a “theory of beauty” in which he tries to give an explanation for why some forms of art and expression are cross culturally considered great like Shakespeare or American Jazz. He takes a Darwinian approach looking at how we have evolved to enjoy art and beauty. This sort of flies in the face of the idiom “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” he is instead saying ideas of beauty and art are programmed into us the same way other emotional reactions like fear and disgust are. This is a very interesting way to look at art and one that I have never considered. The ideas he is presenting even transcend the human experience, pointing out the mating rituals of animals that use beauty to attract mates like the peacock; this is a really amazing concept, the idea that animals can understand beauty and react to it is “natures way of acting at a distance.” What I think this means is that beauty is forcing our biological action. Then the distinction is made that this does not only apply to natural beauty but also artistic beauty, he cites the fact that artistic objects have been found along with the entire span of human history, going back as far as the homosapien and hand axes that were strictly for beauty.   The only real question I have is that all other animals may be able to notice beauty, but why do they not then create art? If beauty and art is not at all cultural and completely biological, then it would seem that close relatives to the homosapien like other primates would also create art.

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