The term “palaeonthropsychobiological,” which was coined by Dissanayake, means that there are ideas of art, which encompass the whole human history, for instance, as far as the Paleolithic or earlier. It also suggests that the idea of art includes all human societies like cross-cultural or anthropological. Lastly it accounts for the truth that art is an emotional or psychological need and contains emotional and psychological effects. The term also states that in order for art to be included in the human cultures, human psychology, and human history it must be viewed as a biological or inherent trait in the human species or natural and normal like sex, language, aggression and sociability.

The phrase “making special” means that arts does not only entail beautiful paintings, dances, musical compositions, and pictures. All these are as a result of artistic behavior. Ellen meant that all artists always put their emotion and thoughts to their artwork and the moment we appreciate their work, we try to understand and feel the meaning of their theme. In art people try to make everything they create special and they use all their abilities including resources and intelligence. Therefore; with all these abilities artists try to make something unique, special, and different. Ellen states that “thinking of art as behavior of making special is a change of pattern truly.” This expression relates to art and human continued existence because it is seen in the simple things we do like cooking special and wearing special garb during important occasions.

The author describes three theories, which include modernism, post modernism, and renaissance. Modernism took place during the 18^th century it is important in the modernistic theory since it carries both theory and an appreciation of pieces that were created during the period, which often require a neutral mind frame in acquiring its amazing value. As it is described in Dissanayake’s article “Implicit in this account that what is written or said about a particular artwork is not only important to it being art, but indeed more important than the artwork itself. Art cannot be appreciated without an explanation.” Several things changed through this period, which includes the introduction of science, the interpersonal and social changes. Modernism offered the idea around aesthetics and the notion of interested and disinterested viewers.

Postmodern emerged during the 19^th century after the modernist era. People began using post modernists theories in challenging the modernist ideology. Since individuals use their cultural and personal sensibilities in appreciating arts instead of the independently  truthful way, postmodernists is referred to as the canon of works, which represent the view of the earth as elite. “As an alternative of assuming that art reflects a privileged and unique kind of knowledge, post modernists point out that any reality or truth is just a point of view, which comes to us as conditioned and mediated.”

Lastly, the renaissance was between the rise of the modern era and the middle ages. Linear perspectives came into existence during this period and the attractiveness of nature. The “art for life’s sake” theory was developed and was based on the universalism of art, which represented the human behavior and human species. She states “by considering art from the broadest perspective, the palaeoantropsychobiological view, which I mentioned earlier- as a worldwide propensity and need of the human species.”

The author of “What is Art for,” displays a number of forms of behavior, which can be termed as art and how art plays a crucial role in the social life of a number of societies. She highlights a comprehensive theory of the evolutionary significance of art since its beginning. However, the book only covers a number of countries and not all over the world. The coverage is minimal since the author has been to Sri Lanka, Nigeria, India and Guinea. These countries may have offered good history but not the much history required to cover for the introduction and beginning of art.

The author believes that art was changed by the rise of science, gradual secularization of society, interpersonal or social changes. However, it is not clear how these changed art since art exists today and has grown more. Today, there is more science and much has changed even technologically, but a large number of people still value art. The author claims that art evolved because of making socially important activities pleasurable and memorable, which were crucial to human survival. The original synthetic approach allows a fresh look at the old questions about the purpose, nature, value and origin of art. Therefore, art crosses a number of disciplinary disciplines integrating a number of fields, which include evolutionary biology, human ethology, cultural and physical anthropology, prehistoric art, children’s art and western culture art.  However, the author does not explain art according to the periods in which it was in existence and the purpose it was used for. In the olden days people used to develop art for particular reasons. Art from a certain community spread to other cultures; however this is not discussed in the article. Art from particular parts of the world have been described and have been identified in other countries.