Philosophy : The Art Instinct Beauty Pleasure and Human Evolution
How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like | 
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Manufacturer: Bloomsbury Press
Release Date: 2010-02-02
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- ISBN13: 9781608190553
- Condition: New
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 A landmark
A keeper. One of those iconic books that one will want to keep. Enormous insight. Not so much an encyclopedia as a personal journal. A must read for anyone interested in art.
Instinct and the Imagination
"The Art Instinct" has been thoroughly reviewed on Amazon, but I liked Dutton's book so much that I really feel like writing about it. To summarize Dutton's argument: (1) Art is an act of imagination, (2) Imagination is an instinct, therefore (3) Art is an instinct. These ideas come from the field of evolutionary psychology, but what I like about Dutton is the unique perspective, as a philosopher of art, that he brings to the discussion.
I used to think that the field of aesthetics was pretty much played out, but Dutton convinced me otherwise; In re-tracing the idea of art-as-imagination all the way back to Kant and the Greeks, Dutton strengthens the argument from evolutionary psychology, reconnects the humanities to the sciences, and offers a powerful alternative to the standard paradigm of anthropology + critical theory that currently dominates the arts curriculum. I also appreciated how his book considers other arts, including literature and music, not just painting and sculpture, and ties in the perennial questions like "what is art," and "what makes some art great," to the Modern Synthesis. Dutton writes so well about these utterly fascinating things, from modern art to evolutionary spandrels, that the sparks will keep on flying, long after you finish the book.
He Keeps His Promise
Dutton promises that although he will explain what aspects of human behavior and human evolution draw people to art, he will not destroy the reader's appreciation of art but strengthen it. He keeps his promise.
Opposed to Modernism and artistic relativism
Dutton's deft analysis of humanity's universal and innate need for artistic expression is essentially counter to the century-old Modernist theory of art, whereby Modernists cite lack of education as the main reason for the general public's persistent inability to appreciate non-representational art. It also opposes a relativistic post-Modernist view of the arts, which posits that an object's status as a work of art is conferred primarily by its definition as such by institutions, critics, and artists.
In arriving at an answer to the question "is it art?" Dutton identifies twelve universal, cross-cultural cluster criteria against which any object can be compared, arguing that our ancestors were programmed in remote prehistory with specific aesthetic longings as part of a survival instinct. As such, Modernist/post-Modernist theory cannot supersede basic human nature.
To make his point, the author provides answers to such sticky questions as why most people in both Western and non-Western cultures prefer to view images of bucolic landscapes instead of jungles, why the human sense of smell has never been developed into a "high" art form, and whether Dada works such as the readymade urinal exhibited by Marcel Duchamp in 1917 should indeed be considered art.
 What Makes Art Art? Does Denis Dutton Know?
My full review of 'The Art Instinct'--"What Makes Art Art? Does Denis Dutton Know?"--appears in the April 2010 issue of Aristos, the online review of the arts that I co-edit (find it at aristos dot org). Actually, I comment primarily on Chapter 3 of the book, "What Is Art?" For the answer to the first question posed by my title, see What Art Is: The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand, which I co-authored. The answer to the second question is No he does not--which is why I give 'The Art Instinct' only one star. The main problem with Dutton's argument is that his alleged definition of "art" is seven pages long. A proper definition, as any good introductory logic text will tell you, is a statement consisting of a genus and a differentia, as in "man is a rational [differentia] animal [genus]" (though usually the genus is cited first).
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