I am a PhD student in Philosophy at the University of Florence and I am currently writing my dissertation on the topic "Aesthetics and Evolution". My main interests are in aesthetics, history of modern philosophy, evolutionary biology.
Dates of visit: 03/10/2013 - 13/12/2013
Email: mariagrazia.portera@unifi.it|
Project Description: One of the main theses in Darwin's treatise The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871) is that the human "taste for the beautiful" is not a species-specific device: bowerbirds, birds of paradise, peacocks, butterflies, drills display, at least at some degree, the ability to discriminate, appreciate and select beautiful traits (mainly belonging to their own sexual partners). The goal of my project of research is to explore and discuss the evolutionary origins of the aesthetic attitude in man and other animals. My project asks: What is the origin and meaning of the aesthetic sense in man and other animals? Is the aesthetic sense genetically encoded or is it culturally inherited? Is the aesthetic attitude an evolutionary adaptation, an exaptation, a spandrel (Gould, Vrba 1982)? What is the difference - if any - between the animal aesthetic sense and the human one?