Contradiction That Never Was. : Epigenesis versus Modularity in Evolutionary Aesthetics

Peer reviewe

Neurobiological foundations of aesthetics and art

A theory of the neurobiological foundations of aesthetics and art is described. This has its roots in emotion, in which what is pleasant or unpleasant, a reward or punisher, is the result of an evolutionary process in which genes define the (pleasant or unpleasant) goals for action. To this is added the operation of the reasoning, syntactic, brain system which evolved to help solve difficult, multistep, problems, and the use of which is encouraged by pleasant feelings when elegant, simple, and hence aesthetic solutions are found that are advantageous because they are parsimonious, and follow Occam's Razor. The combination of these two systems, and the interactions between them, provide an approach to understanding aesthetics that is rooted in evolution and its effects on brain design and function

Aesthetic Gadgets : Rethinking Universalism in Evolutionary Aesthetics

There is a growing appetite for the inclusion of outcomes of empirical research into philosophical aesthetics. At the same time, evolutionary aesthetics remains in the margins with little mutual discussion with the various strands of philosophical aesthetics. This is surprising, because the evolutionary framework has the power to bring these two approaches together. This article demonstrates that the evolutionary approach builds a biocultural bridge between our philosophical and empirical understanding of humans as aesthetic agents who share the preconditions for aesthetic experience, but are not determined by them. Sometimes, philosophers are wary of the evolutionary framework. Does the research program of evolutionary aesthetics presuppose an intrinsic aesthetic instinct that would determine the way we form aesthetic judgments, regardless of the environment with which we interact? I argue that it does not. Imitation and mindreading are considered to be central features of the aesthetic module. Recently, and contrary to the prior view, it has been shown that imitation and mindreading are not likely to be innate instincts but socially learned, yet evolved patterns of behavior. Hence, I offer grounds for the idea that the cognitive aesthetic module(s) is socially learned, too. This outcome questions the need for the traditional differentiation between empirical and philosophical aesthetics.Peer reviewe

Aesthetic Gadgets: Rethinking Universalism in Evolutionary Aesthetics

There is a growing appetite for the inclusion of outcomes of empirical research into philosophical aesthetics. At the same time, evolutionary aesthetics remains in the margins with little mutual discussion with the various strands of philosophical aesthetics. This is surprising, because the evolutionary framework has the power to bring these two approaches together. This article demonstrates that the evolutionary approach builds a biocultural bridge between our philosophical and empirical understanding of humans as aesthetic agents who share the preconditions for aesthetic experience, but are not determined by them. Sometimes, philosophers are wary of the evolutionary framework. Does the research program of evolutionary aesthetics presuppose an intrinsic aesthetic instinct that would determine the way we form aesthetic judgments, regardless of the environment with which we interact? I argue that it does not. Imitation and mindreading are considered to be central features of the aesthetic module. Recently, and contrary to the prior view, it has been shown that imitation and mindreading are not likely to be innate instincts but socially learned, yet evolved patterns of behavior. Hence, I offer grounds for the idea that the cognitive aesthetic module(s) is socially learned, too. This outcome questions the need for the traditional differentiation between empirical and philosophical aesthetics

Epistemic Engagement, Aesthetic Value & Scientific Practice

I develop an account of the relationship between aesthetics and knowledge, focusing on scientific practice. Cognitivists infer from ‘partial sensitivity’—aesthetic appreciation partly depends on doxastic states—to ‘factivity’, the idea that the truth or otherwise of those beliefs makes a difference to aesthetic appreciation. Rejecting factivity, I develop a notion of ‘epistemic engagement’: partaking genuinely in a knowledge-directed process of coming to epistemic judgements, and suggest that this better accommodates the relationship between the aesthetic and the epistemic. Scientific training (and other knowledge-directed activities), I argue, involve ‘attunement’: the co-option of aesthetic judgements towards epistemic ends. Thus, the connection between aesthetic appreciation and knowledge is psychological and contingent. This view has consequences for the warrant of aesthetic judgment in science, namely, the locus of justification are those processes of attunement, not the aesthetic judgements themselves

On the development of evolutionary artificial artists

The creation and the evaluation of aesthetic artifacts are tasks related to design, music and art, which are highly interesting from the computational point of view. Nowadays, Artificial Intelligence systems face the challenge of performing tasks that are typically human, highly subjective, and eventually social. The present paper introduces an architecture which is capable of evaluating aesthetic characteristics of artifacts and of creating artifacts that obey certain aesthetic properties. The development methodology and motivation, as well as the results achieved by the various components of the architecture, are described. The potential contributions of this type of systems in the context of digital art are also considered.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6TYG-4PTMXVB-1/1/265a0f6c8e478822e6de32b87bc2fb1

Creative or Not? Birds and Ants Draw with Muscle

In this work, a novel approach of merging two swarm intelligence algorithms is considered – one mimicking the behaviour of ants foraging (Stochastic Diffusion Search [5]) and the other algorithm simulating the behaviour of birds flocking (Particle Swarm Optimisation [17]). This hybrid algorithm is assisted by a mechanism inspired from the behaviour of skeletal muscles activated by motor neurons. The operation of the swarm intelligence algorithms is first introduced via metaphor before the new hybrid algorithm is defined. Next, the novel behaviour of the hybrid algorithm is reflected through a cooperative attempt to make a drawing, followed by a discussion about creativity in general and the ’computational creativity’ of the swarm

Beyond the nature-culture dichotomy: a proposal for Evolutionary Aesthetics

Human aesthetic preferences towards a certain landscape type, a certain bodily traits of the opposite sex, a figurative style rather than another, are embedded in what we call \u201caesthetic experience\u201d, a complex network of instinctive reactions, emotions, feelings, thoughts, and judgements. Are these preferences universal and species-specific, that is to say are they the same for every member of a particular species? Evolutionary psychologists advocate the universality and species-specificity of the aesthetic preferences. Going back to Darwin's writings, in particular to his Notebooks, Bartalesi and Portera attempt to provide an alternative explanation for the emergence and development of human aesthetic preferences, beyond the dichotomy of nature and culture