The Indispensable Excess of the Aesthetic: Evolution of Sensibility in Nature

(Hardback)

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The Indispensable Excess of the Aesthetic: Evolution of Sensibility in Nature traces the evolution of sensibility from the most primal indications detectable at the level of cellular receptors and plant tendril sensitivity, animal creativity and play to cultural ramifications. Taking on Darwins insistence against Wallace that animals do have a sense of beauty, and on recent evolutionary observations, this book compellingly argues that sensibility is a biological faculty that emerges together with life. It argues that there is appreciation and discernment of quality, order, and meaning by organisms in various species determined by their morphological adaptations and environmental conditions. Drawing upon Baumgartens foundational definition of aesthetics as scientia cognitionis sensitivae, this book proposes a non-anthropocentric approach to aesthetics as well as the use of empirical evidence to sustain its claims updating aesthetic understanding with contemporary biosemiotic and evolutionary theory. The text leads us along three distinct but entwined areas: from the world of matter to that of living matter to the realm of cultivated living matter for exploring how and why sensibility could have evolved. It points out that aspects traditionally used to demarcate and characterize human aestheticssuch as appreciation of symmetry, proportion and color, as well as pleasure, valuation and empathy, sensory seduction, creativity, and skills for representation, even fictionare present not only in humans but among a variety of plant and animal species.

Reviews

Philosophical aesthetics is now in a new age.One of the main subjects of the New Aesthetic is the theory of aesthesis (perception/feeling).Katya Mandoki offers a daring new version of this theory.In a sense, the author tries to answer the questions: why is the beautiful beautiful What is the very origin of art The field of her argument is, of course, the theory of evolution, with the main reference being Darwin, philosophys confrontation with the sciences, and many different forms of knowledge so as to dazzle us: exuberance as the subject of the book is performed. -- Ken-ichi Sasaki, University of Tokyo
This book is a unique contribution to the recent body of work on the significance of the aesthetic in human evolution. It offers a compelling argument for grounding the aesthetic in the naturalistic frame of evolutionary theory. Mandoki's account is richly informative, guiding the reader through a wide body of scholarship in biology, cognitive science, semiotics, psychology, cultural studies, history, philosophy, and aesthetics. Her sharp eye cuts through the mass of vague universal concepts such as genes and memes, "dubious dichotomies, and competing and conflicting theories, always guided by the recognition of connections and contexts. At the same time the writing is unfailingly fresh and engaging and even sparkles with wit. A rare achievement. -- Arnold Berleant, C.W. Post, Long Island University

Author Bio

Katya Mandoki teaches aesthetics and semiotics at the Autonomous Metropolitan University.