Abstract
Sociobiology is “the systematic study of the biological basis of all forms of social behavior, in all kinds of organisms, including man”.1 The forms of social behavior displayed by man homo sapiens are vast in number and fantastically heterogeneous. But from a biological perspective none are more remarkable than those exemplified in sophisticated contemporary aesthetic practices: the practices of art and art appreciation. Can sociobiology contribute to an understanding of contemporary aesthetic practices?
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Notes
E. O. Wilson, On Human Nature ( Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978 ), p. 16.
M. Sahlins, The Use and Abuse of Biology (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1977), p. xi.
Cited in Wilson, op. cit., p. 21.
Cf P. Ziff, Philosophic Turnings ( Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1966 ), pp. 47 – 74.
E. Mayr, Evolution and the Diversity of Life ( Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1976 ), p. 518.
Cf. Mayr, op. cit., p. 144 ff.
Mayr, op. cit., p. 706.
P. Handler (ed.), Biology and the Future of Man ( New York: Oxford University Press, 1970 ), p. 466.
Op. cit., p. 389.
Handler, p. 466.
Cf P. Ziff, Anything Viewed, chapter VIII of this volume.
Mayr, p. 109.
Mayr, p. 706.
Cf P. Ziff, Communication: Men and Other Animals (forthcoming).
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© 1984 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Ziff, P. (1984). Art and Sociobiology. In: Antiaesthetics. Synthese Library, vol 174. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0739-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0739-8_6
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