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Human Artistic Behaviour: Adaptation, Byproduct, or Cultural Group Selection?

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Book cover Philosophy of Behavioral Biology

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science ((BSPS,volume 282))

Abstract

Evolutionary accounts of art fall naturally into two categories: those that propose that art is an adaptation, and those that propose it is a byproduct of adaptations which evolved for different purposes. Although each of these positions can be supported by a wide range of empirical evidence, we will argue that there are shortcomings in each type of explanation. We will propose the alternative that the earliest art arose as a product of cultural group selection, drawing on theoretical models of altruism, anthropological observations of the use of art in extant small-scale societies and archaeological findings from Upper Palaeolithic Europe, in particular the Magdalenian cultural complex.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Katie Plaisance, Thomas Reydon, an anonymous reviewer and members of the Human Evolution and Behavior Network (HEBEN) for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. This research was funded by grant 3H070815 from the Research Foundation Flanders and grant COM07/PWM/001 from Ghent University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy and Ethics, Ghent University, Blandijnberg 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Johan De Smedt

  2. Centre for Logic and Analytical Philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kardinaal Mercierplein 2, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Helen De Cruz

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  1. Johan De Smedt
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  2. Helen De Cruz
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Correspondence to Johan De Smedt .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hanover, Hanover, Germany

    Kathryn S. Plaisance

  2. , Institut für Philosophie, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Im Moore 21, Hannover, 30167, Germany

    Thomas A.C. Reydon

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De Smedt, J., De Cruz, H. (2012). Human Artistic Behaviour: Adaptation, Byproduct, or Cultural Group Selection?. In: Plaisance, K., Reydon, T. (eds) Philosophy of Behavioral Biology. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 282. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1951-4_8

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