Mind-Brain Lecture: Jesse Prinz (CUNY/Einstein Visiting Fellow)
It is tempting to assume that human beings have an
instinct for making and appreciating visual art. Some
evolutionary psychologists have argued that art is an
adaptation, arising, for example, through sexual selection.
Such accounts are difficult to reconcile with the
archeological record, which shows painting and sculpture
emerging well after the arrival of anatomically modern
humans. Why did such practices emerge when they did? There
is evidence that painting and sculpture originally served
religious functions, and that religion, in turn, helped
address demographical demands brought on by changing
subsistence strategies. With the transition from prehistory
to history, creative practices remained linked to religion.
That link was then severed in modern Europe, leading to new
secular practices of commissioning, collecting, and
consuming art, which dominate today. Some have concluded
that “art,” as we understand that concept, did not come into
existence until these changes took place. This lecture
traces this prehistory and history of painting and
sculpture, and proposes a criterion for identifying art that
casts doubt on the idea that our Paleolithic ancestors
created artworks while also avoiding the alternative
conclusion that art is a recent invention.
