Could there be an evolutionary explanation for the aesthetic sense?
Is it possible that our prehistoric ancestors who more consistently appreciated glorious sunsets and splendid moonrises did better at passing on their DNA than their contemporaries who were less taken with such fine examples of natural beauty?
Frankly, it seems kinda far-fetched; more likely, I think, is that the propensity to recognize the loveliness of striated clouds turned blood red by the setting sun or the exquisite tableau of evergreen trees painted milky white by an almost full supermoon is merely a by-product of our developed consciousness. It’s a gift, really, that confers no particular adaptive advantage on those who possess it.
We can think of it kind of like the way in which natural selection produced creatures like us who can walk erect (more or less, until the whiskey really kicks in), and this has made possible our ability to throw our legs over a bicycle top tube and pedal en masse to a repurposed military installation turned magnificent city park, but it’s not as if that latter faculty is a product of selection pressures—particularly given the fact that it’s barely a hundred years of human history since folks have been pedaling together.
That said, it’s surely to our advantage, (none the least, as Joby pointed out, for one’s mental health), to have arrived at a point in humanity’s march through time where it’s possible to combine bikes, booze, and bacchanalia with some regularity come Thursday evening.
And it’s even better when it can be done in an environment where even the least aesthetically-inclined among us can’t help but be moved by the colors and patterns of the evening and in which those for whom beauty is more salient (thanks, perhaps to an artistic nudge from tetrahydrocannabinol) can’t hardly shut up about it.
So, ultimately, beauty may be in the eye of the beholder; we're just lucky to be out on bikes to behold it.
Is it possible that our prehistoric ancestors who more consistently appreciated glorious sunsets and splendid moonrises did better at passing on their DNA than their contemporaries who were less taken with such fine examples of natural beauty?
Frankly, it seems kinda far-fetched; more likely, I think, is that the propensity to recognize the loveliness of striated clouds turned blood red by the setting sun or the exquisite tableau of evergreen trees painted milky white by an almost full supermoon is merely a by-product of our developed consciousness. It’s a gift, really, that confers no particular adaptive advantage on those who possess it.
We can think of it kind of like the way in which natural selection produced creatures like us who can walk erect (more or less, until the whiskey really kicks in), and this has made possible our ability to throw our legs over a bicycle top tube and pedal en masse to a repurposed military installation turned magnificent city park, but it’s not as if that latter faculty is a product of selection pressures—particularly given the fact that it’s barely a hundred years of human history since folks have been pedaling together.
That said, it’s surely to our advantage, (none the least, as Joby pointed out, for one’s mental health), to have arrived at a point in humanity’s march through time where it’s possible to combine bikes, booze, and bacchanalia with some regularity come Thursday evening.
And it’s even better when it can be done in an environment where even the least aesthetically-inclined among us can’t help but be moved by the colors and patterns of the evening and in which those for whom beauty is more salient (thanks, perhaps to an artistic nudge from tetrahydrocannabinol) can’t hardly shut up about it.
So, ultimately, beauty may be in the eye of the beholder; we're just lucky to be out on bikes to behold it.
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