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Evolutionary Aesthetics, Values, and Methodology

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The Parasite-Stress Theory of Values and Sociality

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Abstract

We treat the scientific procedures and assumptions used throughout the book. The scholarly study of aesthetic judgments, including those about the attractiveness/unattractiveness of values, initially arose as a branch of philosophy. We criticize the philosophical method as a way of knowing the causes of values. The scientific method, developed in part by Francis Bacon, replaced the philosophical method and then became, and remains, the sole way of knowing the causes of natural things, including the causes of morals or values. Darwin’s method of historical science importantly extended the scientific method to causes in the deep-time past. We also treat the fundamentals common to all scientific investigation. Additionally, we discuss the salience of individual-level selection in causing evolution, including in the creation of all adaptations of social life. Moreover, we distinguish proximate and ultimate (evolutionary) causation and elaborate on the topic of enculturation that was introduced in Chap. 1. We discuss and resolve misunderstandings of comparative methodology, which is the method we emphasize throughout in testing hypotheses across regions. Lastly, we comment on ideological criticisms of evolutionary theory applied to human affairs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Randy Thornhill

  2. Department of Psychology, The University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Corey L. Fincher

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  1. Randy Thornhill
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Thornhill, R., Fincher, C.L. (2014). Evolutionary Aesthetics, Values, and Methodology. In: The Parasite-Stress Theory of Values and Sociality. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08040-6_2

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