Judgement—can look onthe world in this ler and disinterested ‘way 08 to seize on the presented object an take please in i ‘Before proceeding, however, important to address two ‘questions tha I have so far voided: the question ofthe ‘volutionay origins ofthe sense of beauty, andthe related ‘question concerning the place of beaut in sexual dest, the it chapter of this book identi state of mind—that ‘in our confrontation with beauty~and a judgement that tbe implicit in it. And 1 analysed that state of mind with to showing how it might explain eta platitdes about which we would ll acknowledge tobe trae, The argument entirely «prior, oeusing on distinctions and observations are assumed to be evident to anyone who understands the used to express them. The question we now have to consider, exercise sa part of aman fllment. Such st any rate, be the philosophical approach to our top thats not the approach of the eoltioniy pychoogits, argue that we can best understand ourstates of mind ifwe ‘ther evoltionary origins and the contribution that they (or caer version of them) might have made to the reproductive gis ofour genes In what ways an onganism made mor ikely‘There is a controversy among evolutionary payehologits between, those who admit the possibilty of group selection and those, ike Richard Dawkins, who inst that selection occurs atthe level ofthe individual organism, since its there, and not in the group, that genes reprodce themselves, Without taking sides this ‘controversy, we can recognize two broad kinds of evolutionary esthetics, one which shows the group advantage that attaches to ‘he news seme, andthe caer wih anges that individuals ‘endowed with aesthetic interests have an enhanced eapacty to ass an thee genes. ‘The first kindof theory is advanced by the anthropologist Hen Dissanayake who, in Homo Aethtius, argues that art and tsthete interest belong with tls and fetvalsoffshoots of ‘he human need to ‘make special’ to extract objets, events and Ss inn or ever ees 9 ake Thema foeas a ‘alletiv attention. This‘making special enhanees group cohesion and also leas people to treat those things which really matter for ‘the survival of the community—be It marsage o weapons, funerals or offices as things of puble not, with an aura that Drotets them fom careless disegurd and emotional eosin. The ‘deeply engraned nee to ‘make spacial is explained by the advantage that thas conferred on human commanitis, holding ‘hem together in times of threat, and furthering their repeelctve ‘confidence in times of peel flarishing. ‘The theory is interesting and contains an undoubted element of ‘ruth; butt fl critaly shor of explaining what is distinctive of| ‘the aesthetic although the sense of beauty may be rooted in some collective need to make spec beauty tls a special kind of *ecil not to be nfs vt ial teem, ven fe those things may sometimes poses it The advantage that actus ‘o:.community through the ceremonial endorsement ofthe things ‘hat matter ould acer without the experience of beauty. There ‘re many other ways in which people set things apart fom ‘ordinary functions and endow them witha prions ana: through 0 events, for example ke the games described by Homer: religions rituals, in which the solemn presence of the invoked to protect whatever istttion or practice stands of ollective endorsement. From the point of view of ology sport and religion are close neighbours ofthe sense but fom the point of vew of philosophy the distinctions re just important asthe connections, When people refer es the beau game’ they are describing faba oma spectator’ point of view, asa quasi-aesthetic phenomenon. tel as «competitive exercise, in which sll and strength ae throwgh their paces spor is importantly distinet fom both religion, and each ofthe three phenomena has its own, meaning in the lie of atonal beings objection might be made tthe more indvinistic advanced by Geotey Mile in The Mating Mad, aad by Steven Pinker in How he Mind Wonks. According theory the sense of heat has emerged through the process selections suggestion originally made by Darwin in Decent of Man. As agmented by Mile, the theory sages by making himsel beautiful the man is doing what the does when he displays his tai he ving sign of is tyes o whieh woman respond asthe phen om, mig im (though ano wa conscons that she is tis) on behalf of her genes. OF curse, yman aesthetic more intriate than the instinctive displays of bids co not merely wear feather al aos they paint pictures, poetry sng songs. Butll hese things are signs of strength, nuty and prowess, and therfore reliable indices of ete ines. Women are struck with ne, wonder and bythe vie etre, so that Nate takes he gure to mutual rump of the genes that cary erating mesg tis clear that strenuous activities shot of attic eration uld make an equal conteibution to such a geneti tategy ance the explanation, even iftrue, will not enable us to identify x‘whats pecificto the sentiment ofbeauty. Even ithe peacock’ tall and the Ar of Fugue have common ancestry the appreciation ‘cited by the ones of «completely diferent kind from the appreciation directed atthe other It should be clear from the argument of the fst chapter that only rational beings have aesthetic interests, and that ther rationality ea engage by ‘beauty a8 it is by moral jadgement and scent belie. A point of logic ‘The sentiment of beauty maybe sufcient to cause a woman to single outa man for hs reproductive fitness; butt not necessary. ‘The procs of sexual selection eould have ooenred without this particular way offcusing on another individual. Hence, beers ‘ve cannot infer that the sentiment of beauty was necesary to the proces of sexual selection, we cannot se the ft of esa selection as a concusive explanation ofthe seatiment of beaut, still les asa way of deciphering what that sentiment means. ‘Something more neods tobe added, coneeing the specificity of esthetic jadgement, if we ae to have a clear pte ofthe place of beauty and our response to tin the evolution of our species, ‘And this something more should take seriously suc fats s these: ‘that men appreciate women fo their beauty just as much af ‘not more than, women appreciate men; that women too ar active inthe production of beauty, both in art an in everyday lie hat people astociate beauty with their highest endesvours and ssprations, are disturbed by its absenee, and regard measure ‘of aesthetic agreement as essential for lien society, As things stand the evolutionary psychology of beanty offers a peru of ‘the human being and human society with the aesthetic element Aeprived ots specificimentionality, and dissolved in vague seneralites that overlook the pecalne place of aesthetic jinjgemen in the lie ofthe rational agent. ‘Sul even ithe acount given by Miller casts ltl ght on the ‘seatiment that it seeks to explain it is surely reasonable to belive theres some connection between beauty and se May be we wrong to look fra causal connection between these two ‘ofthe human condition. Maybe they are more intimately than that implies. Maybe its as Plato so freely thatthe sentiment of beauty is a.central eomponent in desire. fs, that must surely hve implications not only the understanding of desire, but also forthe theory of best. it shoud cast doubt onthe view that our atte intrinsically disinterested, What attiude is more ‘han sex desi? ity and desire vas writing not about sex and seal difference as we now i them but about ers the overwhelming urge which for ‘sss at is most sigaiiant between people ofthe same sx, fen si by an ler man moedby hay Erie was identified by the Greeks as cami fore, ike the that, according to Dante, "moves the sn andthe other stars. js account f beauty inthe Phacrus and the Symposium pied that this desire is both rea, and also kindof ‘though a mistake wich tls us Something important ‘urslves andthe cosmos. Some argue that snot beaity prompts desire but desire that summons beaty—that, someone, Ise im or her as beautiful this being one of ays in which the mind to borow Hume's metaphor, spreads upon objets Ht that doesnot accurately reflect the of seal attraction. Your eyes ae captivated bythe os org and its rom this moment that your desire “begins It may be that there is another and mature form of sexi este, which grows from love, and which finds beauty i the nolonger youtfil features of flong companion. But thats ‘emphatieally nt the phenomenon that Plato hain mind However we lok ut the mater, the seventh plattude creates a ‘roblem for aesthetics. Inthe realm af rt, beaty isan abe of ‘contemplation not desire. To appreciate the beauty of painting or «symphony isnottobe prompted to any coneupiscent attitude, nd ‘erin inant eon, may wan state paiting here {sno way that I ean walk away from the concert hall with @ ‘symphony in my pocket. Des this mean that there are t90 kinds ‘of eauty—the beauty of people andthe beauty of art? Or does it ‘ean thatthe desire aroused by the sight ofhuman beauty hind | ofmistake that wemake,and hat really our attitude to beauty tends to the contemplate in allie forms? Eros and platonic love Plato as drawn to the second of thove responses. He identified rasa th origin of oth sexual dese and the ov of beaut. ras ‘form oflove which seks to unite with ts objet, and to ‘make copes ofit—as men und women make copes of themselves ‘through sexual reproduction, In adation to Ut base for {a Plato saw it) of erotic love, there i also a higher form, in hich the objet of love isnot possessed ut conternplatad, and ‘in which the proces of copying occurs notin the rel of concrete particulars but inthe realm of abstract deas—the realm of the “Tomas Plato described them. By contemplating best the sul ‘ses from its immersion in merely sensuous and concrete things and ascends toa higher sphere, wher it sn the beatifl boy ‘who is studied but the form ofthe bef self which enters the sou str possesion. in the way that ideas gencaly reproduce themselves inthe sul of those who understand thet. This higher {orm of reproduction belongs to theasirtion towardsimmoraliy, ic isthe soa’ highest longing in this word Butt is impeded loytoo great faton onthe lower kind of eproduction which {is aform of imprisonment in the here and now, According to Plato, sexual desire in ts common farm, involves & ‘desire to possess what is mortal and transient, and a consequent “enslavement tothe lower aspect ofthe soul, the aspect that is {immersed in sensuous immediacy and the things ofthis world. The ‘offideas, there to participate in the divine version of reproduction, igh is the understanding andthe passing om of eterna euths. fs the true kind of erotic ove, and is manifest inthe chaste ent beeen man and boy in which the man takes the teacher, overcomes his lustful feelings, and ees the boy's ‘as an objec of ontempltion an instance in the ere ‘now ofthe eternal idea of the beantifal Potent collection of ideas has hada long subsequent histor. Intoscating way of mixing homoerotic lve, the carer ofthe rand the redemption ofthe oul, has touched the hearts of j (especialy of male teachers) down the entares. And heterosexual version of the Platonic myth had an enormous I on medieval poetry and on Christian visions of women hove women shoul be understood, inspiring some ofthe most works of atin the Western tradition fam Chaucer's 9 Tale and Dante's Vita Nuoerto Batis Birt of Venus the sonnets of Michelangelo, Bu it requires ona normal ose of septicism to fel that there is more wishful thinking than truth inthe Platonic vision. How ean one andthe same state of, ‘ind be both sexual love or a boy and (after ait of slé-isipline) delighted contemplation ofan abstract idea? That ike ying that the desire fora teak could be satisfied (afer a bit of mental exertion) by staring atthe picture of a ow. itemplation and desire ‘eisnevertheles true thatthe objet of wsthetic judgement and objet of sexual desire may both be described as beautifil, ven et they arouse radially different interests in the one who so caesribes them. Someone, looking at the fae ofan old man, with many interesting erases and wrinkles, with fine and placid eye and a wise and weleoming expression, might describe ‘the face as Heautifl. But we understand that jadgement nother way fom ‘She's beutifl'said by an eager youth of « i. The youth is going afer the gi: he desires her, not justin ‘the sens of wanting to look at her, but in that he wants to hold ‘her and hiss her. The sual acts daseebed asthe ‘omsummtion ‘ofthis kind of desie—though we should not think that tis necesariythe thing intended, or that it rings the desire to an ‘nd, in the way that drinking aeup of water brings the desire for ‘water toan end ‘In the case ofthe beautifl ol man there sno ‘ging afte’ ofthis kind: no agenda, no desire to possess, orn any ater way to gin something fom the beautifal objet. The ol man’sfce fll of ‘meaning for us, and if ear looking for sation we find it ‘there, inthe cing that we entemplate, ad inthe at of ‘contemplation. Is surely absurd to think that this the sane stat of mind as that ofthe youth in hot pursuit When, in the ‘course of sexual desire, you eoatemplate the best af ur ‘companion, you are standing back from your desie,soas to absorb ‘tint another, larger aid less immediately sensuous ai, This, indeed, the metaphysical sgnieance ofthe erotic gave: that isa search or knowldge—a summons to the other person to shine {orth in sensory frm and to make himself known. ‘On the other hand, beauty undoubtedly stimulates desire i the ‘moment of arousal. Sos your desire drat a thebestof the ‘ter? Ista desire todo something with that beauty? But what ‘an you do with another person's beauty? The satisfied lover fax litle able wo posses the beauty of his beloved as the one who hopelessly observes it rom afar. This sone of he thoughts that Inspired Plats theory. What prompts usin sexual attraction, i something that ean be contemplated but never possessed. Our

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