Nature and Nuture

The question that's plagued the social sciences for ages is the ever-present, "Nature or nurture?" There is really no way of knowing, almost ever, which is responsible for anything because the two are so deeply intertwined. Asking that question is like asking which eye is more important in the grand scheme of things, or in the event of a double-amputation, which leg you'd rather have cut off first. It makes a small difference if any because it all culminates in the same ending: You like what you like when it comes to art. Of course, it is human nature to seek answers; it's apparent from psychological experiments that people are more comfortable with a wrong answer than no answer at all. That's not discounting the article's proposed explanation of art and evolutionary psychology, but it is something to consider.

Personally, I think one reason people like the landscape scenes so much is partially because it is noncontroversial. What's not to like about a wide-open landscape? Sometimes people put them down as uncreative or decoration instead of true art, but they seem to be a minority. The skeptics probably even liked the pretty pictures when they were young and open-minded. Maybe they don't like landscapes because they have an internal definition of what they like or what they like to be associated with, and because a landscape doesn't fit that criteria, it is cast aside.

What the article seems to be arguing is not so much if DNA helps determine what we like in art, but what we like to see in general. And it seems silly to tell me that I obviously wish I was in the savanna just because I need shelter, food, water, and safety. Far from it. Sunsets don't make me nervous, and I don't always like wide open spaces. Maybe the reason we like those things is because we need them to survive. In one way, that supports the article, because those who didn't follow those rules and needs of survival got eaten by lions. On the other, that's like arguing that because I need contacts to see, I must especially appreciate art that features glasses, x-ray vision (like Australian Aboriginal art), or blind people.

Art that's compositionally sound is actually a "nature thing"--symmetry and the composition rules are evolutionary and scientifically supported. Whether I like desert landscapes or jungle landscapes--that might be nurture. Do I like snowscapes? Yes. Do I want to live in one, say, when it's really bad in Pullman? Not necessarily. In fact, someone who was here last winter might be less inclined to have one on the wall now because s/he is sick of it. Voila! Nurture. And I don't buy that having a picture of one on my wall enables me to cope with a new ice age.