Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science, and Evolution

By Paul Virilio

A brilliant investigation of why nature is beautiful and how art has influenced science

'Rothenberg's passionate optimism - a belief in the beauty of nature, and vice versa - together with his elegant prose turns Survival of the Beautiful into an exhilarating and thought provoking trip' Sunday Telegraph

'The peacock's tail makes me sick,' Charles Darwin once said - not aesthetically, but because the theory of evolution as adaptation can't explain why nature is so beautiful. It took the concept of sexual selection for Darwin to explain the emergence of beauty, a process that has more to do with aesthetic taste than adaptive fitness.

Survival of the Beautiful is a revolutionary new examination of the interplay of beauty, art, and culture in evolution. Taking inspiration from Darwin's observation that animals have a natural aesthetic sense, philosopher and musician David Rothenberg probes why animals, humans included, have an innate appreciation for beauty - and why nature is, indeed, beautiful.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Feb 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9781408828885

Paul Virilio

David Rothenberg is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. His latest book, Wild Ideas, was published in 1995.

Reviews for Survival of the Beautiful

[jbd1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This one just didn't do very much for me; the style grated, the argument was muddled, and it seemed like as I read each chapter I either wanted more or less of what Rothenberg was offering. Fair to give this one a miss.