290 - Nicholas Humphrey: Why Does Beauty Exist?

Why Is the World So Beautiful?: https://a.co/d/0d3LsupA

Nicholas Humphrey is a theoretical psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the London School of Economics, where his work has focused on the evolution of intelligence and consciousness. Among his many contributions, he was the first to demonstrate “blindsight” in monkeys, studied mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey, and developed influential theories about the social evolution of intelligence. In this episode, Robinson and Nicholas discuss the evolutionary origins of beauty and why human beings are so drawn to it. More particularly, they talk about rhyme, pattern-recognition, the adaptive value of aesthetic experience, the relationship between beauty and social life, and the methodology of evolutionary psychology. They also discuss whether beauty implies agency or creation, difficult cases for an evolutionary theory of aesthetics, spirituality and transcendence, and why some art is deliberately ugly. Nicholas’s upcoming book is Why Is the World So Beautiful? Our Minds in Search of Nature’s Rhymes (MIT Press, 2026).

Nicholas’s Website: https://humphrey.org.uk

OUTLINE

00:00 Why Is the World So Beautiful?

08:48 What Is Rhyme?

18:47 The Utility of Beauty

24:09 Beauty and Pattern-Recognition

34:26 Beauty and Society

41:21 The Methodology of Evolutionary Psychology

49:20 Creation and Agency

56:24 Problem Cases

01:02:26 Spirituality and Transcendence

01:07:34 Ugly Art

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(295)

293 - Justin Wolfers: AI, Inflation, & The 2026 Elections

Platypus Economics on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PlatypusEconomicsJustin Wolfers is Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Michigan, where his research spans macroeconomi...

26 Syys 1h 3min

292 - Jason Stanley: Breaking Down Trump’s Propaganda

Jason Stanley is the Bissell-Heyd-Associates Chair in American Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, where he is also Professor of Philosophy. Befo...

23 Syys 1h 24min

291 - Daron Acemoglu: AI Is Destroying American Democracy

Daron Acemoglu is an Institute Professor of Economics at MIT and a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which he shared with Simon Johnson and James Robinson for research o...

20 Syys 1h

289 - Joe Henrich: How Culture Made Humans Weird

Joe Henrich is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. His research focuses on cultural evolution, human psychology, soci...

6 Syys 1h 1min

288 - Richard Wrangham: How Humans Caught Fire

Richard Wrangham is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology, Emeritus, at Harvard University. A primatologist and biological anthropologist, he has studied wild chimpanzees in Uganda since...

30 Elo 1h 14min

287: Daniel Lieberman: Evolution and the Human Diet

Daniel Lieberman is the Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, where he studies the evolution of the human body and its ...

23 Elo 1h 12min

286: Adam Mockler: Trump, Newsom, and the Dark Future of American Politics

Adam Mockler is a liberal political commentator, YouTube host, and digital media creator who has become one of the most prominent Gen Z voices in American political media. He hosts The Adam Mockler Sh...

16 Elo 1h 2min