Bio-Aesthetics: The Evolution of Sensibility Through Nature

Abstract

In this article, the author explores the processes involved in aesthetics, from its most basic manifestations to more complex ones, and proposes the concept of bioaesthetics as the study of all forms of sensitivity in living beings. Based on the fact that sensitivity is a function of our bodily state, and the necessary starting point is an evolutionary paradigm, the author traces the evolution of sensitivity from its most basic characteristics, found at the level of cellular receptors and the sensitivity of plant tendrils, the creativity and play of animals, to its cultural ramifications. Drawing on Darwin's assertion that animals truly possess a sense of beauty, and on recent evolutionary observations, the article argues that sensitivity is a biological capacity that arose with life, arguing that organisms of different species value and distinguish quality, order, and meaning, determined by their morphological adaptations and environmental conditions. The author also emphasizes that aspects traditionally used to demarcate and characterize human aesthetics — such as the perception of symmetry, proportion, and color, as well as pleasure, appreciation, and empathy, sensory seduction, creativity, and representational skills, even of fiction — are present not only in humans but also in various plant and animal species. Drawing also on Baumgarten's seminal definition of aesthetics as “scientia cognitionissensitivae”, the article proposes a non-anthropocentric approach to aesthetics and utilizes empirical data to support claims about the renewal of aesthetic understanding through contemporary biosemiotic and evolutionary theory.