Human beings are perhaps the greatest, most sophisticated storytellers that have yet roamed the earth. Sure, creatures of other levels of complexity can survey their environment, summarize their observations, and live their lives according to their own stories of reality. In fact, these stories of reality have proven to be, in the Darwinian sense, quite an essential mechanism for the survival, continuation, and modification (biological evolution) of all forms of life, especially humans. What distinguishes humans as ‘special’ storytellers, however, is our capacity for language, a cognitive development that biological evolution has

All things evolve, biological, literary, and cultural, that is one thing that has become clear as this course has progressed. All things grow and change over time either fulfilling some purpose or slowly disappearing. Language is no exception, and is in fact, exemplary of this rule. Through an examination of the evolution of language, it is possible to shed light on the ideas of merging and divergence that are present in Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass and Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species. Whitman urges that we come together, Darwin that we will always drift apart. In language, both principles are evident.

The Evolution of a Sculpture

Erik, the protagonist in The Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt, spends time researching and thinking about his family history after his father dies.  Erik attempts to learn about his father's life and in the process realizes that there is much that will never be known about his family history.  Erik, as well as his family andfriends, struggle with the things they cannot know about their family historyand in the process bring the people of the past into the present.

As human beings, by simple virtue of existing in the world, we are in a constant state of aesthetic appraisal. We engage reality in a dialogue through the use of our senses, perceiving external stimuli and assigning values to each input (whether consciously or not) through a reward mechanism. Of particular interest is the way in which this mechanism is employed in the appreciation of visual art. Through the use of neuroimaging technology scientists are beginning to understand how the brain encounters and creates art. This study, known as neuroesthetics, sheds light on why art has been so prevalent and valued over the course of human history and raises questions concerning the nature and future of art.

"Booming, buzzing confusion":
Its role in biological, cultural, and individual evolution

Some reflections on The Story of Evolution and the Evolution of Stories, Spring, 2009 (in progress).  With thanks for everyone's participation in story evolution ...

The long, wide perspective

Desmond Hubbard

Tuesday, April 14th

NeuroBiology and Behavior

Moral Emotions v. Rationality