Darwin Day 2009 February 11, 2009

A celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and the Australian launch of The Art Instinct by Denis Dutton, presented by The Centre for Independent Studies.

12 February 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of the most important and influential thinkers in the history of science, Charles Darwin.

The Centre for Independent Studies is pleased to host a tribute to Charles Darwin in an address by Professor Denis Dutton, founder and editor of the much-praised website, Arts & Letters Daily. Dutton is in Australia to launch his new book, The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution, published by Oxford University Press.

Professor Dutton will show how Darwin’s evolutionary ideas not only explain the facts of animal and human biology, but have much to say about the moral, intellectual, and artistic lives of human beings. Evolutionary processes tell us why the arts are central to human life across cultures and ages. Human aesthetic tastes, Dutton will argue, are not socially or culturally constructed but are inborn traits shaped by natural and sexual selection. Join us to learn how our sense of beauty is as much a part of human makeup as our binocular vision or opposable thumb.

This provocative lecture will include an opportunity for questions and answers, with Dutton offering radical new insights into both the nature of art and the workings of the human mind.

Official Website: http://www.cis.org.au/events/darwin_day.html