For many of the papers in the class the writer's opinions about art are not only often spiritual in many ways, but never try to explain art in a truly scientific way. Many do not even ask the simple question: what is the evolutionary purpose and selective advantage of art? Unless you believe in a higher power, the selective advantage should be the first question to ask when pondering the purpose/existance of any organisms actions. When one doesn't even understand what something is from a scientific standpoint, it makes discussion about it rather fruitless in my opinion. So, what is art from a scientific & evolutionary standpoint?

First off, what evidence is there that art is not purely cultural but an instinct? The main one being that art exists in all cultures. Not only that but there is many universal preferences worldwide, such as blue being a universal favorite color and green coming in second place. A study showed that young humans also have a preference for living environment, the savanna, across all cultures which impacts our choices in environmental painting. Also worldwide, there is a strong preference for realistic representative paintings, with various subject material such as water, trees, humans (women, children, historical figures), animals (especially large mammals)

One of the main theories on the purpose of art is that it's simply a way for individuals to show off their good genetics, just like a peacock showing off its healthy tail feathers, and females showing off their good genetics with their long hair. Studies have shown that general intelligence and openness to new experiences are correlated with artistic creativity. Not only that, but it has been found that women are more attracted to creative rather than wealthy men during the peak of their monthly fertility. There are many other aspects of the human mind such as humor, story telling, excessive vocabulary, etc. that serve no other function than showing off good genetics.

Another idea is that art is a way of making social events "more special" by appealing to our emotions with color and rhythm, helping groups bond and increase their chances of survival. There is also many that compare art to religion, saying they are both forms of community building.