The Aesthetic Brain

By Anjan Chatterjee,

Book cover of The Aesthetic Brain: How We Evolved to Desire Beauty and Enjoy Art

Book description

The Aesthetic Brain takes readers on an exciting journey through the world of beauty, pleasure, and art. Using the latest advances in neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, Anjan Chatterjee investigates how an aesthetic sense is etched into our minds, and explains why artistic concerns feature centrally in our lives. Along theā€¦

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Aesthetic Brain as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The brain people are all over art.

Anjan Chatterjee has managed to write a book that a) is very accessible, b) provides thorough coverage of current attempts to understand art and aesthetic experience by using information from the cognitive sciences, and c) outlines an original hypothesis about why humans evolved a love for art. That last part changes the book from a nice review of the topic to a groundbreaking attempt at an explanation of our art practices.

Chatterjee examines our judgments of peoplesā€™ attractiveness, the brainā€™s system of reward chemicals, and our evolutionary history, in an attempt to understandā€¦

From William's list on bridging the gap between mind and brain.

If you love The Aesthetic Brain...

Ad

Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctorā€”and only womanā€”on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route upā€¦

Want books like The Aesthetic Brain?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Aesthetic Brain.

Browse books like The Aesthetic Brain

Book cover of The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human
Book cover of Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition
Book cover of The Border Between Seeing and Thinking

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

2,008

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

šŸ“š If you like The Aesthetic Brain, you might also like...

Book cover of I Am Taurus

I Am Taurus by Stephen Palmer,

The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.

Each of the sections is written fromā€¦

Book cover of Traumatization and Its Aftermath: A Systemic Approach to Understanding and Treating Trauma Disorders

Traumatization and Its Aftermath by Antonieta Contreras,

A fresh take on the difference between trauma and hardship in order to help accurately spot the difference and avoid over-generalizations.

The book integrates the latest findings in brain science, child development, psycho-social context, theory, and clinical experiences to make the case that trauma is much more than a clusterā€¦

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in evolution, the brain, and cognitive psychology?

Evolution 156 books
The Brain 170 books