Estetyka świata zwierząt w ujęciu Jerzego Chmurzyńskiego

Abstract

Aesthetics deals with things of beauty and the associated experiences. Jerzy Andrzej Chmurzyński, biologist and philosopher, the “father of Polish ethology”, asks the question about the presence of aesthetic values in the animal world. In the comparative analysis of human and animal behavior, he uses the concept of aesthetic phenomena, which consists of three terms: aesthetic experiences, aesthetic actions and creative aesthetic experiences. He uses the new term quasi-aesthetic phenomena in relation to animals. Among the most sophisticated are pro-aesthetic activities (e.g. drawing by monkeys). The question arises as to whether one can speak of animal creativity. An analysis of the issue shows that a more adequate term to describe the pro-aesthetic activities belonging to quasi-aesthetics is proposed in this work term quasi-creativity. This ability is the seed of human aesthetic creativity.

Keywords

• ethology
• beauty
• creativity
• quasi-aesthetics