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Is beauty a criterion of truth? Genetic quality or aesthetic criteria, drivers of sexual selection in animals

Juan Ignacio Pérez

Abstract


Do bees or hummingbirds perceive the beauty of the flowers they approach to take nectar? That is, can non-human animals appreciate beauty? Is there a universal truth regarding beauty? Or is it just a useful attribute, an indicator of a valuable trait? As with so many other natural phenomena, there is no simple answer to these questions. In the following document, we analyse different aspects of sexual selection and its connection (or lack thereof) to aesthetic criteria and the so-called handicap principle.

Keywords


sexual selection; beauty; evolutionary biology; evolution

Full Text: PDF

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.13.24722

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