The Emergence of the Modern Mind: An Evolutionary Perspective on Aesthetic Experience

On the basis of archaeological data and cognitive research, this article proposes an evolutionary story about aesthetic experience, arguing three intertwined theses. Aesthetic experience is adaptive; that is, it represents a specific implementation of the epistemic goal of knowing. It refunctionalizes antecedents and precursors: play and dreaming, technology and the ability to manipulate, and proto‐aesthetic elements and aesthetic preferences. Mind and aesthetic experience co‐evolve; that is, aesthetic experience requires mind reading and metacognition, and it helps them to reach their advanced metarepresentational architecture.