For those of us for whom “literary Darwinism,” which bases its “scientific” approach to literary criticism on evolutionary psychology, has seemed an intellectual disaster, but who continue to believe that it is important to incorporate science cooperatively into our study of literature; for those who are concerned about how art and literature matter in a world so troubled and dangerous; for those convinced Darwinians who find themselves skeptical about and uneasy with the mechanico-materialist version of Darwinism that Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett have made popular; for those who find that the science they credit is yet inadequately attentive to women's perspectives, Richard Prum's The Evolution of Beauty offers a potentially marvelous option. A distinguished ornithologist, Prum has undertaken an enormously ambitious project, whose implications run from evolutionary biology to aesthetics. From the perspective of a very unscientific literary guy and a wannabe birder, I slightly distrust my enthusiasm for the book. But Prum's arguments are creatively provocative and brilliantly argued, even when they get rather iffily hypothetical; his ornithological studies are intrinsically fascinating, even to nonbirders, and at the same time they have potentially transformative implications. What he has to say, even if his inferences can and should be challenged, deserves the most serious engagement.

中文翻译：

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为什么美丽很重要

对于我们这些以进化心理学为基础的文学批评的“科学”方法的“文学达尔文主义”似乎是一场智力灾难，但他们仍然认为将科学合作纳入我们的文学研究很重要；对于那些关注艺术和文学在一个如此混乱和危险的世界中的重要性的人；对于那些深信达尔文主义者，他们发现自己对理查德·道金斯（Richard Dawkins）和丹尼尔·丹尼特（Daniel Dennett）流行的机械唯物主义版本的达尔文主义持怀疑态度和不安；对于那些发现他们所信任的科学尚未充分关注女性观点的人，Richard Prum 的美的进化提供了一个潜在的奇妙选择。作为一位杰出的鸟类学家，普鲁姆承担了一项雄心勃勃的项目，其影响从进化生物学到美学。从一个非常不科学的文学家和一个狂热的观鸟者的角度来看，我有点不相信我对这本书的热情。但普鲁姆的论点具有创造性的挑衅性和精彩的论证，即使它们的假设相当可疑。他的鸟类学研究具有内在的吸引力，即使对非鸟类爱好者来说也是如此，同时它们也具有潜在的变革意义。他必须说的话，即使他的推论可以而且应该受到挑战，也值得最认真的参与。