The Arts and Us
Pre-
Friday 14th October 2011
Professor of Philosophical Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire
At a time when anxiety about how public money is spent is at its peak, the stage is set to question if the arts have any special place in human life. Are they just for our entertainment or does our relationship with them go deeper? Even if music, painting and narrative played important roles for our prehistoric ancestors would that be a reason to value the arts today? Or might it be that their importance derives from the fact that they are expressive of a human nature that is not fixed but still unfolding?
Professor Hutto’s research is an ongoing attempt to understand human nature. Through his writing, lecture and his website (Shaping, Sharing and Understanding Minds), he offers help to professionals for whom such understanding is vital in their work. Born and schooled in New York he studied at St Andrews and York in the UK before joining Hertfordshire University in 1993.
