Instinct

Today in class we discussed the idea of instinct vs. thought. As many may be aware animals and humans alike, act out of instinct on many of their day to day activities. Acting out of instinct, in the case of animals, is in a way expressing the need and desire to survive. As mentioned in class, a bird makes a nest to protect its young and serve a safe shelter for it to lay its eggs. This is the bird acting out of instinct; doing what it deems appropriate to protect its eggs. Some may consider that nest that the bird has created to be a work of art considering the amount of energy it took on behave of the bird to create this nest. However, one can also argue that the fact that the bird was acting out of instinct or habit to create the nest makes it not a work of art. Art can be described as an expression of emotion and feeling from an artist through some work to inspire those emotions and feelings in an observer. The bird is doing nothing that the definition states so can it be considered art? I would argue yes because just because the bird is not trying to arouse emotions in other people or animals, does not mean that it is not capable of doing so.

Therefore a question arises, some considered non-aesthetically pleasing art to be bad art. Can animals express similar views?