Landschap Philia: The Origins of Human Delight in Landscape Beauty

Andrew Lothian ()
Additional contact information
Andrew Lothian: Independent Researcher, Adelaide 5061, Australia

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-29

Abstract: This paper identifies the various influences of Western aesthetic preferences of landscapes in answer to the question, why do humans find landscapes attractive? A four-level model of influences is proposed, based on the innate or evolutionary influences applicable to all humanity, through the cultural and the societal to the individual. At each level there are a number of contributory factors at play, and these are described. The paper is confined to Western perspectives of landscape aesthetics. At the innate level are four landscape theories that postulate the reasons why humans find landscapes attractive. Also at the innate level are the philosophical underpinnings of human delight in landscapes and the Gestalt influence on preferences. The cultural influence comprises the legend of Arcadia and the Golden Age; of classicism, teleology, and landscape painting; and the emergence of the sublime, the beautiful, the picturesque, and Romanticism. At the societal level are the artistic pursuits of landscape painting and the development of parks and gardens, which reflected the perfect Italianate landscape. Also at this level are Western society’s attitude to mountains, which changed radically in the seventeenth century. Individuals are influenced by psychoanalytical pressures on the subconscious, by unconscious experiences in infancy such as a human’s preference for water, and by the influence of neuroaesthetics, which describes how the areas of the brain respond to aesthetic objects. Finally, research of landscape preferences over 50 years provides insights on the influence of landscape components, reflecting the influence of the innate, cultural, and societal factors. The combined realms of influence of each of these factors are hypothesized to explain human responses to landscapes.

Keywords: western landscape preferences; influences of landscape preferences; landscape theory; innate; cultural; societal; individual (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/8/1641/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/8/1641/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:8:p:1641-:d:1724279

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().