Biology a la mode: Charles Darwin's aesthetics of "ornament".

Historians have long noted the importance of Victorian culture for the emergence of Darwin's ideas. This paper takes this understanding one step further by illustrating a deep cultural analysis for the underlying framework which, on the one hand, is part of Darwin's notion of sexual selection while, at the same time, serving to give rise to a new aesthetics semantics. While evolutionary biology avoids this language, it nevertheless had far-reaching influences in the decades following the publication of Darwin's work. Additionally, evolutionary from Darwin provides unique insights on the philosophical foundations it draws upon.