Aesthetic Concepts

Here, Frank Sibley illuminates what it is for a term or an expression to be an aesthetic term or expression, i.e. in his view, a term that is such that taste or perceptiveness is required in order to apply it. He emphasises the natural basis of responses of various kinds without which aesthetic terms could not be learned, such as similarities of various sorts, notable colours, shapes, scents, size, and intricacy. Such natural responses enable us not only to learn aesthetic terms often by a metaphorical shift, but are also used subsequently to evaluate and illuminate works of art. It is in...

Here, Frank Sibley illuminates what it is for a term or an expression to be an aesthetic term or expression, i.e. in his view, a term that is such that taste or perceptiveness is required in order to apply it. He emphasises the natural basis of responses of various kinds without which aesthetic terms could not be learned, such as similarities of various sorts, notable colours, shapes, scents, size, and intricacy. Such natural responses enable us not only to learn aesthetic terms often by a metaphorical shift, but are also used subsequently to evaluate and illuminate works of art. It is in this sense that critics reinforce the relation between aesthetic terms and their natural bases.