Objectivity and Aesthetics

Concerned with the objectivity of aesthetic descriptions. The approach is schematic: starting from certain paradigms of properties and retaining certain similarities, Sibley adds differences of kind and degree which results in concepts less rigid than those paradigms and closely akin to aesthetic properties. He then poses the question of why these concepts should not be said to concern objective matters. Sibley argues that if we are justified in believing that in actual practice we do manage to give aesthetic terms a partial but not unsuccessful run as property terms, we will not need to...

Concerned with the objectivity of aesthetic descriptions. The approach is schematic: starting from certain paradigms of properties and retaining certain similarities, Sibley adds differences of kind and degree which results in concepts less rigid than those paradigms and closely akin to aesthetic properties. He then poses the question of why these concepts should not be said to concern objective matters. Sibley argues that if we are justified in believing that in actual practice we do manage to give aesthetic terms a partial but not unsuccessful run as property terms, we will not need to abandon all claims to objectivity.