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When Critics Disagree: Prospects for Realism in Aesthetics.

I investigate whether a reconstructed Humean theory of appreciation can secure the objectivity of aesthetic judgement. Examining a current debate about aesthetic realism, I argue that it stalls out at a verificationist impasse. I suggest a resolution that broadens our conception of aesthetic qualiti...

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Published in:Philosophical Quarterly Vol. 64; no. 257; pp. 590 - 619
Main Author: Ross, Stephanie
Format: Article
Published: Oxford University Press / USA Oct2014
Subjects:
Aesthetic judgment
Aesthetic Realism
Hume, David, 1711-1776
Aesthetics research
Confirmation (Logic)
Critics
Goldman, Alan
Levinson, Jerrold
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Summary:I investigate whether a reconstructed Humean theory of appreciation can secure the objectivity of aesthetic judgement. Examining a current debate about aesthetic realism, I argue that it stalls out at a verificationist impasse. I suggest a resolution that broadens our conception of aesthetic qualities and invokes a notion of critic clusters to mark the agreement of ideal critics. Taking into account the suitability of critics to the works they judge as well as some complications of the test of time increases support for a qualified form of aesthetic realism.