FRANK SIBLEY—Aesthetic Concepts (ii)

Philosophy Looks at the Arts
ed. Joseph Margolis
(Third Edition, 1987)

[Sibley, "Aesthetic Concepts" (cont.)]

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[41]

II

A great deal of work remains to be done on aesthetic concepts. In the remainder of this paper I shall offer some further suggestions which may help towards an understanding of them.

The realization that aesthetic concepts are governed only negatively by conditions is likely to give rise to puzzlement over how we manage to apply the words in our aesthetic vocabulary. ... One very natural way to counter this question is to point out that some other sorts of concepts also are not condition-governed. We do not apply simple color words by following rules or in accordance with principles. We see that the book is red by looking, just as we tell that the tea is sweet by tasting it. ... This kind of comparison... is indeed familiar;... Yet whatever the similarities, there are great dissimilarities too. ... ...but certain differences stand out, and writers who have emphasized that aesthetic judgments are not "mechanical" have sometimes dwelt on and been puzzled by them.

FRANK SIBLEY—Aesthetic Concepts (i)

Philosophy Looks at the Arts
ed. Joseph Margolis
(Third Edition, 1987)

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[29]

2. Aesthetic Concepts

FRANK SIBLEY

[orig. 1959]

The remarks we make about works of art are of many kinds. For the purpose of this paper I wish to indicate two broad groups. ... We say that a novel has a great number of characters ... ; that a painting uses pale colors ,... Such remarks may be made by, and such features pointed out to, anyone with normal eyes, ears, and intelligence. On the other hand, we also say that a poem is tightly knit or deeply moving ; that a picture lacks balance ,... It would be neutral enough to say that the making of such judgments as these requires the exercise of taste, perceptiveness, or sensitivity, of aesthetic discrimination or appreciation; one would not say this of my first group. ...