Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

Beauty is eyeballed: aesthetic values and properties are principally represented in experiential states. Since arguments for this thesis have been hobbled by the fact that it is too unclear to assess,  this paper ventures a new account of experiential states. The strategy is to face up to a challenge that has not been taken seriously enough. Most works of literature and some works of conceptual art are not objects of sensory experience, yet they have aesthetic properties. A version of Dretske's analogue–digital distinction is the key to an account of the experiential that explains how literary works and works of conceptual art can have aesthetic properties. With the new account sketched out, we can see what to look for in arguments for the thesis that beauty is eyeballed.