James O. Young, “The Myth of the Aesthetic” (05/05/2023, 10:00)

May 5, 2023

Abstract

Everyone agrees that the concept of the aesthetic is imperfectly understood and yet philosophers continue to attempt to give an account of aesthetic experience and aesthetic properties. This paper argues that no coherent account of the aesthetic is available and that the concept of the aesthetic is not useful in understanding what is valuable about experience of works of art (and other objects). No satisfactory analysis of the concept of an aesthetic property or of aesthetic experience is available.