Introduction to a Naturalistic Aesthetic Theory

Abstract

This chapter lays down the foundations of a naturalistic aesthetic theory based on the notion of aesthetic-process. The aesthetic theory advanced here proposes to see the different kinds of aesthetic things—such as aesthetic experience, aesthetic value, aesthetic descriptions, etc.—as interconnected by the fact that they are all elements of a process in which objective properties, subjective responses and social influences and contexts interact with each other. I call this process an aesthetic-process. This idea allows us to interpret the mark of the aesthetic—that is, the feature shared by things like aesthetic judgements, aesthetic value, aesthetic experience, and so forth—as the feature of being applied meaningfully to the kinds of things that characteristically participate in aesthetic-processes. Aesthetic events should not be understood in isolation but as part of a process, of a system that unfolds by following different pathways over different times.