Scratching an Itch

eryday life have an aesthetic character, or that there can be aesthetic experiences of such incidents? With attention to two especially hard cases, itches and scratches, I will argue that it is appropriate and worthwhile to think of even the simplest moments of everyday life in aesthetic terms. It is appropriate, because on the most plausible accounts of aesthetic experience there can be legitimate aesthetic experiences of itching and scratching; and it is worthwhile, because aesthetic attention to this domain offers the prospect of unique and significant satisfaction. Most accounts of aesthetic experience have focused on the appreciation of some object or environment that is external to the appreciator and the appreciator's experience. While not disagreeing that aesthetic experience often is and should be of such external objects, I suggest that one's qualitative experience can itself be the object of legitimate aesthetic attention. This opens up a domain for inquiry that has been largely neglected within contemporary aesthetics.4 I. PHENOMENOLOGY