Aesthetics-What? Why? and Wherefore?

>It is a very great honor to address my friends and colleagues as president of the American Society for Aesthetics, an organization that plays a unique role in a field that is, at once, a major traditional branch of philosophy and also central to disciplines often regarded as remote from philosophy, as well as depending crucially on their contributions. I will follow the lead of one of my distinguished predecessors in this office, Peter Kivy, who used the occasion of his own presidential address twelve years ago to step back and reflect on the state of the discipline and the nature of aesthetics.1 Aesthetics is a strange field, in some ways a confused one. Yet, among the issues it is charged with treating are some of the most fascinating and profound ones that philosophy has to offer. I take aesthetics to be largely a branch of philosophy, although with absolutely crucial links to other disciplines. Philosophy as I understand it is not the private preserve of professional philosophers. Art historians, music theorists, and literary scholars frequently engage in philosophy, as do psychologists, cognitive scientists, and linguists. And many informal reflections outside of academic contexts are philosophical in character. As an institutionally recognized branch of philosophy, aesthetics is very young. At a mere two‐and‐a‐half centuries, in a family whose elders are more like twenty‐five, it does not qualify for a midlife identity crisis. Its confusion is that of an adolescent trying to find itself, wondering what to do when it grows up, and, indeed, whether there is a place for it in the adult world. Aesthetics is not the baby of the clan; business ethics and the philosophy of quantum physics are younger. But these are clearly subcategories of traditional, well‐established areas of philosophy—ethics and philosophy of science—and they inherit much of their identity and sense of purpose from their parents. Aesthetics is not so fortunate. It is related in various important ways to epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language—indeed it overlaps all of them—but these older relatives are at best aunts and uncles to aesthetics, not parents. Aesthetics must figure out for itself what exactly it is. Two kinds of issues about the field need to be addressed: What is distinctive about this branch of philosophy, in contrast to others? And what is philosophy? Under the first heading, we will ask what aesthetics is the philosophy of, what domain it is charged with investigating. The second issue concerns what kind of investigation of that domain aesthetics is to undertake, what it is to investigate things philosophically. i. In his Presidential Address for the central division of the American Philosophical Association, Allan Gibbard referred to the question of how to live as the “grand basic question” of ethics.2 He may have had in mind something like this: Most of ethics, most of what now and over the ages is thought of as belonging to that discipline, has some more with how we are to live do much more to this to and they about whether it be and whether are and they how do in about trying to But it is to that ethics is the question of how to question the identity of the field, and it a his from ethics in this question the of ethics has the of as well as In we the we of it as not at various philosophical issues as more in the of ethics, as they more to the branch of philosophy, is the question of what we what we The basic question of is something What is that all of these are ones that are to from professional philosophers. a who is not to in one live will ask of this I do epistemology, and out of out of the What is the basic question of As a of ethics, one aesthetics to be a question to to What to question has some The of that be as a of what we are to As a a one and of this to to as the of aesthetics in very But it does not to it and issues a at the of The of Aesthetics and Art how much they have on their how much of what they about has to these It be a to aesthetics as a of is at most a of to a for their field, some will is may be the of the has out the Aesthetics in his the of to as what it that be and not mere the central issue in the philosophy of But this question does not a role in the field as a to that of we in is is a and as we all are music to for their The is is But the question is in ways that it to the identity of a major field of It is not at all that these is like a to are whether are in the and a of the question to be for a of the although it does not have to be this The something like of The in of it is and in of and of that that what is place in a with and an The of wondering whether there is sense in they are to the the address the The as is a one with what be about ones and on and for the ones have and how they is not like the of of for to and with something not from to the for the of this is will as a for a a field this as to be In at issues of The of Aesthetics and Art it is that this does not as the of aesthetics as it is of what the of has to do with question one ask of the is of literary with do What for in In What are the when they In what are of of other to be about of what a of music on the the of an are all fascinating But all be and about whether the in question qualify as contrast the of ethics and is I that to is a that in is is in and the in and not and it in other contexts as it is at best in most of most about the music may to figure out a is and in what a a what they from a and But they will find the question of what as much it to at most of find the question of how to it is that one the to this question and that it be in some Aesthetics not out of concerns in the that ethics does it on the is The is that aesthetics does not have a basic question of related field in the that to as much in when in an in the Philosophical is a in academic to that has to do with of with the sense of the of we is a and literary that the identity of the field is of has a domain the it philosophically. 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