PHIL 2790H Lecture Notes - Fall 2018 Lecture 2 - Baltimore Stars, Baltimore Stars
17 Sep 2018
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WEEK 2 LEC NOTES
PHIL 2790
Monday, September 17, 2018
Reading: Frank Sibley, ‘Aesthetic Concepts’
• When we talk about art, we use both aesthetic vs non- aesthetic concepts
• What are aesthetic concepts? Is there something speacia/ characteristic about them
• Aesthetic concepts “require the exercise of taste, perceptiveness, or sensitivity, of aesthetic
discrimination or appreciation.
• Taste is “an ability to notice or discern things” (495)
Conditions
• But more importantly , “taste concepts are not and cannot be conditions or rule governed . not to
be so governed is one of their essential characteristics. “ (500)
• We might be tempted to say that aesthetic concepts apply because of certain non aesthetics
qualities and that some qualities consist in the necessary and/or sufficient conditions of an aesthetic
concept applying. But this is wrong, says Sibley.
• We don’t want to list relevant features that can be there- this is still the realm of conditions.
• A sufficient condition can get you where you want to go, but it is not particularly necessary.
• Example, whole wheat bread is a sufficient condition for a sandwich, but it is not needed to
have/make a sandwich.
• We DO want to say, however “that taste concepts may be governed negatively by conditions” (497)
i.e. some features may make it such certain aesthetic concepts necessarily DO NOT apply.
• But “no description in non-aesthetic words permits us to claim that these or any other aesthetic
terms must undeniably apply to it (497)
• We are still allowed to say that certain features “count only typically or characteristically towards”
the application of the concept- so long as we don’t say such features are conditions in any way
• Aesthetic concepts are such that there are no descriptions that necessarily make it the case that a
concept applies beyond question
• Mastering these concepts does NOT involve mastering /becoming familiar with their conditions- “in
using aesthetic terms we learn from samples and examples, no rules, and we have to apply them,
likewise without guidance by rules or readily applicable procedures to new and unique sequences
When talking about aesthetic concepts, were are just using words to describe art.
Aesthetic concepts and Sense Concepts
• How are we to know it is appropriate to apply aesthetic concepts if there are no rules and conditions
governeering their use?
