Aesthetic Pleasure Explained

Rafael DE CLERCQ

doi:10.1111/jaac.12636

Aesthetic Pleasure Explained

Rafael DE CLERCQ

Department of Visual Studies

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

One of the oldest platitudes about beauty is that it is pleasant to perceive or experience. In this article, I take this platitude at face value and try to explain why experiences of beauty are seemingly always accompanied by pleasure. Unlike explanations that have been offered in the past, the explanation proposed is designed to suit a “realist” view on which beauty is an irreducibly evaluative property, that is, a value. In a nutshell, the explanation is that experiences of beauty are experiences in which it appears that something is beautiful, and that such experiences are identical to experiences of aesthetic pleasure.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	121-132
Number of pages	12
Journal	Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
Volume	77
Issue number	2
Early online date	23 Apr 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/jaac.12636
Publication status	Published - 2019

Bibliographical note

Thanks to two referees for this journal, as well as to Arnold Burms, Leon Horsten, Paisley Livingston, Mikael Pettersson, Nick Zangwill, Jiji Zhang, and participants in the LU-SYSU Philosophical Forum (Lingnan University,November 28, 2015) for helpful comments, discussion, and encouragement.

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10.1111/jaac.12636

Cite this

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title = "Aesthetic Pleasure Explained",

abstract = "One of the oldest platitudes about beauty is that it is pleasant to perceive or experience. In this article, I take this platitude at face value and try to explain why experiences of beauty are seemingly always accompanied by pleasure. Unlike explanations that have been offered in the past, the explanation proposed is designed to suit a “realist” view on which beauty is an irreducibly evaluative property, that is, a value. In a nutshell, the explanation is that experiences of beauty are experiences in which it appears that something is beautiful, and that such experiences are identical to experiences of aesthetic pleasure.",

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AB - One of the oldest platitudes about beauty is that it is pleasant to perceive or experience. In this article, I take this platitude at face value and try to explain why experiences of beauty are seemingly always accompanied by pleasure. Unlike explanations that have been offered in the past, the explanation proposed is designed to suit a “realist” view on which beauty is an irreducibly evaluative property, that is, a value. In a nutshell, the explanation is that experiences of beauty are experiences in which it appears that something is beautiful, and that such experiences are identical to experiences of aesthetic pleasure.

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Aesthetic Pleasure Explained

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Bibliographical note

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