The Aesthetics of Frank Sibley

“Aesthetic and Non-Aesthetics”:

Thesis statement: Aesthetic Judgment is a matter of perception!

Non-Aesthetic

Aesthetic

Large

Circular

Green

Slow

Monosyllabic

Graceful

Dainty

Garish

Balanced

Moving

Powerful

• Level 3: Verdict overall judgment:– Ex. “This painting is good overall!”

• Level 2: Aesthetic Judgment– Ex. “This painting is balanced.”

• Level 1: Non-aesthetic Judgments– Ex. “There is a red line in the corner.”

The paper is primarily about level 1 & 2. He doesn’t think there is a necessity of inference from level 2 to 3.

• Why have we been so obsessed with “beauty?” Why not discuss judgments?

He is criticizing “justified” judgment:

1. X has a red line in each corner.

2. If a painting has a red line in each corner then it has balance.

3. X has balance.

4. Balance is a reason for thinking a painting is overall good.

5. Painting is good!

Consider this example:

We often appeal to non-aesthetic factual judgments at level 1.- Painting has a red line in each corner.

Nevertheless we can disagree at level 2 & 3. - Bruce Wayne believes that painting has balance. Peter Parker disagrees.

We can disagree about level 2 & 3 yet agree with level 4. Yet, both Wayne and Parker both agree that painting is good!

So, level 2 & 3 may be false even though level 4 is agreed upon.

I. Aesthetic Perception:

1. Sibley isolates aesthetic perception as a condition for making an aesthetic judgment.

“People have to see the grace or unity of a work, hear the plaintiveness or frenzy in the music, notice the gaudiness of a color scheme, feel the power of a novel, its mood, or its uncertainty of tone…. Unless they do perceive them for themselves, aesthetic enjoyment, appreciation, and judgment are beyond them…To suppose indeed that one can make aesthetic judgment without aesthetic perception, say, by following rules of some kind, is to misunderstand aesthetic judgment (pg. 137).”

Aesthetic Perception:

• Therefore, where there is no question of aesthetic perception, Sibley uses other expressions like “attribution of aesthetic quality” or aesthetic statement.”

• Consider the following example:

Aesthetic Perception:

• Ex. “…color-blind man may infer that something is green without seeing that it is, and rather as a man, without seeing a joke himself, may say that something is funny because others laugh, so someone may attribute or gaudiness to a painting, or say that it is too pale, without himself having judged it so” (pg. 137).

Questions for Further Reflection:• What are we to make of non-aesthetic judgments? Following a

certain rules brings out a certain empirical facts. (e.g., X has a red line in each corner).

• How do we settle differences of value judgment?• Appeal to intuitionism for values?• Are there natural non-aesthetic properties whereby I combine a

factual property plus rule (this factual property + rule= value judgment)?

Questions for Further Reflection:• Sibley says aesthetic judgments are not inferences from rule. If

so, what happens to art criticism? • Consider the use of “because.” The only “because” that makes

sense to him appears to have some “causal”? Something has aesthetic qualities because of “cause and effect”?

• Don’t Judgments stand for the assertion of a proposition? If so, then judgment is an end-judgment of a syllogism, etc. Furthermore, there is a specific judgment that is seeking “hidden” judgment; you must propose some criteria? It is a quest for the criteria? Sibley, you are unconsciously presupposing some criteria?

• But then again, one can say that “I perceive you to be wrong” without asserting a judgment.” But then again,