The Aesthetics of Frank Sibley
“Aesthetic and Non-Aesthetics”:
Thesis statement: Aesthetic
Judgment is a matter of perception!
Non-Aesthetic
Aesthetic
Large
Graceful
Circular
Dainty
Green
Garish
Slow
Balanced
Monosyllabic
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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
X has a red line in each corner.
If a painting has a red line in each
corner then it has balance.
X has balance.
Balance is a reason for thinking a
painting is overall good.
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,