From PhilPapers forum Aesthetics:

2015-06-12
“Neuro-aesthetics” anyone?

Hi Margaret

Thanks for your post. Glad you’re still with us.

I’d just like to comment on one aspect where you say:

First, I'd like to say that words like taste and beauty have become unfortunate synonyms for "aesthetics" and are therefore misleading.

I certainly agree. I remember once at an aesthetics conference in the US suggesting that there be a moratorium on the word “aesthetic” and its cognates for about ten years because it is ambiguous and therefore misleading. My comment was in jest of course – I hardly expected it to happen. To my great surprise, though, there were a number of murmurs of approval from those present.

The problem infects neuroaesthetics too, of course. Is it about beauty? Is it about art? (By no means the same things.) Is it about sensory perception – which, as you rightly point out, is one of the meanings of the term. So, quite apart from the methodological problems I have been drawing attention to, there is this basic definitional issue.

PS Thank you for your comment re ad hominem remarks comments?  I fully agree.

DA