Aesthetic perception and the puzzle of training

Synthese 200 (2):1-25 (2022)
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Abstract

While the view that we perceive aesthetic properties may seem intuitive, it has received little in the way of explicit defence. It also gives rise to a puzzle. The first strand of this puzzle is that we often cannot perceive aesthetic properties of artworks without training, yet much aesthetic training involves the acquisition of knowledge, such as when an artwork was made, and by whom. How, if at all, can this knowledge affect our perception of an artwork’s aesthetic properties? The second strand of the puzzle arises when we widen the scope of aesthetic experience. The very same aesthetic properties that seem to require training for their perception in artworks do not appear to require training to perceive in objects of everyday aesthetic appreciation and natural phenomena. In this paper I argue that a prominent extant attempt to explain how training is compatible with aesthetic perception—cognitive permeation—is an inadequate solution. I also develop a positive view of aesthetic perception that provides a unified solution to both strands of the puzzle.

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Author's Profile

Madeleine Ransom
University of British Columbia, Okanagan

Citations of this work

Perception in Practice.Dominic McIver Lopes & Madeleine Ransom - 2022 - Review of Philosophy and Psychology 14 (2):387-400.
Categorizing Art.Kiyohiro Sen - 2024 - Dissertation, University of Tokyo

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References found in this work

The Contents of Visual Experience.Susanna Siegel - 2010 - , US: Oxford University Press USA.
Thought in Action: Expertise and the Conscious Mind.Barbara Gail Montero - 2016 - Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press UK.
Aesthetics as Philosophy of Perception.Bence Nanay - 2016 - Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press UK.
Categories of Art.Kendall L. Walton - 1970 - Philosophical Review 79 (3):334-367.

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