Getting Practical

Abstract

While the main argument for the network theory of aesthetic value is that it better explains the facts about aesthetic activity than does aesthetic hedonism, the two theories share some common assumptions. Aesthetic evaluations are mental representations that attribute aesthetic values to items. Aesthetic acts are acts based on aesthetic evaluations. Aesthetic values figure in aesthetic reasons, which are practical reasons. That is, an aesthetic reason lends weight to the proposition that an agent should perform some act—an act of aesthetic appreciation, for example. Hence, one task for a theory of aesthetic value is to state what makes some values aesthetic. A second is to state what makes it the case that an aesthetic property figures in a reason that lends weight to what an agent should do. Aesthetic hedonism and the network theory offer only to explain the practical normativity of aesthetic value.