Sensitivity, Sensibility, and Aesthetic Realism

Abstract

Aesthetic realism, surely as attractive a view as moral realism or scientific realism, is unfortunately at least as problematic as its compatriot theories. There are numerous challenges that confront aesthetic realism, but this paper will focus on one that has not received as much attention as some others, but that may be the hardest to rebut. I will argue that plausible variations in individuals' sensitivity to various perceptual properties of art have significant implications for our warranted ascription of aesthetic properties to those artworks. These implications, I think, make realism about aesthetic properties a waning possibility. Variations in sensitivity pose a more trenchant problem for realism than, for instance, variations in aesthetic standards or sensibilities do because it is much more difficult to argue that sensitivities ought to converge as more experience or expertise with the art is accumulated.