The Acquaintance Principle

Abstract

The Acquaintance Principle maintains that aesthetic knowledge must be acquired through first-hand experience of the object of knowledge and cannot be transmitted from person to person. This chapter addresses the question whether there is any sound argument in support of the Principle. It focusses on the possibility of acquiring aesthetic knowledge through reliable testimony, rather than from a non-aesthetic description of an object, because here there is a style of argument that, if correct, would rule out the possibility of knowledge of an item's aesthetic properties being transmitted to someone who lacks the requisite first-hand experience, and the manoeuvre of including imagining under the head of first-hand experience is not available. It maintains that an argument of this kind is the only possible way of establishing the Acquaintance Principle. It claims to show that this style of argument fails and that the Acquaintance Principle should be rejected.