In a message dated 5/4/08 1:01:46 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > An aesthetic experience is an experience taken as an end in itself. It is > experience qua experience. Whenever we are asked to answer the question, > "What is it like to have this experience?" our response is an aesthetic > experience. > As I've conceded, you're entitled to say, "I CALL that an aesthetic experience." The most anyone can do in effective opposition is to point out inconsistencies.
But strictly speaking, it's ultimately indefensible to assert something IS a generic "kind". Luckily, we seldom have to be so strict in our speech. We can in daily life say, "That is a tiger," or, while pointing at a mouse, "That is not a tiger," and little harm will come of it. If we say such things to a child, we will be welding an association between the utterance "tiger" and the image that comes to the mind of most people when they hear the word. That makes for serviceable communication as the child goes on in life. It's when we assert "kind-ness" to an object in which the alleged kind-ness is not discernible by the raw "five senses" that we get in trouble. "That is a miracle." "That is just a game." "Here we see science in action." "That is interesting/beautiful/evil/a sin/art." Consider the farmer who says, "In that pasture I have six cows -- Martha, Minnie, Myrna, Mona, Maura and Bubbles. Of course there's a seventh entity in the pasture -- the herd. And indeed, an eighth entity -- cow-ness." Other points might be made about Mallory's paragraph above. They could hinge on on our unwillingness to use some language the way Mallory does. He says, "Whenever we are asked to answer the question, "What is it like to have this experience?" our response is an aesthetic experience." Small point: Which response? To the experience, or to the query? I once tore up my knee playing football. People asked me the likes of, "What's it like to be on crutches for a week?" Mallory is entitled to call my "experience" during the injury and while on crutches an "aesthetic experience", but I wouldn't. ************** Wondering what's for Dinner Tonight? Get new twists on family favorites at AOL Food. (http://food.aol.com/dinner-tonight?NCID=aolfod00030000000001)
