ABSTRACT

What are the problems films pose in philosophical aesthetics? To begin with, what are the problems of philosophical aesthetics? One way of talking is to say they are about, ‘what is beauty?’, and, ‘is this beautiful?’ Connected questions are, ‘what does this mean, how is it to be interpreted?’ Ambitious philosophers set out to say what beauty is before they discuss art. Less ambitious ones at least supply criteria for recognizing beauty before discussing art. This philosopher is not so ambitious. Not only would I be totally stumped if asked to say, ‘what is beauty?’, I have yet to come across a good argument showing that what the arts aim at is beauty. Besides, scientists do not say what truth is before they set out to find it, and some of them give very little attention to criteria for recognizing it either. There is the belief, which Popper has labelled ‘the manifest theory of truth’, that truth will make itself known, its light will glare forth once we have stumbled across it. I am not sure I believe in that theory either. Certainly I do not believe in the manifest theory of beauty, otherwise less art would be an acquired taste.