ABSTRACT
Understanding the nature of aesthetic judgment has been a problem for philosophers. Aesthetic realism makes two central claims. One is that there really are aesthetic properties in the world to be detected and characterized, and the other is that aesthetic judgments about them are genuine assertions that are either true or false. Realism thus purports to provide a foundation for aesthetic judgment, a foundation presumably based on the nature of things. Aesthetic realism never says in so many words that its target is the possibility that aesthetic properties do not exist. Its stated target is non-cognitivism, that is, any theory such as relativism, emotivism or prescriptivism that would have aesthetic judgments refer to, express, or encourage only "subjective" reactions. The notion of aesthetic properties as supervenient demands a clear distinction between aesthetic and nonaesthetic properties as there must be something for aesthetic properties to be supervenient upon.
