ABSTRACT
The aesthetic realist interprets many descriptions of music as metaphorical descriptions of aesthetic properties of music. This chapter begins with the fact that it is common to describe music in terms of emotion, motion or height. In the case of music, the aesthetic realist maintains that the aesthetic concepts that figure in aesthetic experiences and judgments in many cases pick out aesthetic properties of music. Realists and nonrealists have different interpretations and explanations of the Aesthetic Metaphor Thesis. According to the particular aesthetic realist view it describes music in terms of emotion, motion, height or delicacy, these are metaphorical descriptions of mind-independent aesthetic properties of music. One's musical experience is directed to aesthetic properties of music, which sometimes experience with delight. This is the reality to which one's aesthetic concepts refer, and this is the reality that we seek, albeit imperfectly, to describe using metaphor.
