Is “Aesthetics” Art Studies?

Abstract

I provide a context for Agassi’s and Jarvie’s discussion of Aesthetics to show how their theory involves a turn to Art Studies. This turn provides a new and interesting focus in Aesthetics that revitalizes traditional aesthetics as the search for values in art. This turn also breaks the illusion of depth and progress in contemporary aesthetics by raising so far unasked critical questions in Aesthetics concerning the social demands placed on artists and the institutions of art.