“Every Painting, if it's Any Good, Is a Love Affair”
Abstract
Are there illuminating similarities between seeming to experience aesthetic merit in objects and having loving feelings towards people? This question is answered by focusing on two very different conceptions of having loving feelings towards people, a familiar hedonistic conception and a less familiar drawing conception. The latter turns out both to be more plausible and to provide us with a much better understanding of what it is to seem to experience aesthetic merit in objects. This better understanding in turn suggests a novel definition of what makes an object an artwork.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Ethics
Aesthetics
and Art
Art
and Perception
Aesthetic Perception and Analysis
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Routledge eBooks
- Pages
- 251–261
- Publication date
- 6 February 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Book chapter