2. Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll

Abstract

The experiences that would count as aesthetic in some sense are very diverse, and it is challenging to find something they have in common. ‘Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll’ considers four influential accounts of aesthetics—focusing on beauty, pleasure, emotion, and ‘valuing for its own sake’—to see just how difficult it is to keep the aesthetic and the non-aesthetic apart. These accounts contain some really important pointers to how we should and how we should not think about the domain of aesthetics. It is then argued that these accounts all point in the same direction, namely, that what is special about aesthetics is the way we exercise our attention in aesthetic experiences.