Abstract

In this paper I argue some key hypotheses concerning the goal and the nature of aesthetic experience. I derive these hypotheses from the evidence collected by the so-called neuro-psychological approach to aesthetics. The hypotheses concern some of the most relevant concepts of the philosophical aesthetics, namely: aesthetic attitude, aesthetic knowledge and fiction, aesthetic pleasure and interest, aesthetic emotions, and aesthetic evaluation. Taken together, they suggest that aesthetic experience is a specific realization of the goal of knowing.