Abstract

This paper aims to offer a new definition of aesthetics and its goals. For this purpose, we see the usefulness of the innovative drive ideas develop in the field of biosemiotics. Against the range of concepts on aesthetics mainly proposed, biosemiotics offers an idea of aesthetic behaviour in terms of Modelling System useful to interact with the surrounding environment ("Umwelt"). Putting forward this argument, we draw on the work of Thomas Albert Sebeok and Marcel Danesi in elucidating the benefits of a Modelling System Theory and other selected ideas from the biosemiotics field on aesthetics. To clarify the real functioning of the aesthetic modelling, the example of the metaphor will be provided.