Le proprietà estetiche e la natura linguistico-cognitiva della sopravvenienza estetica. A ritroso: da Jerrold Levinson a Thomas Reid

Abstract

Abstract. The relationship between aesthetic and non-aesthetic properties is the subject of theoretical investigation by Jerrold Levinson and Thomas Reid. According to Reid, non-aesthetic properties are perceptual properties that are inherent to so-called natural signs and require cognitive processing that is internally varied and connected to the qualitative dimension of the mind. Reid also leans towards the solution of supervenience, but unlike Levinson, he places this solution against a background marked by the presence of an agent consciousness. This justifies both the aesthetic interpretation of non-aesthetic properties and the supervenience that is its most eloquent synthesis.

This article aims to compare Levinson's model with Reid's. This will be done by showing how Reid's model can be used to respond to some recent objections to Levinson's approach. Finally, the question of supervenience will be addressed from a cognitive and linguistic point of view. Aesthetic properties are to be understood as the outcome of a cognitive and linguistic structuring that presents different levels of elaboration starting from natural signs (protolanguage). It is a theoretical framework that permits a more comprehensive examination of the strategic role of Reid within Eighteenth-Century philosophy than had previously been acknowledged.