The Selectivity of Aesthetic Explanation

Abstract

Abstract It is widely agreed that an artwork having certain non-aesthetic properties explains its having a certain aesthetic property. One interesting feature of such an explanation is its selectivity—it cites only some of the non-aesthetic properties on which the presence of the aesthetic property depends. Hence a question arises as to what distinguishes the selected non-aesthetic properties from the unselected ones. I answer this question by proposing a selection principle modeled on Laura Franklin-Hall’s selection principle for causal explanation, according to which an explanation selects a package of factors that maximizes the ratio of delivery (the degree to which the factors cited in an explanation make what is explained modally robust) to cost (the amount of information an explanation contains).