Peter Railton is a Professor at the University of Michigan.
Abstract: Given its obvious involvement with subjective responses, in what sense might aesthetic value nonetheless be objective? I try to understand this question in terms of the sorts of explanatory work appeals to aesthetic value might do. Some have defended the idea that even though aesthetic value is not among the primary explanatory features of our world, it nonetheless could have the same explanatory role and epistemic status as color and other secondary qualities. But the analogy with secondary qualities has never been very close, and I think there is a better alternative: a (revisionist) redeployment of Locke's idea of a tertiary quality. I develop this idea using, insofar as possible, examples drawn from spontaneous aesthetic appreciation and social practice.
