Middleway aesthetics: an aesthetical way to say nothing about aesthetics

Resumo

This is a very brief sketch on Wittgenstein’s “middle” writings about aesthetical appreciation and aesthetical attitude concerning the objects of art. Even if it takes the Tractarian conception of ‘aesthetics’ as a starting point, the paper is focused on Wittgenstein’s (second-hand) class-notes taken from his Lectures on Aesthetics and a very specific remark reported by Moore, brought from the Philosophical Occasions, where “reasons” for aesthetical persuasion and correction are said to be like those offered in “discussions in a court of law”. At the end, not much is left for aesthetical appreciation and for aestheticsitself but a certain kind of contextual, circumstantial “appeal to the judge”.