His own approach to aesthetics was unusually pure. Frank Sibley wrote lapidary essays that remain models of a type of philosophical prose in which distinctions are carefully drawn, arguments are patiently developed, and a clarity of overall conception is achieved through a great economy of means. The virtues most often mentioned in connection with Sibley are those of this type of prose. But his philosophical approach was pure in another—and more substantive—sense too. Sibley characteristically i…
Read moreHis own approach to aesthetics was unusually pure. Frank Sibley wrote lapidary essays that remain models of a type of philosophical prose in which distinctions are carefully drawn, arguments are patiently developed, and a clarity of overall conception is achieved through a great economy of means. The virtues most often mentioned in connection with Sibley are those of this type of prose. But his philosophical approach was pure in another—and more substantive—sense too. Sibley characteristically investigated conceptual issues that were identifiable without regard to specific aesthetic contexts. For instance, when Sibley discussed gracefulness, the particular point he had in mind could, if he so chose, be made about a vase, a line in a painting, the arch of a person’s eyebrow, or a pebble. We might think that such a procedure would severely constrain the interestingness of what an aesthetician has to say, and yet time and again Sibley shows us how much there is to gain from it. If being a phenomenologist means having a keen eye for elusive but potentially vital features of our experience, then Sibley, as a phenomenologist of the aesthetic, has no peers.