Why do we value successful art works, symphonies, and good bottles of wine? One answer is that they give us an experience that lesser works or merely useful objects cannot provide—an aesthetic experience. But what is an aesthetic experience and how does it differ from an ordinary experience? This is an especially difficult issue with regard to wine. We drink wine for many reasons and in many contexts. Only sometimes does it produce an aesthetic experience. I try to show what is distinctive about aesthetic experience in this month’s Three Quarks Daily post.
Exploring the Philosophy of Food and Wine 