Abstract

In german aesthetics, aethetic experience is the most prominent concept to emphasize sensual properties of objects and events. Thus, artistic objects can be understood as a special case of aesthetic experience. In this paper I argue that a theory of art should be separated from a general theory of aesthetics. In a first part, referring to Arthur C. Danto’s arguments, I claim that there are many artworks for which sensual properties are not constitutive. In a second step, I try to show that even sensual artworks cannot be understood sufficiently with regard to the concept of aesthetic experience. They have a specific structure that seperates them categorically from mere aesthetic objects and events.