Six Degrees of Separation
The main argument for the network theory of aesthetic value is that it better explains six facts about aesthetic activity than does its rival, aesthetic hedonism. The chapter indicates why aesthetic hedonism does not predict how aesthetic experts disperse into almost all demographic niches, how they jointly inhabit the whole aesthetic universe, how they specialize by aesthetic domain, how they specialize by type of activity, how they specialize by activity and domain interact, or how their expertise comes to be relatively stable. In addition, the account of the normativity of aesthetic reasons has some revealing flaws. The account has trouble with the plasticity of pleasure, the bounded rationality of aesthetic agents, the importance of aesthetic personality, and the possibility of the alienation of aesthetic reasons from desires.