XIII—On Pensiveness: A Defence of Aesthetic Cognitivism

Abstract Arguments aim to reach conclusions, but artworks tend to leave us in a state of rumination, perplexity or musing. I describe this state—pensiveness—as a dynamic mode of grappling with some proposition. I then defend the claim that pensiveness is epistemically valuable, in so far as it allows subjects to entertain propositions which they are not yet in a position to know. Pensive artworks, therefore, do not teach us anything; they allow us a glimpse of important things, which as flawed beings we cannot yet grasp.