Aesthetic Realism and the Importance of Firsthand Experience: On Edith Landmann-Kalischer’s View of Beauty

Abstract In her early essays, the German philosopher Edith Landmann-Kalischer proposed a form of aesthetic realism about beauty. In response to the first English translation of these essays, this paper clarifies her position and subjects it to critical scrutiny. On her view, beauty is a genuine property of objects, as a secondary quality analogous to color. I defend the classification of her view as realist against three interpretive challenges. Then I raise a simple but serious problem for the view: it cannot explain either the constitutive or the normative importance of firsthand experience to individual aesthetic judgments.