Aesthetic Cores: A Proposal for Objectivity in Art Suggested by Charles Peirce’s Dynamic Object

Abstract

I assume the hypothesis that there are aesthetic cores that ground each artwork. The main examples referred to are musical compositions; but I believe that with modifications, my hypothesis can apply to instances in the visual arts. Cores evolve over time yet they remain identifiably the same from one performance to another and from one experiential encounter to another. Drawing on Peirce’s ontological idea of dynamic objects, I suggest that an aesthetic core is a dynamic center of constraints, in part created by composers and by appreciators interacting with the core. The core is an evolving center of constraints effective for creators and appreciators as they interpret the artwork. The upshot of this claim is that there is a condition of objectivity that resists the extreme relativism that would regard all interpretations of artworks as equally true. Various objections are considered when these ideas are explained and developed.