Abstract: Art has value. At least in part, this is because it gives pleasure. What is the nature of this pleasure, and how does it confer value? In this talk, I offer an account of aethetic pleasure as a mental state. I describe a certain type of pleasure - facilitating pleasure, as I call it - and show how aesthetic pleasure is a special kind of this. My account helps show how the psychology of human evaluation of beautify parallels the normative structure of Kantian philosophical aesthetics.

Free and open to all. Reception, in 210 Thornton Hall (note change of venue), follows.