Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of (certain facets of) aesthetic experience through Peircean semiotic conceptions. The starting point of the discussion is Kant's conception of aesthetic experience, which is then developed further in Peircean terms.
The core idea of this analysis is to identify aesthetic experience as belonging to a specific class of sign in terms of Peirce's late classification of signs (1903c: EP 2.294-296), namely that of (iconic rhematic) qualisign, and to show how such a conception forms a firm bedrock of aesthetics. The next section gives an overview of Kant's conception of aesthetic experience in relation to his conception of aesthetic judgement.
The section that follows interprets this conception of aesthetic experience in terms of Peircean semiotics. The fourth discusses the connection of (iconic rhematic) qualisign to higher classes of signs, and describes how does aesthetic experience transform itself and grow in the process of semiosis.
The final section illustrates the fruitfulness of the presented approach in the realm of art criticism.