Aesthetic appreciation is a mental process, while aesthetic judgment is a mental state. This paper explores some interesting mistakes that arise in aesthetics as a result of collapsing differences between appreciation and judgment, and sheds new light on the relationship between the two. The latter task involves exploring structural parallels between the limited but essential role that evaluative judgments play in romantic love and friendship and the limited but essential role that evaluative judgments play in the process of aesthetic appreciation.

The theory of aesthetic appreciation sketched in the paper has a number of advantages over other theories, including when it comes to understanding the purpose of our aesthetic lives, and the limited but not insubstantial role that testimony plays with respect to forming aesthetic beliefs.