what is aesthetic theories of art

AESTHETIC THEORIES OF ART
All the theories of art considered so far have limitations. Acknowledging these, philosophers have looked at the nature of aesthetic appreciation itself. In other words, is there something that our response to art has in common with the pleasure that we take in a landscape, the cadence of a sentence or simply in listening to the
morning chorus? Instead of attempting to define art, should we simply attempt a definition of beauty? If we can successfully agree on this, perhaps we can base our judgements about art on surer footings?
The definition of beauty and the character of our response to it have proved a challenging philosophical and aesthetic problem, the nature of which cannot be fully explored here. In short, there is no agreement on what beauty is, or what it might be.
As Sheppard notes, a satisfactory account  of the aesthetic experience must explain what makes it so powerfully intuitive and, at the same time, explain why its opposite – detachment, or even disgust or horror – might also be compelling (1987: 64–65). The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) claimed that aesthetic judgements are disinterested, that is we respond to an object simply on the basis of how it appears to us, rather than us having any particular need or use for it. Although he claimed that aesthetic judgements claim universal validity, Kant remained vague on what the particular criteria of such aesthetic judgements might be, or how differing aesthetic judgements are possible (Sheppard 1987: 74–75).