Sibley distinguishes aesthetic judgements, non-aesthetic judgements, and verdicts. Verdicts are purely evaluative, while the (initially intuitive) distinction between aesthetic and non-aesthetic judgements demarcates, barring expected borderline cases, the subject matter of aesthetics. Chapter 3 is concerned with illuminating this distinction, by outlining how aesthetic judgements are made, justified, and explained. Sibley further disentangles the various, conceptual and contingent, relations and dependences of aesthetic and non-aesthetic judgements, concluding that the truth of aesthetic judgements cannot be verified, confirmed, or supported mechanically or by appeal to rules.
Keywords: aesthetics, dependence, evaluation, Frank Sibley, judgement, rules, truth, verdict