According to the Italian philosopher Paolo D’Angelo, aesthetics must be understood primarily as a branch of philosophy that investigates the nature of that particular form of experience which we obtain mainly, although not exclusively, from works of art, and which is labelled aesthetic experience. By dealing with a vast tradition of philosophical thought, he defines aesthetic experience as both a duplication and a reshaping of the forms and meanings that characterize ordinary experience. In this essay I will try to see to what extent a notion of this kind can account for our appreciation of nature, and what is, among the functional definitions of art that have been offered over the last few decades, the most suited to express the central role that aesthetic experience plays in the activities of art creation, interpretation, enjoyment, and enhancement.
