I tend to model aesthetics as more deeply entwined with other preferences and heuristics. Whether caused by trauma, early or late training, genetic or environmental predilection, or whatever, there are many elements of each individual’s utility function that are somewhat resistant to introspection.
Your proposed causality (trauma, and punished/rewarded framework) is generally applicable—not only to things generally in the aesthetic realm, but also in the policy-preference, social-interaction, and many other topics where “belief” mostly means “more trusted models” rather than “concrete probabilities of propositional future experiences”.
As you note, it’s not fully resistant to introspection—you can train yourself to notice and enjoy (or to notice and disprefer) things differently than your past. Sometimes a partial explanation of causality for your belief can help. Sometimes it’s a non-explanation just-so story, giving you permission to change. And sometimes you can change just by deciding that you’ll meet your considered goals more easily if you let go of those particular heuristics.
I tend to model aesthetics as more deeply entwined with other preferences and heuristics. Whether caused by trauma, early or late training, genetic or environmental predilection, or whatever, there are many elements of each individual’s utility function that are somewhat resistant to introspection.
Your proposed causality (trauma, and punished/rewarded framework) is generally applicable—not only to things generally in the aesthetic realm, but also in the policy-preference, social-interaction, and many other topics where “belief” mostly means “more trusted models” rather than “concrete probabilities of propositional future experiences”.
As you note, it’s not fully resistant to introspection—you can train yourself to notice and enjoy (or to notice and disprefer) things differently than your past. Sometimes a partial explanation of causality for your belief can help. Sometimes it’s a non-explanation just-so story, giving you permission to change. And sometimes you can change just by deciding that you’ll meet your considered goals more easily if you let go of those particular heuristics.