Drawing on a ritual approach to microsociology, I explain how and why aesthetic and moral practices inform each other and evolve as they do. I continue to develop a theory of aesthetic engagement, specifying how it generates the emotional sensibilities that inform moral practices. Examining aesthetic engagement and emotional sensibilities focuses our theoretical attention on our capacity to find our moral bearings, even in unfamiliar or challenging conditions. To develop this perspective, I draw on Bargheer’s Moral Entanglements and a volume on bird watching’s therapeutic value, Bird Therapy. These two works provide insight into the micro-emotional dynamics through which nature-based practices generate aesthetic power. I conclude by discussing the implications of aesthetic and moral practices for theorizing cognition and culture. In particular, I argue that an aesthetic practice approach to perceiving and knowing about the world does not fit neatly into the dual processing frameworks currently popular in Cultural Sociology.

借鉴微观社会学的仪式方法，我解释了美学和道德实践如何以及为什么相互影响并随着它们的发展而发展。我继续发展一种审美参与理论，具体说明它如何产生影响道德实践的情感敏感性。检查审美参与和情感敏感性将我们的理论注意力集中在我们找到道德轴承的能力上，即使在不熟悉或具有挑战性的条件下也是如此。为了发展这个观点，我借鉴了 Bargheer 的Moral Entanglements和一卷关于观鸟的治疗价值的著作《 Bird Therapy》。这两部作品提供了对基于自然的实践产生审美力量的微观情感动态的洞察。最后，我讨论了审美和道德实践对认知和文化理论化的影响。特别是，我认为感知和了解世界的审美实践方法并不完全适合文化社会学中当前流行的双重处理框架。