This articles questions some of the basic assumptions of sociological aesthetics. Taking the “linguistic turn” with Susanne Langer, it assumes throughout that art is a social phenomenon that involves body, emotions and symbolism. To understand the experience of art today, it takes an articulation between phenomenology, hermeneutics and critical theory. The synthesis of Georg Simmel, Talcott Parsons and Theodor Adorno can only work if the social forms are explicitly brought into the cultural system and meanings and power are not evacuated.