Aesthetics: Contemporary Theories

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Aesthetics Contemporary Theories
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Further Information

• See www.artandallusion.com
• My email nigelwarburton_at_aol.com

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Week by Week

• 1) Against Definition
• 2) The Institutional Theory
• 3) Identifying Art (change!)
• 4) Aesthetic Concepts
• 5) Artists Intentions
• 6) Style and Personality

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Last Week

• Anti-Theory (Weitz)
• Sometimes known as neo-Wittgensteinian
• Attempt to define art logically doomed
• Because Art and subconcepts are open concepts

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This week

• 1) The Artworld (Danto) Reading 36
• 2) The Institutional Theory (Dickie) Reading 37

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Question

• If two works of art are visually indiscernible
  (i.e. look identical), does it follow that they
  share all the same properties?

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Danto

• What in the end makes the difference between a
  Brillo box and a work of art is a certain theory
  of art (p.423).

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Dickie Return to Theory

• Looking for relational (non-exhibited) properties
  rather than look and see what works of art have
  in common
• Defying Weitz and finding nec. and suff.
  conditions

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Two conditions

• 1) An artifact
• 2) A set of the aspects of which has had the
  status of candidate for appreciation conferred
  upon it by a member or members of the
  artworld(see p.431)

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Art and Artistic Value

• One can make a work of art out of a sows ear,
  but that does not necessarily make it a silk
  purse.
• (p.436).