Reversed Essentialism

The British Journal of Aesthetics, 2004

Confusion surrounding the topic of essence is a neglected source of trouble in the debate about the nature of art. This confusion obscures the issues relevant to the debate by inviting poor arguments for and against anti-essentialism about anything, including about art. More perniciously, it interferes with clearly focusing on the very concept of art about which an anti-essentialist position makes good sense. This concept of art is interesting in its own right, I think, and at the very least, it would be useful to get it properly distinguished from any other concept plausibly expressed by our word 'art'. I propose to bracket the problem of the nature of art for the first two sections; here, I will be concerned only to remove certain confusions about essence that tend to muddy the water before one dives into the special problems of the nature of art. In the third section, I use the results of the previous discussion to isolate a particular evaluative concept of art, and describe some of its interest. In the final section, I argue that anti-essentialism about this concept of art is a plausible, though incomplete, doctrine.

Aesthetica Preprint, 2019

The thesis of Aesthetic Essentialism, in the version put forward by Peter Lamarque, states that some of the aesthetic properties that a work of art possibly possesses are essential to its aesthetic character. While illuminating some important aspects of the philosophy of art and of the practices of restoration, performance, and interpretation, the thesis seemingly runs counter to a well-entrenched principle in aesthetics, namely, the thesis of Aesthetic Uniqueness, which maintains that we cannot distinguish between essential and inessential features in a work of art, since each feature of a work of art performs an irreplaceable function. I’ll try to show that the claim to truth of both theses is justified, according to which kind of essentialism is at stake. This will involve clarifying the difference between aesthetic and non-aesthetic essentialism and, within the former, between the aesthetic character and the aesthetic content of a work of art. The refined version of aesthetic essentialism thus advanced will also have important consequences for the practice of art evaluation.

Journal of Value Inquiry, 2001

To any but the most jaded observer, the history of modern art suggests a startling array of objects, events, and thoughts as art. The examples are endless. Marcel Duchamp displays a urinal at a New York art show and titles it Fountain; Yves Klein exhibits empty space at the Galerie Iris Clert, Paris; Armand Fernandez alias Arman fills another gallery

2019

Cette these cherche a repondre a une question fondamentale de la philosophie de l'art: qu'est-ce que l'art? Apres avoir examine les reponses des plusieurs theories de l’art, il propose que la definition de l’art proposee par Arthur Danto soit celle qui se conforme le plus a la realite de l’art, bien qu’elle souffre de certaines imperfections et insuffisances. Sur la base de cette conclusion critique ainsi que d'une analyse minutieuse de ce qui est considere actuellement comme un art, il tente de modifier la definition de Danto et de la transformer en une nouvelle definition, capable de mieux se conformer a la realite des phenomenes artistiques. La these d’abord presente la situation actuelle de l’art et les theories de l’art existantes qui n’ont pas reussi a rendre suffisamment justice a la totalite de ce qui est considere comme artistique. Par un regards critique de ces theories, la these tente de montrer que les conditions pour etre l’art qu’elles proposent sont so...

Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics, 2013

Fine Individuation says it’s impossible for distinct people who are not collaborating on a work of art to produce one and same artwork. This is an intra-world thesis, but is necessarily true, if true at all. Author-Essentialism says it’s impossible for someone else to produce one and the same work of art produced by some actual artist. This is an alleged necessary truth regarding cross-world relations. Both theses have been vigorously defended. I here argue that both are false, but for reasons that are entirely novel.

2013

Many philosophers of art argue that a definition or theory of art1 must clarify ‘borderline cases of art’ since most people take it to be obvious that art is not an all-or-nothing matter and, correspondingly, there are artefacts that are neither fully art nor fully non-art. Accordingly, the ability to account for borderline cases of art is perceived as a criterion for assessing the adequacy of a definition of art. In this paper, I will argue that the relevance of the concept of borderline cases of art for definitions of art should not be taken for granted. My argument follows from the observation that different philosophers of art put forward different artefacts as borderline cases of art. Thus, although the significance of borderline cases of art seems obvious and widely shared, there is no consensus on which artefacts fall under the concept. I will show that which artefacts are seen as borderline case of art depends on the theory of art that is held and not the other way around: t...

2000

This paper is the complete text and notes of Chapter 6, "The Definition of Art," of 'What Art Is:The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand' (Open Court, 2000), pp.94-108, by Louis Torres & Michelle Marder Kamhi [https://www.aristos.org/editors/booksumm.htm]. Sections: Anti-Essentialism in Contemporary Philosophy; The "Institutional" Definition of Art; The Rules of Definition; and Rand's Definition of Art.

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2003

What is Art?

Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2010