Table Of ContentThe Philosophy of Art:
The Question of Definition
Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy
Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy presents cutting-edge scholarship in all the
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Available in the series:
Aesthetic and Artistic Autonomy, edited by Owen Hulatt
Art, Language and Figure in Merleau-Ponty, Rajiv Kaushik
Art, Myth and Society in Hegel’s Aesthetics, David James
The Challenge of Relativism, Patrick J. J. Phillips
The Cognitive Value of Philosophical Fiction, Jukka Mikkonen
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The Dialectics of Aesthetic Agency, Ayon Maharaj
Descartes and the Metaphysics of Human Nature,
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Dialectic of Romanticism, Peter Murphy and David Roberts
Kant: The Art of Judgment in Aesthetic Education,
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Kant’s Aesthetic Theory, David Berger
Kant’s Concept of Genius, Paul W. Bruno
Kant’s Transcendental Arguments, Scott Stapleford
Kierkegaard, Metaphysics and Political Theory, Alison Assiter
Metaphysics and the End of Philosophy, H. O. Mounce
Popper’s Theory of Science, Carlos Garcia
The Science, Politics, and Ontology of Life-Philosophy,
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Virtue Epistemology, Stephen Napier
The Philosophy of Art: The Question
of Definition
From Hegel to Post-Dantian Theories
Tiziana Andina
Translated by Natalia Iacobelli
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First published 2013
© Tiziana Andina, 2013
Translated by Natalia Iacobelli
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
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system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
Tiziana Andina has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting
on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication
can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author.
This book was first published in Italian as Filosofie dell’arte. Da Hegel a Danto,
copyright © 2012 by Carocci editore S.p.A., Roma.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
EISBN: 978-1-4411-6278-6
Library of Co n gress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Andina, Tiziana.
[Filosofie dell’arte. English]
The Philosophy of Art: The Question of Definition from Hegel to Post-Dantian theories/
Tiziana Andina; translated by Natalia Iacobelli.
pages cm. – (Bloomsbury studies in philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4411-4051-7 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-4411-3651-0 (ebook) –
ISBN 978-1-4411-6278-6 (ebook) 1. Aesthetics. 2. Art – Philosophy. I. Title.
BH39.A53513 2013
111’.85–dc23
2012046563
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
For my mother
Contents
Introduction: On the Philosophy of Art 1
1 The Twentieth Century and the Long History of the Imitative Theory 25
2 Definitions 43
3 On the Impossibility of Definition 99
4 Works of Art as Social and Historical Objects 125
Notes 169
Bibliography 177
Index 187
Introduction: On the Philosophy of Art
1 Hegel or the beginning
The specialized areas of philosophy – that is, the philosophy of the mind, of
language, of music, of science, of history, of law or of religion – are generally
distinguished by a clear disciplinary identity. In all of the aforementioned
cases, philosophy has a precise and detailed objective: history, science, music,
law, language or even ourselves, insofar as we are beings gifted in mind and in
thought.
The philosophy of art is no exception. If we were to ask an average cultured
person, someone not particularly experienced in philosophy – a sort of ingenuous
philosopher endowed with a robust common sense – what they would expect to
find in a book on the philosophy of art, they would most probably answer that
they would expect to read a reflection, in essay format, whose object is art and
the products of art. Quite simple, really. The task of answering questions such
as: ‘what is art?’, ‘what is an artwork?’, ‘what is beauty?’, ‘what is the difference
between a common object and an artwork?’, and so on, would be reserved for
the philosophy of art.
Let us now suppose that our cultured reader, who is minimally experienced
in philosophy – we will call him Frescoditesta – must face a rather delicate task
entrusted to him by an elderly uncle who himself is keen on philosophy. The
eccentric and comical uncle collects works of art, the majority of which are piled
up in a large warehouse together with objects of everyday use. When his uncle
passes away, Frescoditesta attends the reading of his will which takes place in a
climate of great sadness. The will, in which Frescoditesta is appointed universal
inheritor, includes two clauses: first, in order to inherit the artworks Frescoditesta
must be able to distinguish them from common objects. The artworks will
remain in his possession, while the other objects will be forever destroyed.
The will relates another codicil, the second provision: the young nephew will
have to carry out this task without the aid of experts, availing himself solely of
his intelligence and, perhaps, a few books. After performing a site inspection
of the warehouse, Frescoditesta realizes the difficulty of this endeavour. His
