The Cultural Definition of Art

Metaphilosophy 48 (4):404-429 (2017)
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Abstract

Most modern definitions of art fail to successfully address the issue of the ever-changing nature of art, and rarely even attempt to provide an account that would be valid in more than just the modern Western context. This article develops a new theory that preserves the advantages of its predecessors, solves or avoids their problems, and has a scope wide enough to account for art of different times and cultures. It argues that an object is art in a given context iff some person culturally competent in this context have afforded it the status of a candidate for appreciation for reasons considered good in this context. This weakly institutional view is supplemented by auxiliary definitions explaining the notions of cultural contexts, competence, and good reasons for affording the status. The relativisation to contexts brings increased explanatory power and scope, and the ability to account for the diversity of art.

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Simon Fokt
HTW Berlin

Citations of this work

The Art Experience.Kate McCallum, Scott Mitchell & Thom Scott-Phillips - 2020 - Review of Philosophy and Psychology 11 (1):21-35.

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References found in this work

Categories of Art.Kendall L. Walton - 1970 - Philosophical Review 79 (3):334-367.
The Artworld.Arthur Danto - 1964 - Journal of Philosophy 61 (19):571-584.
What a musical work is.Jerrold Levinson - 1980 - Journal of Philosophy 77 (1):5-28.
The role of theory in aesthetics.Morris Weitz - 1956 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 15 (1):27-35.

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