The dynamic of changes in the rules in team games materialize from research and debate between experts and coaches before being implemented by the International Federations. In Handball, the last changes occurred in 2016, and one of them was to substitute the goalkeeper with an additional field player allowing teams to play “empty goal” while using the additional field player.This study aimed to analyze and characterize the use of the 7 vs. 6 strategical-tactical option for the attack in the 2020 (...) Men’s European Championship. We also analyzed whether the game time and partial score influenced the use of 7 vs. 6 and its efficiency. Observational methodology and a mixed ad hoc instrument combining field format and category systems validated by experts were used. Data were taken from 28 matches involving teams in the first 12 positions in the 2020 Men’s European Championship. The total number of offensive sequences in an organized attack method in 7 vs. 6 with an empty goal were analyzed. Sequential analysis techniques with lags, prospective and retrospective, and polar coordinate analysis were used. The results showed that these solutions had poor efficiency, except for the Portuguese National Team; teams using the 7 vs. 6 tactic option had no negative consequences or increased risk with the opponent response; partial score influenced the decision to use 7 vs. 6 strategic option, and game time was associated with 7 vs. 6 play options and detected patterns. (shrink)

This paper examines a form of pictorial realism that has epistemic import. Gombrich and Schier claim that some pictures are realistic because they convey accurate information. The difficulty is that judgments of realism vary across cultural and historical contexts. Goodman counters that pictures belong to different systems and realistic pictures belong to familiar systems. However, this does not explain the revelatory realism' of pictures in novel systems. I propose that two views can be combined: a realistic picture is one which (...) belongs to a system that conveys the kind of information that suits the needs of users in a context. (shrink)

Art works realize many values. According to tradition, not all of these values are characteristic of art: art works characteristically bear aesthetic value. Breaking with tradition, some now say that art works bear artistic value, as distinct from aesthetic value. I argue that there is no characteristic artistic value distinct from aesthetic value. The argument for this thesis suggests a new way to think about aesthetic value as it is characteristically realized by works of art.

Capítulo 9 do livro de Donald Davidson Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective. Oxford University Press, 2001. Tradução de Helder Buenos Aires de Carvalho, realizada originalmente para o Portal Brasileiro da Filosofia/CEFA.

There is not one but many ways to picture the world--Australian "x-ray" pictures, cubish collages, Amerindian split-style figures, and pictures in two-point perspective each draw attention to different features of what they represent. Understanding Pictures argues that this diversity is the central fact with which a theory of figurative pictures must reckon. Lopes advances the theory that identifying pictures' subjects is akin to recognizing objects whose appearances have changed over time. He develops a schema for categorizing the different ways (...) pictures represent--the different kinds of meaning they have--and argues that that depiction's epistemic value lies in its representational diversity. He also offers a novel account of the phenomenology of pictorial experience, comparing pictures to visual prostheses like mirrors and binoculars. (shrink)

Scientific images represent types or particulars. According to a standard history and epistemology of scientific images, drawings are fit to represent types and machine-made images are fit to represent particulars. The fact that archaeologists use drawings of particulars challenges this standard history and epistemology. It also suggests an account of the epistemic quality of archaeological drawings. This account stresses how images integrate non-conceptual and interepretive content.

By Portuguese myths we mean several kinds of narratives, all of which actualize fundamental aspects of the Portuguese national imagination. Some are foundation narratives (Sâo Mamede, Ourique); others are historical facts that were sung so often over the years by Portuguese and foreign poets that they came to signify basic schemes of the human imagination (Inês de Castro's pure love, whose realization was frustrated by a fight between two men, father and son); other so-called Portuguese myths, on the contrary, are (...) built around concepts that give metaphysical shape to supposed characteristics that define the national soul (saudosismo, the doctrine of nostalgia, which attempts to define the Portuguese national soul as the search for a mythical initial unity that would create a wholeness in which contraries would be abolished; the Fifth Empire as its realization on Earth); other Portuguese myths express the supposed divine predestination of the people and of the Portuguese Man, based upon divine intervention in the founding of the nation in Ourique (the Fifth Empire that would be the Age of Spirit announced by Joachim de Fiore); still others are based on historically negative facts (King Sebastian and the defeat at Alcazarquibir) but transformed through archetypal elements to show the capacity for renewal out of the defeat, a renewal that goes beyond real historical renewal to include spiritual renewal of the Portuguese Man and his fatherland, which should produce the Fifth Empire conceived either in earthly or spiritual terms. To these myths I will add a legend preceding the formation of the nation, King Roderick's Legend, because it attempts to justify the loss of Visigothic Spain to the Arabs. (shrink)

This article considers the simultaneously passive and active character of moods (Stimmungen) in Heidegger, focussing on two different periods of his thought: the end of the 1920s and the middle of the 1930s. Through the study of the language used by Heidegger, I show that the ideas of passivity and activity are expressed in three different levels of his description of moods: the more concrete level of one’s experience of a mood, the level of philosophical analysis insofar as it is (...) based on moods and deals with moods, and the transcendental or constitutive level of experience. Moreover, I show that in each of these levels passivity and activity are constitutively intertwined and that Heidegger’s conception of moods both in the 1920s and the 1930s can only be understood if we take into consideration the three levels and the way each of them is characterized by both passivity and activity. (shrink)

Selon Damásio, le moi conscient se crée à partir de la capacité du cerveau à raconter, c’est-à-dire à transformer en récit les signaux et messages produits par ses diverses couches. Les mythes donnent au monde une cohérence significative qui provient de l’organisation des éléments que ses récits produisent. Les rapports au monde de toutes les espèces vivantes sont contenus dans les limites de leurs possibilités phylogénétiques qui résultent déjà d’une relation continuée pendant des millions d’années. La capacité humaine de créer (...) des récits sur le réel doit intégrer ces éléments phylogénétiques qui se manifestent même dans les parties non conscientes du cerveau intégrées pourtant dans le récit qui construit un moi. Ce dépôt venu du fond des âges est une des causes de l’excès de sens que nous poursuivons toujours et qui est, au niveau de l’imaginaire « premier » la voix de ce fonds dans ces rapports avec le texte du monde. Un récit est ainsi une façon de donner à voir l’invisible, et cette invisibilité produit un excès de sens qui cherche toujours à se manifester. Il est marqué par les cohérences et consistances des images de cet imaginaire premier qui médiatise toujours nos relations au monde et aux autres, et auquel s’ajoute les cohérences des imaginaires « seconds » des individus et des cultures. According to Damásio, the self-conscious arises from the ability of the brain to tell, i.e. turn into a story the signals and messages produced by its various layers. Myths give the world a significant consistency that comes from the organization of the elements produced by its stories. The relationships of all living species with the world are contained within the limits of their phylogenetic opportunities resulting from a relationship continued for millions of years. The human ability to create stories about reality must incorporate these phylogenetic elements into the narrative that builds self-awareness. This unknown repository coming from the depths of time is one of the causes of the excess of meaning that we always pursue and is, at the level of the basic imaginary, one that Gilbert Durand considered the heritage of sapiens, the voice of these assets in their links with the text of the world. A narrative is thus a means of seeing the invisible, and this invisibility produces an excess of meaning which always seeks to manifest itself. It is marked by the coherence and consistency of the images of this basic imaginary which always mediates our relationship to the world and to others, and to which is added the coherences of the secondary imaginary coming from individuals and cultures. (shrink)

This study covers Vergílio Ferreira’s fiction and essays to show the that phenomenology had in both. Vergílio Ferreira even declares ata certam pomt in his literary and essayist trajectory that the influence of Husserl’s phenomenology was large in his work and especially noticed retrospectively. He who for a long period declared himself a Hegelian who had moved on to existentiabsm via unhappy consciousness will link Hegel to Husserl’s phenomenology revealing a trajectory justifying the coherence of his work.

Abstract: To respond to globalization-related challenges, many contemporary political theorists have argued for forms of democracy beyond the level of the nation-state. Since the early 1990s, however, political theory has also witnessed a renewed normative defense of nationhood. Liberal nationalists have been influential in claiming that the state should protect and promote national identities, and that it is desirable that the boundaries of national and political units coincide. At first glance, both positions—global democracy and nationalism—seem to contradict each other. We (...) do not share this oppositional picture. Developing a more harmonic picture of nationalist ideals and cosmopolitan visions is the aim of this essay. (shrink)

This article studies an aspect of the relation between emotions and ethics that is usually neglected in the recent debate on moral emotions. By focusing on the contributions of common or everyday emotions to the development of moral behaviours and attitudes, the debate loses sight of the emotional side of the ethical attitude and the way it involves different, specifically ethical emotions. In contrast, such emotions play an important role in Aristotle’s and Heidegger’s thought. As will be shown, both authors (...) identify emotions that are intrinsically tied to ethics in a broad sense and are structurally different from everyday emotions. Moreover, both characterize the two kinds of emotion in a similar fashion: whereas everyday emotions involve a limited form of activity and refer to a more immediate objective domain, the properly ethical emotions result from a superior form of activity and open up to a vaster domain or even to the entire reality, thus having a metaphysical character. The study of this distinction and what it involves will allow for a better understanding not only of emotions in general, but also of the emotional dimension of ethical life. (shrink)

The market’s demand for high-quality products necessitates innovative manufacturing approaches that emphasize flexibility, adaptability, and the reduction of defects. Traditional systems are currently evolving towards embracing I4.0 technologies, including data collection, processing, analytics and digital twin, aiming for zero-defect manufacturing quality. This paper introduces an open platform, compliant with RAMI4.0 standards, designed to improve manufacturing quality. The platform integrates data using Asset Administration Shells with microservices adaptation for data ingestion and advanced analytics. Additionally, it incorporates Non-Destructive Inspection tools, demonstrating a (...) seamless integration of measurement and quality assurance. This study details the architectural specification and validation of the openZDM platform, employing microservices to ensure flexibility, modularity and scalability, aligning with the RAMI4.0 model. The platform was validated through deployment in an automotive assembly line, highlighting its effectiveness in integrating inspection scenarios and early defect detection tools. The architecture employs a choreographed approach to manage loosely coupled microservices, enabling efficient data lifecycle management from collection through analytics to visualization. (shrink)

Images have power - for good or ill. They may challenge us to see things anew and, in widening our experience, profoundly change who we are. The change can be ugly, as with propaganda, or enriching, as with many works of art. Sight and Sensibility explores the impact of images on what we know, how we see, and the moral assessments we make. Dominic Lopes shows how these are part of, not separate from, the aesthetic appeal of images. His (...) book will be essential reading for anyone working in aesthetics and art theory, and for all those intrigued by the power of images to affect our lives. '...tightly focused and carefully argued... an exceptionally interesting contribution to the philosophy of art: it contains subtle, concise, and convincing discussions of a number of difficult concepts and contentious doctrines... lucid and meticulous'. (shrink)

Hypotheses in aesthetics should explain appreciative failure as well as appreciative success. They should state the general conditions under which people fail to understand and value works as works of art. This stricture is all the more important when the typical response to conceptual art is one of resistance. Some philosophers explain this by claiming that conceptual art violates traditional theories of art. Others say that it violates folk ontologies of art. In fact, the appreciative failure to which conceptual art (...) is prone is a consequence of the fact that it is not visual art, as it appears to be; rather it is an entirely new art form. Works in new art forms pose special challenges to appreciation. Identifying these challenges enriches theorizing about art. (shrink)

What you see can shape how you feel, and the route from seeing to feeling sometimes involves empathy – as you might empathize with a woman you see grieving the death of her child. But empathy also comes from what you see in pictures. Bellini's Pieta? is one among many paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs that evoke empathy – and are designed to do so. Going further, it seems that episodes of empathy triggered by pictures can help build up a (...) person's capacity for empathic response. Indeed, they do so by fortifying the link between seeing and empathy in a distinctive way. To establish this thesis, we need a broad conception of empathic response and also the right conception of what we see in pictures. (shrink)

This book offers a bold new approach to the philosophy of art. General theories of art don't work: they can't deal with problem cases. Instead of trying to define art, we should accept that a work of art is nothing but a work in one of the arts. Lopes's buck passing theory works well for the avant garde, illuminating its radical provocations.

Here we discuss a “chromosome separation checkpoint” that might regulate the anaphase‐telophase transition. The concept of cell cycle checkpoints was originally proposed to account for extrinsic control mechanisms that ensure the order of cell cycle events. Several checkpoints have been shown to regulate major cell cycle transitions, namely at G1‐S and G2‐M. At the onset of mitosis, the prophase‐prometaphase transition is controlled by several potential checkpoints, including the antephase checkpoint, while the spindle assembly checkpoint guards the metaphase‐anaphase transition. Our hypothesis (...) is based on the recently uncovered feedback control mechanism that delays chromosome decondensation and nuclear envelope reassembly until effective separation of sister chromatids during anaphase is achieved. A central player in this potential checkpoint is the establishment of a constitutive, midzone‐based Aurora B phosphorylation gradient that monitors the position of chromosomes along the spindle axis. We propose that this surveillance mechanism represents an additional step towards ensuring mitotic fidelity. (shrink)

Four Arts of Photography explores the history of photography through the lens of philosophy and proposes a new understanding of the art form for the 21st century.

Being for Beauty has two ambitions. It makes a case that the network theory of aesthetic value has enough going for it to be taken seriously in philosophical aesthetics, and in work on practical values and reasons more generally. In addition, by illustrating how much room we have to maneuver outside the bounds of aesthetic hedonism, the book invites work on alternative approaches. James Shelley, Julia Driver, and Samantha Matherne take up the invitation with such aplomb that one might declare (...) success on the second ambition and merely comment on how their proposals might be further developed. Nevertheless, since its explanatory power is precisely what gives us room to maneuver, what follows also sticks up for the network theory. (shrink)

Nosso objetivo foi estabelecer um estudo analítico sobre a concepção, plano e estratégia expressa na proposta de gestão escolar para a equidade racial na rede pública estadual de educação do Ceará. Tomar como ponto de partida o marco normativo da educação nacional que trata da Política Nacional do Ensino Médio (Lei Federal 9.394/96 alterada pela 14.945/2024) e vincula diretamente a efetividade do direito a educação com a capacidade inclusiva (acesso e permanência) e garantias de equidade (condições de vulnerabilidade social, recorte (...) étnico-racial e educação inclusiva na trajetória escolar) nos resultados de aprendizagem em cada escola e sistema de ensino. A partir disso perceber que dentre as múltiplas desigualdades inerentes aos marcadores sociais da sociedade brasileira, o racismo e a inequidade racial, compõe um elemento crucial que definem a exclusão educacional. Analisar no âmbito da política de educação para as relações étnico-raciais, o foco estabelecido na gestão escolar para a equidade racial, ao considerar questões como o perfil racial de matrícula, os dados contextuais oriundos de questionários aplicados nas avaliações externas e censo escolar, dos estudantes e suas famílias, as iniciativas de formação docente, protagonismo estudantil, currículo, avaliações externas, busca ativa escolar, conhecimento da lei federal 10.630/2023, produção do material estruturado. (shrink)

Fernando Gil estabeleceu uma seminal relação filosófica entre a evidência e a alucinação. Como acentua no Tratado da Evidência, “sem por isso ser, a alucinação não é uma representação, o seu conteúdo é uma coisa-em-si”. As representações da alucinação como evidência e da evidência como alucinação tendem a manifestar-se, em termos literários, no que habitualmente se caracteriza como o fantástico. M. Teixeira-Gomes representou os processos literários da evidência alucinatória em termos que parecem mais próximos do pensamento filosófico de Fernando Gil (...) do que da literatura fantástica propriamente dita, situando no mesmo plano de significação o factual, o mítico e o alucinatório como manifestações complementares daquilo que caracterizou como o seu “teatro da alma”. (shrink)

This volume collects 12 essays by various contributors on the subject of the importance and influence of Schopenhauer’s doctoral dissertation for both Schopenhauer’s more well-known philosophy and the ongoing discussion of the subject of the principle of sufficient reason. The contributions deal with the historical context of Schopenhauer’s reflections, their relationship to idealism, the insights they hold for Schopenhauer’s views of consciousness and sensation, and how they illuminate Schopenhauer’s theory of action. This is the first full-length, English volume on Schopenhauer’s (...) Fourfold Root and its relevance for Schopenhauer’s philosophy. The thought-provoking essays collected in this volume will undoubtedly enrich the burgeoning field of Schopenhauer-studies. (shrink)

The representation of color by pictures raises worthwhile questions for philosophers and psychologists. Moreover, philosophers and psychologists interested in answering these questions will benefit by paying attention to each other's work. Failure to recognize the potential for interdisciplinary cooperation can be attributed to tacit acceptance of the resemblance theory of pictorial color. I argue that this theory is inadequate, so philosophers of art have work to do devising an alternative. At the same time, if the resemblance theory is false, then (...) color depiction has interesting implications for color science. Empirical researchers must rethink the widespread assumption that color recognition requires color constancy. I suggest that a neuropsychological account of color recognition will be instrumental to completing the philosophical task, but by the same token scientists might do well not to proceed without casting an eye to the work of philosophers of art. (shrink)

For centuries, philosophers have identified beauty with what brings pleasure. Dominic McIver Lopes challenges this interpretation by offering an entirely new theory of beauty - that beauty engages us in action, in concert with others, in the context of social networks - and sheds light on why aesthetic engagement is crucial for quality of life.

Representational theories of mind cannot individuate the sense modalities in a principled manner. According to representationalism, the phenomenal character of experiences is determined by their contents. The usual objection is that inverted qualia are possible, so the phenomenal character of experiences may vary independently of their contents. But the objection is inconclusive. It raises difficult questions about the metaphysics of secondary qualities and it is difficult to see whether or not inverted qualia are possible. This paper proposes an alternative test (...) of representationalism. Do experiences in different sense modalities have the same phenomenal character when they share content? Psychological work on the perception of shape through vision and spatial hearing is discussed. This work shows that visual and auditory experiences differ in phenomenal character even in so far as they represent similar properties. This objection to representationalism does not invite questions about secondary qualities or depend on establishing metaphysical possibilities. (shrink)

Aesthetic hedonism is the default theory of aesthetic value. Some of its critics share with it a pair of unquestioned assumptions, namely, that any theory of aesthetic value should make special appeal to its being the case that the canonical form of aesthetic evaluation is a state of pleasure and to its being the case that the canonical purpose of aesthetic acts is to access pleasure. This paper argues that there is reason to doubt both assumptions. Doubting both assumptions suggests (...) a wider range of alternatives to aesthetic hedonism and primitivist inversions of aesthetic hedonism. (shrink)

Japan's Ise Jingu shrine has been taken down and rebuilt every twenty years for more than a millenium - a practice called "shikinen sengu." A standard ontology of architecture, according to which buildings are material particulars, implies that Ise Jingu is no more than twenty years old. However, a correct ontology of architecture is implicit in practices of architecture appreciation. The Japanese appreciation of Ise Jingu and other buildings in its architectural tradition implies both that it is no more than (...) twenty years old and that it is more than a thousand years old. Two ontologies are considered that reconcile this paradox. A general lesson is also drawn, that ontology of art can profit from cross-cultural studies. (shrink)

If good taste is a virtue, then an account of good taste might be modelled on existing accounts of moral or epistemic virtue. One good reason to develop such an account is that it helps solve otherwise intractable problems in aesthetics. This paper proposes an alternative to neo-Aristotelian models of good taste. It then contrasts the neo-Aristotelian models with the proposed model, assessing them for their potential to contend with otherwise intractable problems in aesthetics.

Editorial 10 anos da Pensando - Revista de Filosofia.

O artigo busca explicitar, a partir da perspectiva da ética da responsabilidade de Hans Jonas, em um diálogo com a ética das virtudes, que virtudes morais são necessárias como componentes da afirmação jonasiana de cuidado pela vida e pela manutenção da existência da humanidade, mesmo em um futuro próximo, diante da ameaça trazida pela emergência climática — produzida pela própria humanidade em seu modus operandi de intensivo uso das tecnologias como correia de transmissão do capitalismo global —; bem como pelas (...) questões postas pela emergência da pandemia da Covid-19, especialmente pela lida requerida diante de um problema global que ameaça diretamente a vida diante de nossos olhos no presente e em futuros próximos. A pandemia da Covid-19 é um mote para defender a necessidade urgente do cultivo de certas virtudes que dão cumprimento ao princípio responsabilidade, mas também de obtenção de compreensão prévia concreta das enormes dificuldades envolvidas no enfrentamento ético da emergência climática. (shrink)

This paper shows that the Freudian “timelessness” of psychical process is not to be understood as a bare consequence of his distinction between conscious and unconscious psychical process. It shows that Freud have a positive and phenomenological characterization of that timelessness, obtained and affirmed beyond and against that distinction, and that the challenge that Freud, with this timelessness, throws to a “Kantian” philosophy is not completely senseless, but can be well worked-out in a somewhat Bergsonian lines.

Nota do tradutor: O texto apresentado a seguir é uma tradução do ensaio “Heidegger and theology”. Para uma indicação de outras versões posteriores do texto e comentários a seu respeito, ver nota de rodapé 2, do autor, abaixo. No texto da tradução, a paginação original é indicada entre [ ] e em negrito.Nota preliminar do autor [235]: Este ensaio foi apresentado, de forma um pouco mais abreviada, para uma conferência de teólogos concernente ao tema sobre “o Pensamento e o Discurso (...) Não-objetivante na Teologia Contemporânea”1. Para os conferentes esse título tinha um significado atual e concreto: o uso do pensamento tardio de Martin Heidegger pelaa teologia protestante. Tendo em vista as circunstâncias de sua concepção e pronunciamento, e o eco que ele então provocou naquela ocasião e posteriormente2, achei melhor [236] deixar o ensaio com seu caráter original enquanto um discurso que se dirige a um público. (shrink)

Les Arts et les Images se veut une introduction aux principaux terrains d’investigation de Dominic McIver Lopes, philosophe canadien contemporain, figure incontournable de l’esthétique et de la philosophie de l’art en langue anglaise au cours des vingt dernières années. Il ouvre une réflexion sur les méthodes employées en esthétique et philosophie de l’art aujourd’hui, qu’on soit un philosophe dit « analytique » ou bien « continental », Lopes cherchant à penser le lien entre les deux traditions. -/- À (...) travers leur textes respectifs, Laure Blanc-Benon, Jacques Morizot et Frédéric Pouillaude instaurent un dialogue avec Dominic McIver Lopes, sur plusieurs de ses livres : Understanding Pictures (1996), ouvrage de référence sur la question philosophique des images et de la représentation, Beyond Art (2014), livre qui traite de la question classique au XXe siècle de la définition de l’œuvre d’art, et Four Arts of Photography (2016) dans lequel Dominic Lopes met en avant une nouvelle philosophie de la photographie. À ce dialogue s’ajoutent trois textes de Lopes inédits en français, portant sur la méthode de l’esthétique et de la philosophie de l’art et également sur la question de la beauté et de la valeur esthétique. (shrink)

A theory of aesthetic value should explain the performance of aesthetic experts, for aesthetic experts are agents who track aesthetic value. Aesthetic empiricism, the theory that an item's aesthetic value is its power to yield aesthetic pleasure, suggests that aesthetic experts are best at locating aesthetic pleasure, especially given aesthetic internalism, the view that aesthetic reasons always have motivating force. Problems with empiricism and internalism open the door to an alternative. Aesthetic experts perform a range of actions not aimed at (...) pleasure. Yet their reasons for acting are aesthetic. Since aesthetic values figure in aesthetic reasons, we can read a nonempiricist theory of aesthetic value off aesthetic experts’ reasons for acting. (shrink)

Provides an account of what it is for works of academic philosophy to be beautiful in their content or in their mode of expression.

The idea that women qua women can be dehumanized has been dismissed by feminist philosophers, like Kate Manne, and by philosophers of dehumanization, like David Livingstone Smith. Against these skeptics, I argue that we can and should use dehumanization to explain an important strand of misogyny. When they are dehumanized, women are represented simultaneously as human and as inhuman embodiments of the natural world. They therefore appear as magical, contaminating, sexualized threats towards whom violence is acceptable or even necessary. Misogynistic (...) dehumanization is important to understanding atrocities like the early modern European witch-hunts, but also contemporary phenomena like incel violence. (shrink)

What is computer art? Do the concepts we usually employ to talk about art, such as ‘meaning’, ‘form’ or ‘expression’ apply to computer art? _A Philosophy of Computer Art_ is the first book to explore these questions. Dominic Lopes argues that computer art challenges some of the basic tenets of traditional ways of thinking about and making art and that to understand computer art we need to place particular emphasis on terms such as ‘interactivity’ and ‘user’. Drawing on a (...) wealth of examples he also explains how the roles of the computer artist and computer art user distinguishes them from makers and spectators of traditional art forms and argues that computer art allows us to understand better the role of technology as an art medium. (shrink)

The question "what is art?" is often said to be venerable and vexing. In fact, the following answer to the question should be obvious: (R) item x is a work of art if and only if x is a work in practice P and P is one of the arts. Yet (R) has appeared so far from obvious that nobody has given it a moment's thought. The trouble is not that anyone might seriously deny the truth of (R), but rather (...) that they will find it uninformative. After all, the vexing question is pressed upon us by radical changes in art of the avant-garde, and (R) offers no resources to address these changes. With that in mind, here is the case for (R). The challenges posed by the avant-garde are real enough and they need to be addressed, but the vexing question is the wrong question to ask to address them. It does not follow that the question has no good answer. On the contrary, (R) is all the answer we need, if we do not need an answer that addresses the challenges posed by the avant-garde. Moreover, (R) points to a question that we do need answered. So, not only is it true but, in addition, (R) is as informative as we need. (shrink)