Concept
Theory of art
Overview
A theory of art is intended to contrast with a definition of art. Traditionally, definitions are composed of necessary and sufficient conditions, and a single counterexample overthrows such a definition. Theorizing about art, on the other hand, is analogous to a theory of a natural phenomenon like gravity. In fact, the intent behind a theory of art is to treat art as a natural phenomenon that should be investigated like any other. The question of whether one can speak of a theory of art without employing a concept of art is also discussed below.
The motivation behind seeking a theory, rather than a definition, is that our best minds have not been able to find definitions without counterexamples. The term "definition" assumes there are concepts, in something along Platonic lines, and a definition is an attempt to reach in and pluck out the essence of the concept and also assumes that at least some people have intellectual access to these concepts. In contrast, a 'conception' is an individual attempt to grasp at the putative essence behind this common term while nobody has "access" to the concept.
A theory of art presumes that each of us employs different conceptions of this unattainable art concept and as a result we must resort to worldly human investigation.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
§ 59. _Of Beauty as the symbol of Morality_ Intuitions are always required to establish the reality of our concepts. If the concepts are empirical, the intuitions are called _examples_. If they are pure concepts of Understanding, the intuitions are called _schemata_. If we desire to establish the objective reality of rational concepts, _i.e._ of Ideas, on behalf of theoretical cognition, then we are asking for…
Immanuel Kant, Kant's Critique of Judgement
States what Theory of art is; the author is tied to Theory of art in the knowledge graph.
But this, that is to say, the objective form of experience, contains all the kinds of synthesis which are requisite for the cognition of objects. A conception which contains a synthesis must be regarded as empty and, without reference to an object, if its synthesis does not belong to experience—either as borrowed from it, and in this case it is called an empirical conception, or such as is the ground and à priori…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason
States what Theory of art is; the author is tied to Theory of art in the knowledge graph.
THE RELATION OF POSITIVISM TO ART 304 Positivism when complete is as favourable to Imagination, as, when incomplete, it was unfavourable to it--Esthetic talent is for the adornment of life, not for its government--The political influence of literary men a deplorable sign and source of anarchy--Theory of Art--Art is the idealized representation of Fact--Poetry is intermediate between Philosophy and Polity--Art calls…
Auguste Comte, A General View of Positivism Or, Summary exposition of the System of Thought and Life
Opens on Theory of art; names Theory of art.
Philosophers who discussed Theory of art
Related ideas
- Arthur Danto
- Immanuel Kant
- Nader El-Bizri
- Paradigm
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Leo Tolstoy
- Metaphysics
- Marshall McLuhan
- Aesthetics
- Platonism
- Ontology
- Walter Benjamin
- Postmodernism
- Jean-François Lyotard
- Craft
- Institution
- Theodor W. Adorno
- Family resemblance
- Supervenience
- Martin Heidegger
- Igor Stravinsky
- Benedetto Croce
- Art
- Louis Althusser
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Aesthetics.