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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Art cannot be defined by necessary and sufficient conditions

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.George Dickie's institutional theory successfully defines art as any artifact on which some person acting on behalf of the artworld has conferred the status of candidate for appreciation.
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    • 2.If even one coherent definition in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions succeeds, the claim that art *cannot* be so defined is falsified.
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    • 3.Dickie's definition has withstood decades of critical scrutiny without being shown to be logically incoherent or empirically false.
      ?

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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Gallie's notion of 'essentially contested concepts' presupposes genuine evaluative disagreement about paradigm cases, but theorists broadly agree on central cases of art such as Beethoven's symphonies or Rembrandt's paintings.
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    • 2.A concept is only essentially contested if disputes about its application are irresolvable in principle, yet historical artworld consensus regularly resolves borderline cases over time.
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    • 3.Therefore, art lacks the constitutive contestedness Gallie requires, undermining the analogy between art and paradigmatically contested concepts like democracy or justice.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Some concepts, such as sports, are essentially contested and do not admit of definitions in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions
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    • 2.Art is best understood as one of these essentially contested concepts
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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.