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    The appearance of coatracks, old shoes, broken sticks, an... — Carmelics
    Home/Aesthetics
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    The appearance of coatracks, old shoes, broken sticks, and similar objects in museums does not show that 'art' in the primary sense is wrongly defined in terms of artifactuality and aesthetic intention.

    Aesthetics
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    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.A perfectly good explanation of such phenomena can be provided in accord with a relatively traditional definition of art.
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    • 2.Museums display such objects for reasons other than those objects being art in the primary sense.
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    • 3.The fact that critics and historians call such objects 'works of art' may reflect secondary or derivative senses of the term, not the primary sense.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Duchamp's Fountain was accepted into the institutional art world through the same mechanisms that confer art status on traditionally crafted objects.
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    • 2.If institutional recognition suffices to make Fountain art, then artifactuality and aesthetic intention are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for art status.
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    • 3.A definition that excludes paradigm cases accepted by the art world's own gatekeepers fails as an extensionally adequate account of 'art'.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.The distinction between 'primary' and 'secondary' senses of 'art' is itself a theoretical stipulation designed to protect the definition from counterexamples.
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    • 2.Privileging one sense as 'primary' without independent justification renders the definition unfalsifiable by exempting inconvenient cases from its scope.
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    Topics

    Aesthetics

    Key Terms

    aesthetic intention(as used in art philosophy)
    The deliberate choice by a creator to make something with the purpose of it being beautiful, interesting to look at, or emotionally moving.
    artifactuality(as used in art philosophy)
    The quality of being something made or created by humans, rather than occurring naturally.
    defining art in terms of(as used in aesthetics and philosophy of art)
    Saying that something is art if and only if it has certain specific qualities (like being handmade and intended to be beautiful).
    primary sense(as used in philosophy of language and art)
    The main or most basic meaning of a word or concept, as opposed to secondary or figurative meanings.

    Connections

    1 topic

    Philosophy of Language1 linked

    Related

    A definition that excludes paradigm cases accepted by the art world's own gateke...A perfectly good explanation of such phenomena can be provided in accord with a ...Duchamp's Fountain was accepted into the institutional art world through the sam...If institutional recognition suffices to make Fountain art, then artifactuality ...
    +4 moreShow less
    Museums display such objects for reasons other than those objects being art in t...Privileging one sense as 'primary' without independent justification renders the...

    Similar

    The display of an object in a fine arts museum does not constitute str...80%Fine arts museums display objects for reasons other than their status ...79%Museums display such objects for reasons other than those objects bein...77%Conceptual art does not aim at having aesthetic value.76%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: beardsley-aesthetics
    View source passageHide passage
    Beardsley never explicitly responded to this objection, but he wouldn’t be fazed. The objection assumes that if an object is displayed in a museum—a fine arts museum, not a history museum or any other sort of museum—or if an art historian or art critic discusses an object, then it must be a work of art, or at least that there’s very strong reason to think that it’s a work of art. That it’s some reason to think so Beardsley wouldn’t deny; but that it’s necessarily a strong or definitive reason he
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    The distinction between 'primary' and 'secondary' senses of 'art' is itself a th...
    The fact that critics and historians call such objects 'works of art' may reflec...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit