"What Art Is" #1- Clarifying the Scope

In this series of posts I attempt to express my views on art as they have been influenced by the philosophers I have studied. Although many of the ideas are directly connected to the ideas of these philosophers, it is often the case that my use of their concept is not quite in harmony with what they were originally claiming. One post each day will continue the discussion.

Part 1: What is Art?


Arthur Danto said that coming up with a definition for a concept is really just trying to find words to express what we already know. We are already masters of the language and know what the word means. But Danto points out that it has become different with art. People don't fully understand the word and all that it implies. To describe my position on the definition of art I first need to make a distinction between the various uses of the word. George Dickie explained three different “senses” of a work of art. When we use the word in an evaluative sense we are doing so because there is an excellence in construction, craft, or beauty that begs the title “art.” Thus the turkey at Thanksgiving is “a work of art.” Next is the derivative sense. This is when an object exhibits some quality or other that we expect to find in artworks. In this way a beautiful landscape or sunset might be labeled “art.” According to Dickie, the last sense in which we evaluate a work of art is the classificatory sense. In this case we label something as actually being “art”. It is this classificatory sense of art that I am concerned with defining.


There is a second distinction that is important for our definition, namely the difference between fine and applied arts or crafts. At the time of Plato and Aristotle there was no distinction between the two, but in the present day they have become separate ideas. The difference will become obvious as I state my position, but here at the outset let me just say that generally an applied art or craft is created primarily for its utilitarian use. This could serve purposes ranging from house construction to the illustration of medical textbooks. A work of fine art is created with some other discovery in mind. This could be a search for beauty, truth, self expression, or something else. Generally, money would not be the primary motivation for creating fine art (though surely my definition will include cases where that has occurred). There is probably a large gray-area in between the fine and applied arts that is frequently crossed by artists or even artworks.


Now that I have limited my search for a definition to fine art in the classificatory sense I will describe two different definitions that have been suggested for art with which I am sympathetic. The first definition is useful in describing the way art is viewed in our contemporary world. The second definition is useful for describing art in terms of what it does. I find both definitions to be important.


Continued in the next post.