Solving Wollheim's Dilemma: A Fix for the Institutional Definition of Art

Fokt, Simon

doi:10.1111/meta.12057

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…I agree that the members of the artworld should have reasons to afford the status. And, as I have argued elsewhere (Fokt ), we can give them reasons, using another classificatory attempt: Berys Gaut's cluster account (Gaut ).…”

Section: Developing the Cultural Definitionmentioning

confidence: 91%

The Cultural Definition of Art

Fokt

2017

Metaphilosophy

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Most modern definitions of art fail to successfully address the issue of the ever‐changing nature of art, and rarely even attempt to provide an account that would be valid in more than just the modern Western context. This article develops a new theory that preserves the advantages of its predecessors, solves or avoids their problems, and has a scope wide enough to account for art of different times and cultures. It argues that an object is art in a given context iff some person(s) culturally competent in this context have afforded it the status of a candidate for appreciation for reasons considered good in this context. This weakly institutional view is supplemented by auxiliary definitions explaining the notions of cultural contexts, competence, and good reasons for affording the status. The relativisation to contexts brings increased explanatory power and scope, and the ability to account for the diversity of art.

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Section: Developing the Cultural Definitionmentioning

confidence: 91%

The Cultural Definition of Art

Fokt

2017

Metaphilosophy

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“…Can artworld members freely confer this status, or is the conferring constrained by norms? Dickie later offered a new, somewhat different institutional theory (1984), and many others have made amended or alternative proposals (e.g., Binkley 1977, Davies 1991, Matravers 2000, Davies 2004, Graves 2010, Abell 2011, Fokt 2013. These theories all differ, but because the point I will make is so general, it suffices to use Dickie's as a representative example; the feature of institutionalist theories that I am interested in is one that all extant versions seem to have in common.…”

Section: Institutionalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two-Dimensional Theories of Art in advance

Brouwer¹

2023

Thought: A Journal of Philosophy

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What determines whether an object is an artwork? In this paper I consider what I will call ‘social’ theories of art, according to which the arthood of objects depends in some way on the art-related social practices that we have. Though such a dependence claim is plausible in principle, social theories of art tend to unpack the determining link between artworks and social practices in terms of intentional relations between the objects in question and the people involved in the relevant practices. This intentionalism has unappealing upshots. Drawing on two-dimensional approaches in social ontology, I show how social theories of art can be done differently, improving their prospects.

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“…There are several orientations that can be taken towards attempting to understand fine art. For example, many scholars (Dickie 1974(Dickie , 2000Bachrach 1977;Fokt 2013;Oppy 1991;Stecker 1986;Wollheim 1987) have upheld an institutional theory or definition of art: "institutions such as museums and galleries, and specific agents working within them, have the power to dictate what is art and what is not." (Oxford Reference 2020).…”

Section: Mapping Sentences and Abstract Fine Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Declarative Mapping Sentence and Qualitative Facet Theory Research

Hackett

2021

Facet Theory and the Mapping Sentence

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In the earlier chapters of this book, I have presented facet theory and mapping sentences in both their quantitative and qualitative formats. However, I have emphasised the traditional mapping sentence and quantitative facet theory research. In this chapter, I concentrate on more recent forms of mapping sentences and facet theory and provide a review and examples of qualitative facet theory and the declarative mapping sentence. To achieve this, I will consider the declarative mapping sentence in greater detail and then consider its application in a study into fine art that takes into account perceptual neuroscience and visual impairment. The study employs the declarative mapping sentence to allow the investigation of the modern art trope of the grid image through theoretically reviewing extant grid images. Uniquely, the mapping sentence then provides a guide for painting a body of work, which constitutes both the investigation and validation of the mapping sentence. Other qualitative uses of the approaches are also presented. The chapter ends with suggestions for future research.

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Solving Wollheim's Dilemma: A Fix for the Institutional Definition of Art

Cited by 7 publications

References 14 publications

The Cultural Definition of Art

The Cultural Definition of Art

Two-Dimensional Theories of Art in advance

The Declarative Mapping Sentence and Qualitative Facet Theory Research

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