A look at Danto's many discussions of the end of art and its meaning. Also examined is Hegel's idea of the end of art and his use of the dialectic to explain it. Both philosophers sought the meaning of art in the object or artwork--more so for Danto, because he thinks the object is a material one that would exclude conceptual artists' thought…

This essay investigates the special way in which a spectator might engage imaginatively with one work of art when the work is experienced in light of other works by the same artist. In particular, it addresses the idea that we might imaginatively identify with an unrepresented spectator in the picture after we have experienced others in which the…

Referring to the work of Richard Sennett, this article puts forth the proposition that art production is possible only when there is a correct relation between theory and artistic practice. An effective artistic praxis can only be realized by incorporating theory in artistic practices. Based on empirical research, the author elaborates on the…

Berys Gaut has recently defended a theory according to which a moral defect of a work of art represents an aesthetic defect of the work itself. This theory, called ethicism, has been criticized by Matthew Kieran, who argued that, on the contrary, in certain cases moral defects can increase the artistic value of artworks. In this essay I clarify…

The author will begin his investigation of Wassily Kandinsky's painting "Composition VI" with Kandinsky's own commentary on the painting. He will then turn to the analysis of Kandinsky and the "Compositions" in John Sallis's book "Shades." Using this analysis as his point of departure, the author will consider how "Composition VI" resonates with…

Recent decades have seen a flattening of the playing field in terms of the arts. The rise of popular culture programs in universities is one of the by-products of this attitude, which rejects the traditional hierarchical status of arts by genre. However, something vital is lost in that little attention is paid to the experiential aspects of…

With regard to general aesthetic education, the university liberal studies curriculum is designed to provide a balance of the humanities and sciences. Beyond offering a balanced curriculum, there is the current trend for universities to offer a liberal studies curriculum that interfaces the sciences and the humanities. A prime example of this is…

It is a mainstream view within the ontology of art that there are singular as well as multiple artworks, but it is also a view that is contested. In this article, the author investigates whether the singular/multiple distinction can be sustained and argues for a new way to determine the category to which an artwork belongs. The author stresses…

This essay is an attempt to add to the argument that beauty matters in education through offering a reciprocal but interconnected point: if the dynamic harmony and deep connectedness of beauty need to be taken seriously, so must their aesthetic converse--the disharmony and estrangement of failure. While the discourse of philosophical aesthetics…

According to Arthur Danto, the crisis of modern art is not the abandonment of representation, nor an attempt at intentional "uglification," but a struggle to escape the aesthetic objectification of artworks. This attempt at escape has led modern artists to hold an indifferent attitude toward beauty, an attitude that has resulted in the readymade:…

Ludwig Wittgenstein gave priority to aesthetics over other disciplines due to its invaluable capacities for revealing certain aspects of the nature of human understanding and for guiding our actions toward an ethical life. Although Wittgenstein did not focus on these issues in a systematic way, these worries were present in his philosophy during…

Empirical psycho-aesthetics--an interdisciplinary field with a long tradition--is approached in this two-part article from two directions, in each case with several objectives. Part I, in this issue of "JAE", is devoted to the first direction, which is mainly definitional and organizational: the objectives are to present an outline of the field's…

Despite differences, it would seem that Plato and Aristotle agreed in according epistemic and educational significance to the arts. Whereas Plato regarded the arts as (largely) sources of sophistry and delusion and was prepared to exile the artist from his ideal state, Aristotle clearly considered poetry to be of value for the education of…

In this article is presented the first translation into English of Lev Vygotsky's text entitled "Contemporary Psychology and Art: Toward a Debate." This text was published in the influential monthly journal Sovietskoe Iskusstvo (Soviet Art) in 1927-1928. Therefore, the translated text presents some of the Vygotsky's seminal thought on aesthetics…

The connection between humor and aesthetic experience has already been recognized by several thinkers and aesthetic educators. For instance, humor theorist John Morreall writes that "humor is best understood as itself a kind of aesthetic experience, equal in value at least to any other kind of aesthetic experience." For Morreall, both humor and…