Beyond Art - Hardcover

Lopes, Dominic McIver

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199591555 ISBN 13: 9780199591558

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2014

Synopsis

Dominic McIver Lopes articulates and defends a 'buck passing theory of art', namely that a work of art is nothing but a work in one of the arts. Having traced philosophical interest in theories of art to a reaction to certain puzzle cases of avant-garde art, he argues that none of the theories that have dominated philosophy since the 1960s adequately copes with these works. Whereas these theories have reached a dialectical impasse wherein they reiterate, and cannot resolve, disagreement over the puzzle cases, the buck passing theory illuminates the radical provocations of avant-garde art. In addition, when supplemented by a systematic framework for crafting theories of the individual arts, the buck passing theory grounds our empirical inquiries into the arts as well as our practices of appreciation and art criticism. Lopes seeks to model the diverse strategies employed by humanists and social and behavioural scientists who study the different arts. He gives the specificity of each art form a central role in our appreciative endeavours, and yet he stresses the continuity of the arts with similar, non-art activities such as fashion design, sports and games, cuisine, nature appreciation, and non-literary writing.

About this title

About the Author

Dominic McIver Lopes is Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, and President of the American Society for Aesthetics. He is co-editor of the Routledge Companion to Aesthetics and author of Understanding Pictures, Sight and Sensibility: Evaluating Pictures, and A Philosophy of Computer Art, as well as articles in Critical Inquiry, the Journal of Philosophy, Mind, the Philosophical Quarterly, and numerous other journals. His current project is a book entitled Four Arts of Photography.

Review

"[This book] makes many important contributions to the philosophy of art. Maybe the most important contribution is this: it wisely argues that, if you really want to understand art, turn to the arts." -- British Journal of Aesthetics

"Lopes, one of the most important contemporary philosophers of art, proposes a bold and dramatically new strategy. Instead of a attempting to define art (or develop a theory of arts), the buck should be passed to theories of the arts. Philosophers should aim to provide theories of music, of painting, of sculpture, of dance, and so on. Something is a work of art if it is classified as such by a theory of some art." -- Philosophy in Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0199591555
• ISBN 13: 9780199591558
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 236