Annotation
This course aims to discuss the problem of defining art which has accompanied the analytical philosophy of art from its beginning. However, the question of what is art is in our philosophical thinking rooted even more deeply and goes hand in hand with issues concerning the appreciation or evaluation of art and therefore, it is considered as one of the key topics of philosophy of art. The purpose of these lectures is to put different attitudes towards defining art into a historical perspective as well as to interpret them critically. Each of the approaches discussed can explain a particular aspect of art; however, at the same time, it struggles to clarify the others.
For this reason, one crucial question arises: Does it make sense to define art? Or to put the matter differently is the question of what art is the right question for philosophy? Accordingly, I will approach the „classical“ art theories and definitions through the lenses of this question, and emphasise not only the structure of particular theories but also what lays beyond these theories. Together with contemporary scholars, I shall claim that we can use these theories to learn something about art, even if the theories themselves are significantly wrong. They reveal us what is beyond the particular object of art and what is beyond the definition is what usually matters.