Date of Award

12-27-2019

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Philosophy (MPHIL)

Discipline

Arts

Department

Philosophy

First Advisor

Prof. SAUCHELLI Andrea

Abstract

My thesis attempts to provide an aesthetic definition of art.

The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part is a summary of the different attempts in defining art in contemporary analytic philosophy, beginning with a discussion of Morris Weitz’s famous paper “The Role of Theory in Aesthetics”, in which he appealed to Wittgenstein’s “family resemblance” idea while rejecting traditional essential definitions. His attempt has led to the appearance of contemporary essential definitions, whereby art is defined through different relational properties. This is followed by a critically review on Weitz’s claims and those definitions.

The second part focuses on Iseminger’s new aestheticism. I found that the notion of appreciation employed by Iseminger was somehow problematic, and proposed neo- Lewisian notion of value-apprehension as a replacement, with a critical discussion of whether such replacement is possible. In the last part of the thesis, I considered and defended my proposal against possible objections.

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Yu, Y. (2019). Defining art aesthetically: A revision of Iseminger's new aestheticism (Master's thesis, Lingnan University, Hong Kong). Retrieved from https://commons.ln.edu.hk/otd/72/

Included in

Aesthetics Commons

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