The aesthetic peculiarity of multifunctional artefacts
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
British Journal of Aesthetics
Publication Date
10-1-2005
Volume
45
Issue
4
First Page
412
Last Page
425
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Abstract
Echoing a distinction made by David Wiggins in his discussion of the relation of identity, this paper investigates whether aesthetic adjectives such as 'beautiful' are sortal-relative or merely sortal-dependent. The hypothesis guiding the paper is that aesthetic adjectives, though probably sortal-dependent in general, are sortal-relative only when used to characterize multifunctional artefacts. This means that multifunctional artefacts should be unique in allowing the following situation to occur: for some object x there are sortals K and K' such that x is a beautiful K and also a K', but not a beautiful K'. Examples of multifunctional artefacts show that this is indeed a possibility. However, that multifunctional artefacts are unique in this respect will be demonstrated by a more principled argument, taking into account the nature of functions on the one hand, and the nature of artefact-classification on the other hand.
DOI
10.1093/aesthj/ayi051
Print ISSN
00070904
E-ISSN
14682842
Publisher Statement
Copyright © British Society of Aesthetics 2005
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
De Clercq, R. (2005). The aesthetic peculiarity of multifunctional artefacts. British Journal of Aesthetics, 45(4), 412-425. doi: 10.1093/aesthj/ayi051