Um livro muito interessante de estética analítica, com uma orientação wittgensteiniana. Começa com a pergunta ontológica - o que é a arte, e se propõe perguntas menores, sobre os objetos, e hipóteses bobas, como a que uma obra de arte é um objeto físico. Mas com isso desfila uma série de argumentos e posturas filosóficas, identificando autores que as detém. E então contra-argumenta e desfaz as pretensões, muitas vezes de suas próprias hipóteses. De toda forma, não é apenas com refutações que saímos. Há importantes reflexões sobre a relação tipo-tolken para obras de arte, a falácia da construção reflexiva e a proposição da diferença entre "ver em" e "ver como", arte como forma de vida. ( )

This is a philosophical examination of the question “what is art?”. As a contribution to aesthetics it looks at how we define what is art, covering all visual and non-visual fields from poetry, music, literature, painting/ drawing etc, to sculpture and film. As some arguments apply to some of these but not others, this requires a really thorough examination of the field. What it does not do is provide criteria for judging how good any particular example of art is, which is outside the scope of this already pretty dense book.

What is particularly good about this book is its structure. It breaks down the argument into 65 separate sections that are summarized, grouped, and indexed at the front. Each of these examines an hypothesis, presents or criticizes a theory, or builds upon a previous section to advance the thesis. This is very useful given the complexity and number of positions examined here, and helps the reader not to get lost along the way – as at any point the summary at the front can jog the memory.
The author is quite apparently knowledgeable on the subject, and a wide range of positions are examined, pulled apart, and the useful parts are kept and combined with the best parts from other theories to move forward. He looks at historical explanations of what art is, social ones, and more abstract philosophical ones. Everything is considered and analysed with rigorous logic.

This should be essential reading for anyone interested in the history or theory of art. Though it is written clearly and succinctly, it is the sort of book that requires some concentration to make the most of. ( )