Representing the Real

Representing the Real
Author: Ruth Ronen
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2021-08-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004494995

This study offers a new perspective on the object represented by art, specifically by art that succeeds to create in its receiver a sense of “the real”, a sense of approximating the true nature of the represented object that lies outside the artwork. The object that cannot be accessed through a concept, a meaning or a sign, the thing-in-itself, is generally rejected by philosophy as being outside the realm of its concerns. This rejection is surveyed in a number of philosophical discussions, from Kant to Hilary Putnam. Turning to the psychoanalytic object, an object inexhaustible in terms of its external existence, or in terms of its conceptual status or meaning (the object is always suppressed, partly known, inaccessible), another notion of the object. The Real is suggested as what can neither be contained in language nor reduced to a linguistic referent. This solution does not lead away from philosophical interests but rather exposes this dilemma about the object of representation as fundamentally philosophical. Cases of artistic realism discussed range from perspective painting to abstract art, from tragedies to the literary representation of minds.

Interpretation and Transformation

Interpretation and Transformation
Author: Michael Krausz
Publisher: Rodopi
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2007
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9042021802

In this book, Michael Krausz addresses the concept of interpretation in the visual arts, the emotions, and the self. He examines competing ideals of interpretation, their ontological entanglements, reference frames, and the relation between elucidation and self-transformation. The series Interpretation and Translation explores philosophical issues of interpretation and its cultural objects. It also addresses commensuration and understanding among languages, conceptual schemes, symbol systems, reference frames, and the like. The series publishes theoretical works drawn from philosophy, rhetoric, linguistics, anthropology, religious studies, art history, and musicology.

Languages of Art

Languages of Art
Author: Nelson Goodman
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
Total Pages: 306
Release: 1976-01-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780915144341

"Like Dewey, he has revolted against the empiricist dogma and the Kantian dualisms which have compartmentalized philosophical thought. . . . Unlike Dewey, he has provided detailed incisive argumentation, and has shown just where the dogmas and dualisms break down." --Richard Rorty, The Yale Review

An Ontology of Multiple Artworks

An Ontology of Multiple Artworks
Author: David Davies
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2024-02-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192665235

Multiple artworks are works that can have multiple 'instances' which can play a particular kind of role in the appreciation of those works: for example, there can be multiple copies of a novel, or multiple performances of a musical work. An Ontology of Multiple Artworks is the first book-length critical analytic treatment of the metaphysical issues relating to 'multiple' artworks for over three decades. David Davies takes various considerations to which authors have appealed in arguing for ontological understandings of works in particular multiple art-forms as putative explananda, arguing that an adequate ontology of multiple artworks should be reflectively accountable to these. After clarifying what 'multiplicity' in the arts amounts to, Davies critically assesses the 'Platonist' idea that multiple artworks must be abstract or generic entities of some sort ('types') that exist independently of our creative and appreciative practices. The evolution of this idea is traced, and its ability to deal with the different explananda in play in the literature is gauged. The methodological constraints that should govern this kind of inquiry are also assessed. On the basis of these investigations, it is concluded that Platonism about multiple artworks is seriously compromised. Different non-Platonist options are then considered, and it is argued that the account that best explains the weighted explananda is the 'Wollheimian type' theory, according to which multiple artworks are performances essentially embedded in artistic practices. Finally, sceptical challenges to the very idea that there are such things as multiple artworks are considered.