The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art

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Harvard University Press, 1981 - Art - 212 pages

Arthur C. Danto argues that recent developments in the art world, in particular the production of works of art that cannot be told from ordinary things, make urgent the need for a new theory of art and make plain the factors such a theory can and cannot involve. In the course of constructing such a theory, he seeks to demonstrate the relationship between philosophy and art, as well as the connections that hold between art and social institutions and art history.

The book distinguishes what belongs to artistic theory from what has traditionally been confused with it, namely aesthetic theory and offers as well a systematic account of metaphor, expression, and style, together with an original account of artistic representation. A wealth of examples, drawn especially from recent and contemporary art, illuminate the argument.

 

Contents

Works of Art and Mere Real Things
1
Content and Causation
33
Philosophy and Art
54
Aesthetics and the Work of Art
90
Interpretation and Identification
115
Works of Art and Mere Representations
136
Metaphor Expression and Style
165
Index
209
Copyright

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About the author (1981)

Arthur C. Danto was Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University.

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