The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art

Arthur C. Danto

Harvard University Press, 1981 - Aesthetics - 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

About the author

Art critic and philosopher Arthur C. Danto was born in 1924. He received a B.A. from Wayne State University in 1948 and a M.A. and a Ph.D. from Columbia University, in 1949 and 1952, respectively. He began teaching at Columbia University in 1951 and has been a professor since 1966. He has received many fellowships and grants including two Guggenheims, ACLS, and Fulbright, and has served as Vice-President and President of the American Philosophical Association, as well as President of the American Society for Aesthetics. His book Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present, a collection of art criticism, won the 1990 National Book Critics Circle Prize for Criticism. He is also the art critic for The Nation and an editor for the Journal of Philosophy.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art
• Author: Arthur C. Danto
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1981
• ISBN: 0674903463, 9780674903463
• Length: 212 pages