Volume 2019 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/105685 2026-04-05T08:33:07Z 2026-04-05T08:33:07Z Aliyev, Alexey http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/111200 2022-03-04T14:00:47Z 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z

What Is an Instance of an Artwork? Aliyev, Alexey The expression ‘an instance of an artwork’ is often used in philosophical discourse about art. Yet there is no clear account of what exactly this expression means. My goal in this essay is to provide such an account. I begin by expounding and defending a particular definition of the concept of ‘an instance of an artwork’. Next, I elaborate this definition – by providing definitions of the main derivatives of the concept of ‘an instance of an artwork’, namely the concepts of ‘a well-formed instance of an artwork’ and ‘a non-wellformed instance of an artwork’. Finally, I examine the relation of the foregoing definitions to the existence and identity conditions of artworks and make some additional remarks concerning these definitions.

2019-01-01T00:00:00Z Lorenzini, Gianluca http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/111198 2022-03-04T14:00:47Z 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z

The Problem of Intentionality in the Contemporary Visual Arts Lorenzini, Gianluca The discourse regarding intentionality and interpretation in analytic philosophy of art, although ample and lively, has concerned itself almost exclusively with the literary medium. Starting from a paper published by Hans Maes, I discuss the complications that may arise in straightforwardly applying current intentionalist strategies to the realm of the contemporary visual arts. I first present a detailed account of the difference between hypothetical intentionalism and moderate actual intentionalism which will help to better understand the nature of Maes’s arguments in his paper. I then argue that the characteristics which shape the approach of moderate actual intentionalism cannot be accommodated by certain contemporary visual artworks. I will demonstrate how in certain contemporary artworks, should a viewer be interested in accepting actual intentions within her interpretation, she will have to do so with an extreme intentionalist posture rather than a moderate actual one.

2019-01-01T00:00:00Z Puolakka, Kalle http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/111196 2022-03-04T14:00:47Z 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z

Novels in the Everyday: An Aesthetic Investigation Puolakka, Kalle Everyday aestheticians have had relatively little to say about literature. Inspired by Peter Kivy’s philosophy of literature as laid out in his books The Performance of Reading and Once-Told Tales, I examine reading literature as a part of everyday life. I argue that not only do Kivy’s views help explain the value that avid readers place on their daily silent engagement with a book, but that his philosophy of literature also shows how literary works can have an aesthetic presence in our everyday lives even during periods in-between reading a book. In light of the paper, literary reading turns out to be an artistic routine that fills avid readers’ everyday lives in a very literal sense.

2019-01-01T00:00:00Z Wang, Weijia http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/111195 2022-03-04T14:00:47Z 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z

Artistic Proofs: A Kantian Approach to Aesthetics in Mathematics Wang, Weijia This paper explores the nature of mathematical beauty from a Kantian perspective. According to Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment, satisfaction in beauty is subjective and non-conceptual, yet a proof can be beautiful even though it relies on concepts. I propose that, much like art creation, the formulation and study of a complex demonstration involves multiple and progressive interactions between the freely original imagination and taste (that is, the aesthetic power of judgement). Such a proof is artistic insofar as it is guided by beauty, namely, the mere feeling about the imagination’s free lawfulness. The beauty in a proof’s process and the perfection in its completion together facilitate a transition from subjective to objective purposiveness, a transition that Kant himself does not address in the third Critique.

2019-01-01T00:00:00Z