Are There Counterexamples to Aesthetic Theories of Art?

Abstract

Do all works of art have an aesthetic purpose? It is not particularly controversial that many works of art have an aesthetic purpose. What will be disputed is whether they all do. According to aesthetic theories of art, having an aesthetic purpose makes a thing art. It will be said that the trouble with aesthetic theories of art is that there seem to be works of art with no aesthetic purpose. Most aestheticians in the last few decades have thought it is obvious that there are clear counterexamples to aesthetic theories, and so they think that such views are easily shown to be false. I shall begin by arguing that this rests on a hasty view of one kind of counterexample, and a methodologically naive approach to another. I then consider different notions of art, and I end with some reflections on methodology in the philosophy of art. Aesthetic theories emerge looking fit and healthy. Let me say a little about aesthetic theories of art, so that we have something substantial to work with. For the purposes of this discussion, we can take such theories to span a family of different theories. But all such theories have two