Introduction

Abstract

Abstract The Introduction briefly summarizes certain considerations that have been proposed as explananda for an ontology of ‘multiple artworks’. These proposed explananda structure the overall argument of this book, on the assumption that the ontology of multiple artworks is in the business of explaining such things. But this might be disputed. On Amie Thomasson’s ‘easy’ view of ontology, the task of the art ontologist is to analyse the concepts of those responsible for grounding our art-referential terms in the world. According to my ‘pragmatic constraint’ and Julian Dodd’s ‘discovery view’, on the other hand, ontology of art is a genuinely explanatory project that aims to better understand the nature of the things that are central to our artistic practices. Thomasson’s position is sketched and it is argued that the methodological approach in this book is something Thomasson should recognize as a legitimate alternative to the conceptual analysis required by ‘easy’ ontology. Nine purported features of multiple artworks that have been proposed by ontologists, as things their accounts purport to explain, are then sketched. A first pass is made at characterizing these explananda, and at grounding them in aspects of our artistic practices. It is made clear how they have played a central role in contemporary debates about the ontology of multiple artworks.