Mr. Dorner's “Way”

Abstract

Alexander Dorner has recently proposed an interpretation of art which centers in “autonomous change.” Since Mr. Dorner offers this interpretation in a full survey of art history, setting our contemporary work in perspective against the past, and this past is conceived to be “art,” he has found a way beyond “art.” Dorner's work has already commanded much favorable attention from the philosophers; John Dewey has written the introduction, and George Boas finds himself in essential agreement, though he does have some reservation about the persistent Hegelianisms which Dorner still finds appropriate (especially the “being-becoming” antithesis). Dorner goes further than writers on art usually do in seeking out a firm philosophical “basis” for his interpretation of art; certainly he is trying to do what Mr. Dewey is supposed to have done, to have lifted himself out of Hegelianism “by his own bootstraps.”