Teaching Students to Inquire about Art Philosophically: Procedures Derived from Ordinary-Language Philosophy to Teach Principles of Concept Analysis

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If philosophical inquiry is to be part of the art curriculum, methods for teaching it need to be determined and tested. This paper examines procedures derived from ordinary-language philosophy to help students learn to investigate conceptual issues in art. Two of the procedures were devised by philosophers; one other was formulated from principles of logic expounded in philosophical literature. The procedures are set out, analyzed, illustrated, and discussed relative to art education with suggestions for further research. Much has been said in the last decade about including aesthetics in the art curriculum. Less has been said about how this might work at the level of practice. When it comes to teaching aesthetics as philosophical inquiry into art, many questions remain unanswered. This paper is written to address some of these questions by examining three procedures derived from ordinary-language philosophy that may help students learn some of the principles of investigation employed by philosophers of art. Different Approaches to Teaching Aesthetics Confusion over the meaning of aesthetics has hampered the development of coherent approaches to teaching this subject. Because the use of vague, ambiguous, closely related concepts such as aesthetics, aesthetic inquiry, and philosophical inquiry into art might increase this confusion, it is important at the outset to explain how such terms will be used in the following discussion. Historically, aesthetics has been a branch of philosophy devoted to theories of beauty and art. There are roughly two approaches to teaching aesthetics in American college education (Battin, Fisher, Moore, & Silvers, 1989). These involve, respectively, the teaching of philosophical perspectives and the teaching of philosophical inquiry. The philosophical-perspectives approach to teaching aesthetics encourages students to explore answers to questions proposed by aestheticians and other thinkers in various traditions, past and present, who have achieved credibility on aesthetic matters. Aesthetic questions such as What makes an object beautiful? explore the natures of art, beauty, and the aesthetic experience. The perspectives approach presents vantage points that include aesthetic theories (e.g., Kant's aesthetics) and aesthetic principles (e.g., embodiment of the Tao as in Chinese pictorial arts). Students learn different perspectives by studying examples that best represent those viewpoints. They are then encouraged to apply those perspectives to enriched engagement with art and other aesthetic phenomena. Attention to cases inconsistent with par