The Propositional Challenge to Aesthetics

Abstract

It is generally accepted that Picasso might have used a different canvas as the vehicle for his painting Guernica, and also that the artwork Guernica itself necessarily represents a certain historical episode-rather than, say, a bowl of fruit. I argue that such a conjunctive acceptance entails a broadly propositional view of the nature of representational artworks. In addition, I argue-via a comprehensive examination of possible alternatives-that, perhaps surprisingly, there simply is no other available conjunctive view of the nature of representational artworks in general.