Verso una soluzione neo-formalista al problema della definizione dell’arte

Abstract

The problem of defining art has occupied analytical aesthetics for more than 50 years. A lot of solutions have been proposed, but none of them seems to be definitive. So, skepticism abounds, despite the great amount and variety of proposals. But less attention has been paid to recent attempts who seek the solution in linking art to traditional concepts such as aes-thetic experience, beauty, pleasure, and form, properly revised. In this paper I analyze this kind of attempts (such as that of Dutton, Beardsley, Eldridge, Shusterman, Scruton and, surprisingly enough, the latest Danto) trying to arrive to a unified aesthetic definition of art, which acknowledges the importance of content but states that form is what mostly matters, in being the instrument through which an artwork conveys its meaning and causes the spectator to have pleasurable aesthetic experiences. I also show how such condition ris-es and receives its force from the history of art in different cultures, there being universal basis for aesthetic appreciation of artworks. I conclude remarking some of the advantages of such a definition, allowing space for a subsequent discussion about possible objections and replies.