A Critique of Levinson
Aporia, Vol. 16, No. 1, p. 29, 2006
20 Pages Posted: 21 May 2010
Date Written: 2006
Abstract
In this article I present an analysis of Levinson’s historical definition of art and then assess the relevant objections. This analysis is threefold, since I consider three different types of objections to Levinson: those regarding the ur-arts, the implausibility of an intrinsic recursive definition, and the disadvantages of an intentionalist-historicist account. In culmination, I argue that, although Levinson’s historical definition of art seems to defeat many of the objections that have been raised against it (and is not therefore irreparable), his definition ultimately fails to address a contradiction within his intentionalist-historicist framework, specifically that between a proprietary right and the liberalized version of regard-as-a-work-of-art.
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