Dipartimento di Filosofia e Scienze dell'Educazione

The next lecture of ART (Aesthetics Research Torino) Philosophical Seminar will be delivered by Prof. David Davies on December 3rd at 4 p.m.

Location: Università di Torino, Aula Guzzo, Po 18 - Torino

David Davies

Artistic value(s) and the value of art: a non-aestheticist account of artistic value

Philosophical debates about ‘artistic value’ examine the kinds of values that artworks have and ask which of these values bear upon the appreciation of works as such. What one takes to contribute to artistic value depends upon one’s conception of what makes something art. On standard ‘aestheticist’ conceptions, what makes an artifact an artwork is that it is intended to be appreciated ‘for its own sake’: artistic value is then the value it has when so treated. Aestheticist conceptions of artistic value also understand the latter as experiential. On this conception, it is difficult to see how instrumental and achievement value can be part of artistic value, and for many this also applies to cognitive and ethical value. I explore these debates, and develop and defend an alternative conception of artistic value, grounded in an alternative conception of what makes something a work of art. On this conception, artworks are distinguished by the way in which they are designed to perform whatever may be their intended functions. Artistic value is then a matter of performing a given function well in virtue of performing it in the ways distinctive of artworks.

DAVID DAVIES is Professor of Philosophy at McGill University. He is the author of Art as Performance(Blackwell 2004), Aesthetics and Literature(Continuum 2007), and Philosophy of the Performing Arts(Wiley-Blackwell 2011), editor of The Thin Red Line(Routledge 2008), and co-editor of Blade Runner(Routledge 2015). He has published widely on philosophical issues relating to film, photography, performance, music, literature, and visual art, and on issues in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language. He is currently completing a monograph defending a non-aestheticist account of the distinction between artworks and other artifacts.