Arthur Danto, the End of Art, and the Philosophical View of History

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-256
Author(s):  
Chiel van den Akker
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Common View ◽  
Philosophical View ◽  
End Of Art ◽  
Arthur Danto

Abstract This essay takes Arthur Danto’s end-of-art thesis as a case in point of a substantive philosophy of history. Such philosophy explains the direction that art has taken and why that direction could not have been different. Danto never scrutinized the philosophy of history that his end-of-art thesis presumes. I aim to do that by drawing a distinction between what I refer to as the common view of history and the philosophical view of history, and by arguing that we need the latter if we want to properly assess the plausibility of the end-of-art thesis.

scholarly journals Acts, Events, and Stories. On the History of Danto’s Compatibilist Narrativism

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-79
Author(s):  
Thomas Uebel
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Analytical Philosophy ◽  
High Priest ◽  
History Of ◽  
Arthur Danto

Abstract The response given to C.G. Hempel’s well-known challenge by Arthur Danto in his Analytical Philosophy of History of 1965 – that deductive-nomological and narrative explanations are logically compatible yet employ incommensurable schemata – is here investigated from a historical perspective. It is shown that the developmental trajectory that emerges from an analysis of Danto’s previous writings – including not only a forgotten paper of 1958 but also his PhD dissertation of 1952 – contains distinctive step-changes with publications of 1953 and 1956 still prior to that of 1958–59 which enabled his subsequent discovery of narrative sentences. It is also argued that Danto’s developmental trajectory runs contrary to that presumed by some prominent commentators. Analytical History of Philosophy was not the midpoint of his ascent from mainstream philosopher of science to high priest of postmodern aesthetics, but represents a reasoned retreat from his early historical idealism.

Art Narratives and Globalization

2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-144
Author(s):  
Patricia Esquivel
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Art World ◽  
The West ◽  
History Of Art ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
End Of Art ◽  
Arthur Danto

Arthur Danto proklamierte das »Ende der Kunst«, d. h. das Ende der auf ein Narrativ und auf eine unidirektionale Grundlage basierenden Kunstgeschichte. In der zeitgenössischen Kunstwelt und besonders in der Historiographie hingegen findet man durchaus ein Telos. Dieses Telos ist die Globalisierung. Es gibt heute ein sich ausbreitendes unidirektionales Narrativ, dessen Regel als »Netzwerklegitimation« erklärt werden kann. Ein Netzwerk, dessen Ausmaß (mehr Regionen der Welt), Sättigung (mehr Objekte) und Historizität (umfassendere Entwicklungsketten) zunehmen. Das Netzwerk hat auch einen Mittelpunkt, den Westen, wenn auch nicht für immer.<br><br>Arthur Danto proclaimed the »end of art«, that is, the end of the history of art structured on a narrative and unidirectional basis. But in contrast to Danto’s ideas, we detect a telos in the contemporary art world, especially in historiography. This telos is globalisation. At present, we have a clearly expansive unidirectional narrative in which the norm can be summed up as »network legitimation.« A network that is growing in extent (more regions of the world), saturation (more objects) and historicity ( further-ranging chains of development). The network also has a centre, the West, although it may not last forever.

Arthur Danto Goes to the Movies

2021 ◽  
pp. 361-376
Author(s):  
Noël Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Moving Images ◽  
End Of Art ◽  
Arthur Danto

This chapter reviews the ways in which Danto’s “method of indiscernibles” enables him to construct an analysis of films as moving images in terms of necessary conditions. The chapter challenges Danto’s account, but also suggests how Danto’s “end of art” thesis might explain certain developments in avant-garde cinema.

scholarly journals The Exemplification Theory of History: Narrativist Philosophy and the Autonomy of History

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiel van den Akker
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
The Past ◽  
Exemplification Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theory Of History ◽  
Arthur Danto ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The “exemplification theory of history” is proposed to account for the relationship between the past and historical narratives. The theory states that what belongs to the past according to some narrative does so in order to exemplify the historical thesis of that narrative. As such the theory explains how the past receives its meaning. This implies that the past has no intrinsic historical meaning itself. Moreover, it follows that historical narratives possess an autonomy of their own with regard to the past. It is argued that the exemplification theory of history goes to the heart of narrativist philosophy of history. This claim is supported by the key arguments of three narrativist philosophers: Arthur Danto, Louis Mink and Frank Ankersmit. The distinction between the history of social individuals (“states”, “poverty”, “Thirty Years War”) and the identification of such individuals turns out to be fundamental in this respect. The article concludes by distinguishing between a Platonic and an Aristotelian view on narrative and by explaining why we ought to prefer the former to the latter.

Reflections from the Bottom of a Brillo Box: A Theological Inquiry into the End(s) of Art

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 539-559
Author(s):  
J. Sage Elwell
Keyword(s):  
The Arts ◽  
Thirtieth Anniversary ◽  
End Of Art ◽  
Arthur Danto

Abstract This article asks after the theological import of the two end of art theses proposed by Arthur Danto and Donald Kuspit respectively. In tribute to the coming thirtieth anniversary of Arthur Danto’s essay “The End of Art” and the tenth anniversary of Donald Kuspit’s book The End of Art, I take up here their respective theories in an attempt to go beyond the surface of their ideas and to ask after the depth of the end(s) of art. Their theses point to a crisis of reflexivity in the respective artworlds they describe and that this crisis is the result of the loss and failed recovery of spiritual depth. Danto’s end of art thesis offers a truth that tells a lie—that there was never depth there to begin with—while Kuspit’s offers a lie that tells the truth—that that depth can be recovered. Danto’s thesis speaks to early postmodern art’s loss of spiritual depth while Kuspit’s addresses late postmodern art’s failure to recover that depth. Taken together, their ends of art present the lying-truth of an irretrievably lost sacred and the true-lie that the sacred in the arts can be recovered.

Articulatory Generalization in Two Word-Medial, Ambisyllabic Contexts

1988 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia I. Wolfe ◽  
Suzanne D. Blocker ◽  
Norma J. Prater
Keyword(s):  
Common View ◽  
Perceptual Salience ◽  
The Common ◽  
Unitary Concept ◽  
Over Time

Articulatory generalization of velar cognates /k/, /g/ in two phonologically disordered children was studied over time as a function of sequential word-morpheme position training. Although patterns of contextual acquisition differed, correct responses to the word-medial, inflected context (e.g., "picking," "hugging") occurred earlier and exceeded those to the word-medial, noninflected context (e.g., "bacon," "wagon"). This finding indicates that the common view of the word-medial position as a unitary concept is an oversimplification. Possible explanations for superior generalization to the word-medial, inflected position are discussed in terms of coarticulation, perceptual salience, and the representational integrity of the word.

The modern philosophy of history: historical-anthropological problematics

2018 ◽  
pp. 4-9
Author(s):  
Sp. Sh. Aytov
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Cognitive Perspective

This article is devoted to the analysis of the formation of the cognitive perspective of the historical-anthropological dimension of modern philosophy of history. The influence of the mentioned problem field on the development of intellectual directions of modern philosophical and historical studios was studied.

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