Noël Carroll
Philosophy of Art: A contemporary introduction
(1999)
[SK's comments]
[249]
...
Part III
Identifying art
Definition and identification
Recent attempts to define art ... have proven thus far to be inconclusive. ...
And yet we are able
to identify art ... with a very
high degree of consensus.
" . . . , presuming of course
that nothing important is riding on the
consensus
itself,
for if there is, it will soon disintegrate. . . . "
Thus the question of how we manage to do it
remains pressing.
Well,
the apparent paradox given above establishes that
the question
is
difficult,
not that it is
pressing
.
Those are two different things.
Moreover, this is not
merely an academic question.
Classifying artifacts as artworks is
central to our practice
of art. ... is integral to
determining how we should respond
to it. ... Should we attend to the expressive properties of a amalgam of crushed and mangled automobile chassis or
[250]
consign them to the junkyard?
How about
first the one,
and then the other
?
If art, these objects bear scrutiny and interpretation. If not, we call the Department of Sanitation.
". . . Quick, what's the number for Critics and Interpreters? . . ."
