Abstract

This study is aimed at an analytical exploration of the conceptual geography surrounding the object of criticism. It distinguishes various features and interrelationships of four basic problems in aesthetic inquiry: the identity, ontological status, interpretation and evaluation of a work of art. Each of these problems is examined within the methodology employed by analytic aesthetics in the context of a chapter devoted to each problem. The analytic methodology employed is examined and critiqued in the final chapter. ;Operating under the assumption that the role of theory in philosophy is to elucidate the nature of concepts, this dissertation explores the nature of the concept of a work of art, and a dance work of art derived from notions set forth by Wittgenstein, Gallie and Weitz. Separate chapters then deal with the identification and individuation of a work of art, the manner and mode of its existence, the logic of interpretation and the logic of evaluation. This is set forth in relation to a work of art generally, then in relation to a dance work of art specifically. ;Among the analytic philosophers whose work is utilized in the course of this study are: Nelson Goodman, Joseph Margolis, Richard Shusterman, Arthur Danto, Monroe Beardsley and Richard Wollheim. In the chapter on the logic of interpretation and evaluation, the critics whose methods are investigated include: John Martin, Edwin Denby, Arlene Croce, Paul Valery and Stephane Mallarme. ;This dissertation provides a valuable resource as an introduction to literature not ordinarily employed in dance research. The manner in which its investigation is conducted does not merely aim itself at the accumulation of a series of truths, but rather calls attention to the plurality of perspectives in regard to the object of dance criticism and the various features and relationships of the linguistic terrain of dance criticism. It is a study in both content and methodology