This chapter stages an ongoing conversation between Arthur Danto and the author. In a series of encounters from 1985 till 2012 (in New York City and elsewhere) the problem of defining art is explored from different angles. Eventually, two kinds of definition are distinguished. On the one hand, a definition may aspire to identify peculiar characteristics of the things that are commonly regarded members of the noble class of artworks. On the other hand, a definition might also name criteria for (...) deciding whether an object may become a member of this class in the first place. Danto focused on the first task because he felt, quite rightly, that the second would require competences that philosophy does not dispose of. (shrink)

English summary: Heinz Ludeking belonged to the German philosophical movement that explored analytical esthetics. Ludekings analytical approach to art brought new light to the definition and concept of art. In particular, he created a connection between logical reflection and esthetic investigation. French description: Heinz Ludeking appartient a ce courant de la philosophie allemande qui a pris pour objet l'esthetique analytique, et qui est encore largement meconnu en France en depit de sa productivite conceptuelle. Dans cet ouvrage, l'auteur s'est efforce d'etablir (...) un bilan critique de la premiere philosophie analytique de l'art - celle des annees 50-60 -, c'est-a-dire des travaux qui ont precede les theories de Goodman et de Danto. L'approche analytique de Ludeking, volontiers caustique, peut etre devastatrice. Elle apporte neanmoins une lumiere nouvelle sur un probleme central, jamais veritablement resolu, celui de la definition de l'art et du concept d'art. L'une des qualites dominantes de cette analyse est d'etre parvenue a realiser une jonction exceptionnellement rigoureuse entre la reflexion logique et l'investigation proprement esthetique. (shrink)

In order to understand why analytic aesthetics has lost a lot of its former intellectual stature it is necessary to combine historical reconstruction with systematic consideration. In the middle of the twentieth century analytic philosophers came to the conclusion that essentialist theories of the “nature” of art are no longer tenable. As a consequence they felt compelled to move to the meta-level of conceptual analysis. Then they tried to show how a purely classificatory concept of art is used. The presupposition, (...) however, that there actually is such a concept can only appear plausible at first sight. Upon closer inspection it turns out to be utterly misguided. (shrink)