Art and part

mereology and the ontology of art

Gilbert T. Null

pp. 255-275

in: Steven Crowell (ed), The prism of the self, Berlin, Springer, 1995

Abstract

In The Transfiguration of the Commonplace, Arthur Danto formulates the ontological problem of the artwork in terms derived from the Wittgensteinian analysis of (social) action. Wittgenstein's question was formulated in terms of a notion of subtraction: "What ... is left over when, from the fact that you raise your arm [in an action of admonition, or welcome, or rejection, etc.], you subtract the fact that your arm goes up? Danto [1981: 4] characterizes Wittgenstein's own answer as "nothing: any of the [three different] actions which involve raising my arm are identical to the event of my arm going up."

Cited authors

Danto Arthur