DENIS DUTTON

A Naturalist Definition of Art

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/64/3/367/5979551 by guest on 14 April 2024

i ing his views fallaciously to other arts. More gen-
erally, thinkers who love natural beauty, or who
Aesthetic theories may claim universality, but they fall under the spell of a particular exotic culture or
are normally conditioned by the aesthetic issues genre, are apt to generalize from individual feel-
and debates of their own times. Plato and Aristo- ings and experience. This personal element can be
tle were motivated both to account for the Greek enriching for theory (Bell on abstract expression-
arts of their day and to connect aesthetics to their ism) or result in near absurdities (Kant on painting
general metaphysics and theories of value. Closer in general). It ought, however, to incite skepticism
to our time, as Noël Carroll observes, the theories in us all. General accounts extrapolated from lim-
of Clive Bell and R. G. Collingwood can be viewed ited personal enthusiasm may persuade us so long
as “defenses of emerging avant-garde practices— as we concentrate on the examples the theorist
neoimpressionism, on the one hand, and the mod- provides; they often fail when applied to a broader
ernist poetics of Joyce, Stein, and Eliot on the range of art.
other.”1 Susanne Langer can be read as provid- Beyond cultural bias and personal idiosyncrasy,
ing a justification for modern dance, while the ini- adequate philosophizing about the arts has been
tial version of George Dickie’s institutional the- impeded by a third factor: the character of philo-
ory “requires something like the presupposition sophical rhetoric. Philosophy is most robust and
that Dada is a central form of artistic practice” stimulating when it argues for a uniquely and ex-
in order to gain intuitive appeal. The same point clusively true position and attempts to discredit
can be made about Arthur Danto’s nearly obses- plausible alternatives. In the history of art philos-
sive theorizing about minimalist conundrums and ophy, this has been a persistent obstacle to un-
indiscernible art/nonart objects—Ad Rheinhart’s derstanding. Kant, for example, does not merely
black canvases, Marcel Duchamp’s readymades, separate the intellectual components of aesthetic
and Andy Warhol’s Brillo boxes. As art forms and experience from its primary sensual components,
techniques change and develop, as artistic inter- but in sections of the Third Critique denies the
ests blossom or decline, so theory, too, tags along, value of the latter entirely. Leo Tolstoy is so dog-
altering its focus, shifting its values. matic in his insistence on sincerity as the central
Distortions caused by the biases of local cul- criterion for art, that he famously rejects large
ture are compounded by another factor. Philoso- swathes of the canon, including most of his own
phers of art naturally tend to begin theorizing work. Bell, once again the pluperfect aesthetician,
from their own aesthetic predilections, their own does not just elevate the experience of form in
sharpest aesthetic responses, however strange or abstract painting, but insists that painting’s illus-
limited these may be. Immanuel Kant had a keen trative element is aesthetically irrelevant. Such
interest in poetry, but his dismissal of the func- extreme positions in aesthetics are rhetorically ar-
tion of color in painting is so eccentric that it even resting in a way that less exclusionary theories
suggests a possible visual impairment. Bell, who are not. They are also a pleasure for professors
candidly acknowledged his inability to appreciate of aesthetics to teach, since they provide students
music, centered his attention on painting, extend- with historical background, genuine (if absurdly

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 64:3 Summer 2006

368 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

one-sided) aesthetic insights, and the intellectual What philosophy of art needs is an approach that
exercise involved in adducing counterexamples begins by treating art as a field of activities, objects,
and counterargument. Along with the historical and experience given naturally in human life. We
development of art itself, such theorizing pushes must first try to demarcate an uncontroversial cen-
the argument forward—not in the direction of res- ter that gives the outliers whatever interest they
olution, but only to incite more disputation. have. I regard this approach as “naturalistic,” not
Aesthetics at the outset of the twenty-first cen- in the sense that it is biologically driven (though
tury finds itself in a paradoxical, not to say bizarre, biology will prove relevant to it), but because it
situation. On the one hand, scholars and aesthetes depends on persistent cross-culturally identified
have accessible to them—in libraries, in museums, patterns of behavior and discourse: the making,

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/64/3/367/5979551 by guest on 14 April 2024

on the Internet, first-hand via travel—a wider per- experiencing, and assessing of works of art. Many
spective on artistic creation across cultures and of the ways art is discussed and experienced eas-
through history than ever before. We can study ily cross culture boundaries, and manage a global
and enjoy sculptures and paintings from the Pa- acceptance without help from academics or theo-
leolithic, music from everywhere, folk and ritual rists. From Lascaux to Bollywood, artists, writers,
arts from over the globe, literatures, arts of ev- and musicians often have little or no trouble in
ery nation, past and present. Against this vast achieving cross-cultural aesthetic understanding.
availability, how odd that philosophical specula- The natural center on which such understanding
tion about art has been inclined toward endless exists is where theory must begin.
analysis of an infinitesimally small class of cases,
prominently featuring Duchamp’s readymades or
boundary-testing objects such as Sherri Levine’s ii
appropriated photographs and John Cage’s 4 33 .
Underlying this philosophical direction is a hid- Characteristic features found cross-culturally in
den presupposition that is never articulated: the the arts can be reduced to a list of core items,
world of art, it is supposed, will at last be un- twelve in the version given below, which I term
derstood once we are able to explain art’s most recognition criteria. Some of the items single out
marginal or difficult instances. Duchamp’s Foun- features of works of art, others qualities of the
tain and In Advance of a Broken Arm are on the experience of art. Other theorists have proposed
face of it the hardest cases that art theory has to lists similar in intention, though not identical in
deal with, which explains the size of the theoret- content. These include lists published in 1975 by
ical literature these works and their readymade E. J. Bond, Richard L. Anderson (1979, and re-
siblings have generated. The very size of this lit- vised repeatedly since then), H. Gene Blocker
erature also points to a hope that being able to (1993), Julius Moravcsik (1992), and Berys Gaut
explain the most outré instances of art will help us (2000).2 I have published two predecessors to the
arrive at the best general account of all art. present list (2000 and 2001).3 My list therefore of-
This hope has led aesthetics in the wrong di- fers itself for correction through clarification, ex-
rection. Lawyers know that hard cases make bad change of items, augmentation, or reduction. The
law. If you wish to understand the essential nature items on it are not chosen to suit a preconceived
of murder, you do not begin de novo with a dis- theoretical purpose; to the contrary, these crite-
cussion of assisted suicide or abortion or capital ria purport to offer a neutral basis for theoretical
punishment. Assisted suicide may or may not be speculation. The list could be described as inclu-
murder, but determining whether such disputed sive in its manner of referring to the arts across
cases are murder requires first that we are clear cultures and historical epochs, but it is not for that
on the nature and logic of indisputable cases; we reason a compromise among competing, mutually
move from the uncontroversial center to the dis- exclusive positions. It reflects a vast realm of hu-
puted remote territories. The same principle holds man experience that people have little trouble in
in aesthetic theory. The obsession with accounting identifying as artistic. David Novitz has remarked
for art’s most problematic outliers, while both in- that “precise formulations and rigorous defini-
tellectually challenging and a good way for teach- tions” are of little help in capturing the mean-
ers of aesthetics to generate discussion, has left ing of art cross-culturally.4 Still, just because, as
aesthetics ignoring the center of art and its values. Novitz says, there is “no one way” to be a work
Dutton A Naturalist Definition of Art 369

of art, it does not follow that the converse “many effective when separable pleasures are coher-
ways” are so hopelessly numerous as to be un- ently related to each other, or interact with
specifiable, even if the domain they refer to is as each other—as, roughly put, in the structural
ragged and multilayered as that of art. In fact, that form, colors, and subject matter of a painting,
they are specifiable, however open to dispute, is or the music, drama, singing, directed acting,
required by the very existence of a literature on and sets of an opera. This idea is familiar as
cross-cultural aesthetics. the so-called organic unity of artworks, their
A reminder that, granting the existence of myr- “unity in diversity.” Such aesthetic enjoyment
iad marginal cases, by “art” and “arts” I mean is often said to be “for its own sake.” (This
artifacts (sculptures, paintings, and decorated ob- pleasure is called aesthetic pleasure when it

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/64/3/367/5979551 by guest on 14 April 2024

jects, such as tools or the human body, and scores is derived from the experience of art, but it
and texts considered as objects) and performances is familiar in many other areas of life, such as
(dances, music, and the composition and recitation the pleasure of sport and play, of quaffing a
of stories). When we talk about art, we sometimes cold drink on a hot day, or of watching larks
focus on acts of creation, sometimes on the ob- soar or storm clouds thicken. Human beings
jects created, at other times we refer more to the experience an indefinitely long list of direct,
experience of these objects. Working out these dis- nonartistic pleasures, experiences enjoyed for
tinctions is a separate task. The list is therefore the their own sakes. Any such pleasures may,
signal characteristics of art considered as a univer- like those notoriously associated with sex,
sal, cross-cultural category. This is not to claim that or sweet, fatty foods, have ancient, evolved
anything on my list is unique to art or its experi- causes that we are unaware of in immediate
ence. Many of these aspects of art are continuous experience.)
with nonart experiences and capacities; reminders 2. Skill or Virtuosity. The making of the ob-
of these are included here in parentheses at the ject or the performance requires and demon-
conclusion of each entry. strates the exercise of specialized skills. These
skills are learned in an apprentice tradition
1. Direct Pleasure. The art object—narrative in some societies or in others may be picked
story, crafted artifact, or visual and aural up by anyone who finds that she or he “has
performance—is valued as a source of imme- a knack” for them. Where a skill is acquired
diate experiential pleasure in itself, and not by virtually everybody in the culture, such as
primarily for its utility in producing something with communal singing or dancing in some
else that is either useful or pleasurable. This tribes, there will still tend to be individuals
quality of the pleasure of beauty, or “aesthetic who stand out by virtue of special talent or
pleasure,” as it is so often called, derives on mastery. Technical artistic skills are noticed
analysis from rather different sources. A pure, in small-scale societies as well as developed
intensely saturated color can be pleasurable civilizations, and where they are noticed they
to see; grasping the detailed coherence of a are universally admired. The admiration of
tightly plotted story can give pleasure (simi- skill is not just intellectual; skill exercised by
lar to the pleasure of a clever crossword puz- writers, carvers, dancers, potters, composers,
zle or well-formed chess problem); the com- painters, pianists, and so forth can cause jaws
position of a landscape painting can induce to drop, hair to stand up on the back of the
pleasure, but so can the misty, bluish distant neck, and eyes to flood with tears. The demon-
mountains it portrays move us with pleasure stration of skill is one of the most deeply mov-
independently of form and technique; surpris- ing and pleasurable aspects of art. (High skill
ing harmonic modulations and rhythmic ac- is a source of pleasure and admiration in ev-
celeration can give pleasure in music, and so ery area of human activity beyond art, per-
forth. Of the greatest significance here is the haps most notably today in sports. Almost ev-
fact that the enjoyment of artistic beauty of- ery regularized human activity can be turned
ten derives from multilayered yet distinguish- competitive in order to emphasize the devel-
able pleasures that are experienced either si- opment and admiration of its technical, skill
multaneously or in close proximity to each aspect. The Guinness Book of Records is full
other. These layered experiences can be most of “world champions” of the most mundane or
370 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

whimsical activities; this attests to a universal first sense, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
impulse to turn almost anything human beings is creative in the second. The unpredictabil-
can do into an activity admired as much for its ity of creative art, its newness, plays against
virtuosity as for its productive capacity.) the predictability of conventional style or for-
3. Style. Objects and performances in all art mal type (sonata, novel, tragedy, and so forth).
forms are made in recognizable styles, ac- Creativity and novelty are the locus of individ-
cording to rules of form, composition, or ex- uality or genius in art, referring to that aspect
pression. Style provides a stable, predictable, of art that is not governed by rules. Imagina-
“normal” background against which artists tive talent is graded in art according to its abil-
may create elements of novelty and expressive ity to display creativity. (Creativity is called

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/64/3/367/5979551 by guest on 14 April 2024

surprise. A style may derive from a culture, for and admired in countless other areas of
a family, or be the invention of an individ- life beyond art. We admire creative solutions
ual; changes in styles involve borrowing and to problems in dentistry and plumbing as well
sudden alteration, as well as slow evolution. as in the arts. The persistent pursuit of cre-
The rigidity or fluid adaptability of styles can ativity shows itself in the reluctance of careful
vary as much in non-Western and tribal cul- writers to use the same word a second time
tures as in the histories of literate civilizations; in a sentence where synonyms are available;
for example, some sacred objects and perfor- the thesaurus exists less for greater precision
mances are tightly circumscribed by tradition in writing than for the sake of pleasurable cre-
(as in older styles of Pueblo pottery), with oth- ative variety.)
ers open to free, creative individualistic in- 5. Criticism. Wherever artistic forms are found
terpretive variation (as in much of northern they exist alongside some kind of critical lan-
New Guinea). Very few historical arts allow guage of judgment and appreciation, sim-
no creative departure whatsoever from estab- ple or, more likely, elaborate. This includes
lished style. In fact, were no variance allowed, the shoptalk of art producers, the public dis-
the status of a stylized activity would be called course of professional critics, and the evalu-
into question as an art; this is true not only ative conversation of audiences. Professional
in European traditions. Many writers, partic- criticism, including academic scholarship ap-
ularly in the social sciences, have treated style plied to the arts where it is evaluative, is a per-
as a metaphorical prison for artists, determin- formance itself and subject to evaluation by
ing limits of form and content. Styles, how- its larger audience; critics routinely criticize
ever, by providing artists and their audiences each other. There is wide variation across and
with a familiar background, allow for the ex- within cultures with regard to the complexity
ercise of artistic freedom, liberating as much of criticism. Anthropologists have repeatedly
as they constrain. Styles can oppress artists; commented on its rudimentary development,
more often, styles liberate them. (Virtually all or what appears to be near nonexistence, in
meaningful human activity above the level of small, nonliterate societies, even those that
autonomic reflexes is carried out within stylis- produce complicated art. It is generally much
tic framework: gestures, language use, social more elaborate in the art discourse of liter-
courtesies such as norms of laughter or body ate European and Oriental history. (Criticism
distance in personal encounters. Style and cul- obviously exists in many spheres of nonaes-
ture are virtually coterminous.) thetic life, but with this proviso: criticism of a
4. Novelty and Creativity. Art is valued, and kind analogous to art criticism applies only to
praised, for its novelty, creativity, originality, enterprises where the potential achievement
and capacity to surprise its audience. Creativ- is complex and open-ended. There is gener-
ity includes both the attention-grabbing func- ally no criticism applied to performances in
tion of art (a major component of its enter- the hundred-meter dash: the fastest time wins,
tainment value) and the artist’s perhaps less no matter how inelegantly. It is only where
jolting capacity to explore the deeper possi- criteria for success itself are complex—in pol-
bilities of a medium or theme. Though these itics or religion, for instance—that critical
kinds of creativity overlap, Stravinsky’s The discourse becomes structurally similar to art
Rite of Spring is creative most strikingly in the criticism.)
Dutton A Naturalist Definition of Art 371

6. Representation. In widely varying degrees of a sense of occasion is also found in religious

naturalism, art objects, including sculptures, rites, the pomp of royal ceremonies, political
paintings, and oral and written narratives, and speeches and rallies, advertising, and sport-
sometimes even music, represent or imitate ing events. Any isolate-able episode, artistic
real and imaginary experiences of the world. or not, that can be said to possess a recogniz-
As Aristotle first observed, human beings take able “theatrical” element shares something in
an irreducible pleasure in representation: a common, however, with almost all art. This
realistic painting of the folds in a red satin would apply to such disparate experiences as
dress, a detailed model of a steam engine, or presidential inaugurations, World Series de-
the tiny plates, silverware, goblets, and lattice- ciders, or rollercoaster rides.)

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/64/3/367/5979551 by guest on 14 April 2024

crust cherry pie on the dinner table of a doll’s 8. Expressive Individuality. The potential to ex-
house. However, we can also enjoy represen- press individual personality is generally latent
tation for two other reasons: we can take plea- in art practices, regardless of whether it is fully
sure in how well a representation is accom- achieved. Where a productive activity has a
plished, and we can take pleasure in the object defined output, as double-entry bookkeeping
or scene represented, as in a calendar render- or filling teeth, there is little room and no de-
ing of a beautiful landscape. The first is about mand for individual expression. Where what
skill, rather than representation as such; the counts as achievement in a productive activ-
second is reducible to pleasure in the sub- ity is vague and open-ended, as in the arts, the
ject matter, rather than representation in it- demand for expressive individuality seems in-
self. Delight in imitation and representation evitably to arise. Even in cultures that pro-
in any medium, including words, may involve duce what might seem to outsiders to be less
the combined impact of all three pleasures. personalized arts, individuality, as opposed to
(Blueprints, newspaper illustrations, passport competent execution, can be a focus of at-
photographs, and roadmaps are equally imi- tention and evaluation. The claim that artis-
tations or representations. The importance of tic individuality is a Western construct not
representation extends to every area of life.) found in non-Western and tribal cultures has
7. “Special” Focus. Works of art and artistic per- been widely accepted and is certainly false. In
formances tend to be bracketed off from or- New Guinea, for example, traditional carvings
dinary life, made a separate and dramatic fo- were unsigned. This is hardly surprising in a
cus of experience. In every known culture, art nonliterate culture of small settlements where
involves what Ellen Dissanayake calls “mak- social interactions are largely face to face: ev-
ing special.”5 A gold-curtained stage, a plinth, eryone knows who the most esteemed and
spotlights, ornate pictureframes, illuminated talented carvers are, and knows their works,
showcases, book jackets and typography, cere- without marks of authorship. Individual tal-
monial aspects of public concerts and plays, an ent and expressive personality is respected in
audience’s expensive clothes, the performer’s New Guinea as elsewhere. (Any ordinary ac-
black tie, the presence of the Czar in his royal tivity with a creative component—everyday
box, even the high price of tickets: these and speech, lecturing style, home hospitality, lay-
countless other factors can contribute to a ing out the company newsletter—opens the
sense that the work of art, or artistic event, possibility for expressive individuality. The
is an object of singular attention, to be ap- general interest in individuality in ordinary life
preciated as something out of the mundane seems less about the contemplation of expres-
stream of experience and activity. Framing sion than about knowing the quality of mind
and presentation, however, are not the only that produced the expression.)
factors that induce a sense of specialness: 9. Emotional Saturation. In varying degrees, the
it is in the nature of art itself to demand experience of works of art is shot through with
particular attention. Although some works emotion. Emotion in art divides broadly into
of artistic value—for instance, wallpaper or two kinds, fused (or confused) in experience
mood-inducing music—can be used as back- but analytically distinct. First are the emotions
ground, all cultures know and appreciate spe- provoked or incited by the represented con-
cial, “foregrounded” art. (Special focus and tent of art—the pathos of the scene portrayed
372 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

in a painting, a comic sequence in a play, a vi- lenges of exercise and mastery that result in
sion of death in a poem. These are the normal pleasure.)
emotions of life, and as such are the subject 11. Art Traditions and Institutions. Art objects and
of cross-cultural psychological research out- performances, as much in small-scale oral cul-
side aesthetics (one taxonomy currently used tures as in literate civilizations, are created
in empirical psychology names seven generic and to a degree given significance by their
emotion types: fear, joy, sadness, anger, dis- place in the history and traditions of their
gust, contempt, and surprise).6 There is a sec- art. As Jerrold Levinson has argued, works of
ond, alternative sense, however, in which emo- art gain their identity by instantiating histori-
tions are encountered in art: works of art can cally recognized ways of being art—the work
stands in a line of historic precedents.7 Over-

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/64/3/367/5979551 by guest on 14 April 2024

be pervaded by a distinct emotional flavor or
tone that is different from emotions caused by lapping this notion are earlier views, argued
represented content. This second kind of em- by Arthur Danto, Terry Diffey, and George
bodied or expressed emotion is connected to Dickie, to the effect that works of art gain
the first but not necessarily governed by it. It is meaning by being produced in an artworld,
the emotional tone we might feel in a Tolstoy in what are essentially socially constructed art
story or a Brahms symphony. It is not generic, institutions. Institutional theorists tend to ap-
not a type of emotion, but usually described ply their minds to readymades and concep-
as unique to the work—the work’s emotional tual art because the interest of such works is
contour, its emotional perspective, to cite two close to exhausted by their importance in the
common metaphors. (Many ordinary, nonart historic situation of their production.8 Such
life experiences—falling in love, watching a works stand in contrast to canonical works
child take its first steps, attending a funeral, like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which, al-
seeing an athlete break a world record, a row though open to extensive historic and insti-
with a close friend, viewing the grandeur of tutional analysis, is able to gather for itself a
nature—are also be imbued with emotion.) huge and enthusiastic world audience of lis-
10. Intellectual Challenge. Works of art tend to be teners who know little or nothing of its institu-
designed to utilize a combined variety of hu- tional context. Even a minimal appreciation,
man perceptual and intellectual capacities to on the other hand, of Duchamp’s Fountain ar-
a full extent; indeed, the best works stretch guably requires some knowledge of art his-
them beyond ordinary limits. The full exercise tory, or at least of the contemporary art con-
of mental capacities is in itself a source of aes- text. (Virtually all organized social activities—
thetic pleasure. This includes working through medicine, warfare, education, politics, tech-
a complex plot, putting evidence together to nologies, and sciences—are built up against a
recognize a problem or solution before a char- backdrop of historical and institutional tradi-
acter in a story recognizes it, balancing and tions, customs, and demands. Institutional the-
combining formal and illustrative elements in ory as promoted in modern aesthetics can be
a complicated painting, following the transfor- applied to any human practice whatsoever.)
mations of an opening melody recapitulated 12. Imaginative Experience. Finally, and perhaps
at the end of a piece of music. The pleasure of the most important of all characteristics on
meeting intellectual challenges is most obvi- this list, objects of art essentially provide an
ous in vastly complicated art, such as in the ex- imaginative experience for both producers
perience of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, or Wag- and audiences. A marble carving may realis-
ner’s Ring. But even works that are simple tically represent an animal, but as a work of
on one level, such as Duchamp’s readymades, sculptural art, it becomes an imaginative ob-
may deny easy explanation and give plea- ject. The same can be said of any story well
sure in tracing out their complex historical or told, whether mythology or personal history.
interpretive dimensions. (Crossword puzzles, The costumed dance by firelight, with its in-
games such as chess or Trivial Pursuit, cooking tense unity of purpose among the perform-
from complicated recipes, home handyman ers, possesses an imaginative element quite
tasks, television quiz programs, video games, beyond the group exercise of factory workers.
or even working out tax returns, can offer chal- This is what Kant meant by insisting that a
Dutton A Naturalist Definition of Art 373

work of art is a “presentation” offered up to it pleasurable to listen to?” The question, “Does
an imagination that appreciates it irrespec- it have form and content?” is not usually a first
tive of the existence of a represented object: line of inquiry to answer whether something is art.
for Kant, works of art are imaginative objects A similar point could be made about authentic-
subject to disinterested contemplation. In this ity: although the concept of authenticity is cen-
way, all art happens in a make-believe world. tral to a full understanding of art, and has long
This applies to nonimitative, abstract arts as vexed philosophers, art historians, collectors, and
much as to representational arts. Artistic ex- lawyers, whether something possesses authentic-
perience takes place in the theatre of the imag- ity is not the first question to be answered when
ination. (At the mundane level, imagination in we want to know if something is a work of art. Au-

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/64/3/367/5979551 by guest on 14 April 2024

problem solving, planning, hypothesizing, in- thenticity is an issue that arises in art only after an
ferring the mental states of others, or merely object or performance has already been identified
in daydreaming is virtually coextensive with as putatively artistic in type or intent.
normal human conscious life. Trying to under- Again, it may happen one day that neurophys-
stand what life was like in ancient Rome is an iologists will discover a new, technical method
imaginative act, but so is recalling that I left for identifying artistic experiences (through fMRI
my car keys in the kitchen. However, the expe- scans or the like) or that physicists will invent
rience of art is notably marked by the manner some kind of molecular analysis that allows them
in which it de-couples imagination from prac- to distinguish, say, works of art from pieces of or-
tical concern, freeing it, as Kant instructed, dinary whiteware or automobile parts. An absurd
from the constraints of logic and rational un- speculation, perhaps, but note that if science ever
derstanding.) achieved such a method for identifying instances
of art or of art experience, it will be in the position
of matching its scientifically determined proper-
iii ties with a description of art understood in terms
of the recognition criteria on my list or on a similar
The features on this list are implicated, individu- list. The recognition criteria tell us what we already
ally and more often jointly, in answers to the ques- know about art. They may be adjusted at the edges,
tion of whether, confronted with an art-like ob- with items subtracted from or added to the list, but
ject, performance, or activity, we are justified in they will remain largely intact into the foreseeable
calling it art. As recognition criteria, they there- future, governing what counts as investigation into
fore identify the most common and easily gras- the arts by neurophysiologists, philosophers, an-
pable “surface features” of art, its traditional, cus- thropologists, critics, or historians.
tomary, or pretheoretical characteristics; not in- Other nontechnical features might arguably
cluded are elements of technical analysis more have been included on this list. In his version of
likely to be used by critics and theorists. In this the list, H. Gene Blocker, writing about tribal arts,
respect, a chemist’s analogy for the list would regards it as important that artists are “perceived
be the enumeration of the defining features of not only as professionals but as innovators, eccen-
a liquid (including features that help with bor- tric, or a bit socially alienated.”9 Although this is
derline cases), rather than the defining features often true (Blocker has seen it in Africa and I have
of methanol (for which borderline cases are hard observed the same in New Guinea), there are in
to imagine, since they are ordinarily ruled out by the world too many innovative-yet-non-socially-
the definition, CH 3 OH, itself). For example, the alienated artists, as well as too many eccentric
form/content distinction has been fruitfully used nonartists, for Blocker’s feature to be a useful way
to analyze the arts since the Greeks (though as to recognize art. The same could be said of being
Aristotle knew, the distinction is just as useful for rare or costly. Many works of art are rare, made
analyzing bricks). As common as such analysis is in of costly materials, or incorporate enormous la-
criticism and art-theoretical contexts, the distinc- bor costs, and this is often a component of their
tion does not normally serve to answer the ques- interest to audiences. Many, however, are none of
tion of whether some doubtful object is a work of these things. Costliness is relevant to art, but it is
art. “Is it art?” normally provokes such thoughts not criterial. Though costliness and having been
as: “Does it show skill? Does it express emotion? Is produced by an eccentric are frequent features of
374 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

art, neither is normally a means by which we rec- Cultural identity, another potential item for the
ognize it. list, in my view has been wrongly inflated by aca-
My list also excludes background features that demics into a defining constituent of art. In the
are presupposed in virtually all discourse about sense that all art arises in a culture and is therefore
art. These include the necessary conditions of a cultural product, the claim is trivially true. Nor-
(a) being an artifact and (b) being made or per- mally, however, proponents of this position want
formed for an audience. Artifactuality is so thor- to wring from it the idea that artists intend in their
oughly canvassed in the literature that it will not work, and audiences expect in their experience, to
detain us here: works of art are intentional ob- affirm cultural identity. This is no more true than
jects, even if they possess any number of nonin- to claim, for example, that artists intend to be paid

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/64/3/367/5979551 by guest on 14 April 2024

tended meanings. Even found objects—pieces of for their work, and that audiences expect some-
driftwood and the like—are transformed into in- how to pay them: it is sometimes true, sometimes
tentional objects in the process of selection and not. The intentional use of art to affirm cultural
display. Being made for an audience is a refine- identity tends, incidentally, to be characteristic of
ment on artifactuality and substantially important art only in situations of cultural opposition and
in understanding art, but it is too thin to be a useful doubt. It is unlikely that Cervantes, Rembrandt,
addition to the list, as it applies also to countless or Mozart saw affirming Spanish, Dutch, or Aus-
other kinds of human actuality outside the arts. trian culture as a major function of their work
(Again, the usual limiting driftwood case obvi- (and this despite each, respectively, being a proud
ously qualifies as art, since the object is placed Spaniard, Dutchman, and Austrian). Wagner, who
before an audience.)10 set himself overtly against French and Italian mu-
Intentionally omitted from the list are two fur- sic, is a different story; he consciously saw himself
ther features that some might insist are important as affirming a Teutonic identity. It is hard to see
to understanding art: possessing aesthetic proper- Indian music in its homeland as aimed at affirming
ties and expressive of cultural identity. To say that Indian identity; it comes to serve that function
art by its nature possesses aesthetic properties has when Indians move abroad and join Indian cul-
led theorists to beg important questions. In the tural societies in Stuttgart or Chicago. Local artis-
history of modern aesthetics from Kant onward, tic forms offered to their natural, local audiences
aesthetic properties have come to be wrongly re- seldom occasion worries about affirming cultural
garded as a particular class of sensual properties, identity; such art offers only beauty and entertain-
the colors of a painting as opposed to its sub- ment to its closest, most natural audience. In retro-
ject matter. This kind of distinction has encour- spect, and centuries later, we may come to regard
aged some philosophers to recommend, for ex- Shakespeare as affirming Elizabethan cultural val-
ample, that excellent art forgeries will display the ues, but that is a construction we impose on him.
same aesthetic properties as original, nonforged His intention was to create adequate theatrical en-
works, even though they lack originality, which is tertainments for the Globe audience. Affirming
on this argument not an aesthetic property. I re- cultural identity, however important it may be, is
ject this view, and along with it the notion that not criterial for recognizing instances of art.
possessing aesthetic properties is something that
might be added to the list. To the contrary, it is
the combination of the other items on the list— iv
virtuoso skill, novelty, imaginative representation,
emotional feeling, intellectual challenge, and so A recognition-criteria approach to understanding
forth—which, combined in the experience of a art does not tell us in advance how many of the
work of art, are precisely the aesthetic proper- criteria need be present to justify calling an object
ties of the work, normally delivering the pleasure art. Nevertheless, such a list, in my view, presents a
described as Item 1. In opera, for instance, aes- definition of art. In claiming that my list amounts
thetic properties are not experienced alongside to a definition, I diverge from Berys Gaut, who, in
vocal skill, impressive sets, and effective orches- addition to suggesting a list of his own, has crafted
tral direction. Those aspects experienced together a philosophical defense of lists of this kind. Bor-
in the unified totality of an opera performance are rowing a phrase from John Searle, who used it in
precisely the aesthetic properties of opera. another context, Gaut calls listing such criteria a
Dutton A Naturalist Definition of Art 375

“cluster theory” of art. He insists that the cluster an infinite number of ways to be art. “The result
theory of art is at its center anti-essentialist.11 “A will be intricate, certainly,” Davies says, “but no
cluster account is true of a concept just in case less a definition on that score.” In Davies’s view,
there are properties whose instantiation by an ob- a list such as these recognition criteria does cap-
ject counts as a matter of conceptual necessity to- ture “unifying principles,” and is not merely “an
ward its falling under the concept.” If so, then my arbitrary list of features that might happen to be
list of recognition criteria does not amount to a found in any possible art work.” Such an account
cluster concept. Skill and being a picture of some- deserves to be taken seriously “precisely because
thing are on my list, but just by themselves—as in it provides a plausible description of what kinds
the act of a skillful plumber unclogging a drain, of things can make something art.” An account

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/64/3/367/5979551 by guest on 14 April 2024

or a passport shot being a picture—they do not such as Gaut’s or mine, Davies concludes, “does
count toward making such acts or objects works not support anti-essentialism in aesthetics.”
of art. These features will not detract from any Moreover, the kind of essentialism it does sup-
application of the concept and, taken with other port is, as Gaut conveniently shows, highly useful
items on the list, do increase likelihood that an ob- for dealing with borderline or marginal putative
ject is a work of art. The anti-essentialism of the cases of art. As I indicated in Section I, the prob-
list derives, according to Gaut, from the indefi- lem with many classical theories of art is that they
nite and open-ended way that features on the list begin with a particular paradigm (Greek tragedy,
might combine in any particular instantiation of say, or abstract music) and run out of steam as
art. If we were to come across some odd object they move farther from the paradigm and into
that was art and failed to fulfill any of our crite- more remote art types. In opposition to this persis-
ria, he explains, the open-endedness of the cluster tent failing, we have the institutional theory of art,
concept allows that we could simply add another concocted primarily to handle difficult or doubtful
feature to the list. Even if this demonstrated the cases. Its success in dealing with the borders comes
defectiveness of an initial list, Gaut argues, it still at the price of its inability to tell us much that is
keeps the idea of a cluster concept as appropriate interesting about the undisputed center of art: the
for understanding the concept of art. In my view, institution or artworld simply proclaims a disputed
Gaut’s openness to new criteria is unnecessary: an object in or out. Recognition criteria make debate
object that possessed not a single feature on the about borderline cases much more rich and re-
list would not be a work of art, while an object that warding. Cooking, Gaut points out, is not simply
possessed all twelve of my features certainly would thrown in or out, but is analyzed in terms of the
be. To talk of adding new criteria to accommodate list. Using his own account of the cluster concept,
new kinds of art strikes me as an open-minded but Gaut says that while the presence of some items on
empty gesture, unless we can be shown a plausible the list (skill and producing pleasure, for instance)
concrete example of a new kind of art not covered incline us to include cooking among the arts, the
by the list. absence of others (emotional saturation, intellec-
Stephen Davies has criticized Gaut’s claim that tual challenge, or a capacity for representation)
listed criteria are anti-essentialist, defending the make us resistant toward including it. “The hard-
notion that listed or clustered criteria for art are ness of the case,” Gaut concludes, “is preserved.”
indeed definitions.12 He grants that the number of Gaut is entirely right: this is not a loss for aesthet-
disjuncts on the list sufficient for something to be ics, but a gain.13 To fault the list because it does
art will determine a much larger number of poten- not decisively sort out every hard case is to wish
tial combinations: if, say, half of the twelve might that aesthetics not have hard, marginal, or border-
make a work of art, there will be one set of all line cases at all. As this will never be so, the best
twelve elements, twelve sets of eleven, 132 sets of aesthetic theory is one that acknowledges it.
ten elements, and so on to a very large number of As I already began to indicate in the list itself,
possibilities. This may be complicated, Davies ar- some of the criteria it contains are more central
gues, but there is nothing here that rules out a list to a definition of art than others. On a weighting
of recognition criteria or Gaut’s formulation of a scale, for example, I would regard Item 5, criticism,
cluster concept as being “a complex, disjunctive, as less important, at least as a recognition crite-
but otherwise orthodox definition.” A thousand or rion, than Item 2, skill or virtuosity. In respond-
more ways of being art is still a long distance from ing to Gaut, Thomas Adajian has been critical
376 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

of the idea that a list has no way internally to v

rank or weight its members.14 I would counter that
working out the differences in bearing that the Ideas and objects such as “square root” or “neu-
items have on the artistic character of any object tron” have come to be grasped alongside the rise of
or performance is exactly what philosophical aes- the theories that give them a place in understand-
thetics ought to try to achieve. I cannot see how ing. The arts, in ways rough and precise, were cre-
differential weighting counts against the general ated and directly enjoyed long before they came to
notion of assembling recognition criteria. In fact, be an object of theoretical rumination. Art is not
working out weighting can be a fruitful exercise in a technical field governed and explained by a the-
improving our understanding of art. As an exam- ory, but a rich, scattered, and variegated realm of

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/64/3/367/5979551 by guest on 14 April 2024

ple of an interestingly difficult marginal case, one human practice and experience that existed before
mentioned by Gaut and by students and sympo- philosophers and theorists. It is a natural, evolved
sium audiences over the years, I refer to the phe- category, which means that it should not surprise
nomenon of European soccer. This sport, partic- anyone that it can have such a wide-ranging and
ularly in championship matches, presents a spec- comparatively open definition. In this respect, it
tacle that can embody great skill, high drama, and is like other grand, vague, but real and persistent
much emotion and enjoyment for audiences. It is aspects of human life, such as religion, the family,
subject to postmatch critical discourse. Already, language, friendship, or war. Whatever the historic
soccer seems to fulfill my criteria for Item 1, plea- and local inflections of these human phenomena,
sure, Item 2, skill, Item 5, criticism, Item 7, special they share enough to be treated as a kind of nat-
focus, perhaps Item 9, emotional saturation. Gaut ural outlook or behavioral form. Despite many
nevertheless says that soccer games are not works disputed and borderline cases, in paradigm in-
of art or artistic performances (which is not to deny stances they are easily recognized across cultures
the artistry of some virtuoso soccer players or of and through millennia. As for the anti-essentialist
their individual moves). In agreeing with him, I fear that that a definition of art in terms of recog-
would speculate that the reason so many people nition criteria might constrain the very creative
resist calling soccer matches works of art has to imagination we observe and encourage in the arts,
do with the absence of what must be weighted as it makes about as much sense as worrying that a
one of the most important items on the list: Item definition of the word “book” will take us down
12, imaginative experience. For the ordinary sports a slippery slope toward censoring literature. The
fan who cheers the home team, who actually wins arts remain what they are, and will be. It is aes-
the game, not in imagination, but in reality, re- thetics that must perfect its tune.16
mains the commanding issue. For the fan, who the
winner will be is the decisive interest-generating DENIS DUTTON
issue. Winning and losing is the principal source Department of Philosophy
of emotion, which is not expressed, as in artis- University of Canterbury,
tic works, but incited in crowds by a real-world Christchurch 8004
sporting outcome. Were sports fans authentic aes- New Zealand
thetes, so my speculation goes, they would care
little or nothing for scores and results, but only en- internet: [email protected]
joy games in terms of style and economy of move-
ment, skill and virtuosity, and expressiveness. In 1. Noël Carroll, “Identifying Art,” in Institutions of Art:
my judgment, therefore, a soccer match is not es- Reconsiderations of George Dickie’s Philosophy, ed. Robert
sentially (or not enough, anyway) a Kantian “pre- J. Yanal (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994), p. 15.
2. E. J. Bond, “The Essential Nature of Art,” American
sentation,” a make-believe event, offered up for
Philosophical Quarterly 12 (1975): 177–183; published in re-
imaginative contemplation, but is, instead, a real- sponse to Morris Weitz, this is a pioneering article. Richard
world event, rather like an election or battle.15 The L. Anderson, Art in Primitive Societies (Englewood Cliffs:
fact that soccer could have so much in common Prentice-Hall, 1979) and Calliope’s Sisters: A Comparative
with accepted art and yet not be an instance of it Study of Philosophies of Art (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-
Hall, 1990); while these books do not present an explicit list,
is something that the recognition criteria list can they bring together most of the items included here. Julius
help us to understand. The possibility of such anal- Moravcsik, “Why Philosophy of Art in a Cross-Cultural Per-
ysis as this is yet another advantage of my list. spective?” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 51
Dutton A Naturalist Definition of Art 377

(1993): 425–436. H. Gene Blocker, The Aesthetics of Primi- 11. Berys Gaut, “The Cluster Account of Art De-
tive Art (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1994). fended,” The British Journal of Aesthetics 45 (2005): 273–288.
Berys Gaut, “‘Art’ as a Cluster Concept,” in Theories of John Searle originated the notion of cluster descriptions in
Art Today, ed. Noël Carroll (University of Wisconsin Press, his 1958 paper, “Proper Names,” Mind 67 (1958): 166–173.
2000), pp. 25–44. 12. Stephen Davies, “The Cluster Theory of Art,” The
3. Denis Dutton, “But They Don’t Have Our Con- British Journal of Aesthetics 44 (2004): 297–300. All quota-
cept of Art,” in Theories of Art Today, ed. Noël Carroll tions in this paragraph are from this source.
(University of Wisconsin Press, 2000), pp. 217–240; 13. Govt, “The Cluster Account of Art Defended,”
“Aesthetic Universals,” in The Routledge Companion to p. 280.
Aesthetics, ed. Berys Gaut and Dominic McIver Lopes 14. Thomas Adajian, “On the Cluster Account of Art,”
(London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 203–214. These two some- The British Journal of Aesthetics 43 (2003): 379–385.
what different lists of characteristic criteria for art across 15. In urging me to include artifactuality and audience
cultures differ somewhat from my present list, which is now in the list, Brian Boyd pointed out the usefulness of these

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/64/3/367/5979551 by guest on 14 April 2024

explicitly refined to include only recognition criteria for art. criteria to the soccer example: “If you view a work of art as
4. David Novitz, “Art by Another Name,” The British an intentional object (and something done for an audience)
Journal of Aesthetics 38 (1998): 19–32. then you have a very good criterion for dismissing the soccer
5. Ellen Dissanayake, What Is Art For? (University of match: the two sides are not cooperating to achieve some-
Washington Press, 1988) and Homo Aestheticus (New York: thing together that will move an audience (that would be a
Free Press, 1992). Harlem Globetrotters display, not an actual match) but are
6. Paul Ekman, Emotions Revealed (New York: Henry competing: the various ‘performers’ are at counter-purposes,
Holt, 2003), is a good introduction to “generic” emotions. whereas even in collective works of art with competing in-
The distinction I make here is perhaps parallel to the Sanskrit terests, like a studio film, all involved are striving to create
distinction between bhava, the basic emotions of life, and the work of art, although perhaps according to different val-
rasa, the peculiar emotions, something like unique flavor, ues; or a jazz combo, where all spontaneously react to one
expressed in works of art. another’s play but for the sake of the work and the audience,
7. Jerrold Levinson, “Defining Art Historically,” in not for the sake of a victory and the support of part of the
his Music, Art, and Metaphysics (Cornell University Press, audience.”
1990). 16. I had toyed with ideas presented here for years be-
8. Arthur Danto, “The Artworld,” Journal of Phi- fore a presentation by Julius Moravcsik at the annual meet-
losophy 61 (1964): 571–84, and many books and articles ing of the American Society for Aesthetics in 1992 finally
following; Terry Diffey, “The Republic of Art,” in his The convinced me that art as a natural phenomenon could be
Republic of Art and Other Essays (New York: Peter Lang, understood only in terms of a list of criteria. His published
1991); George Dickie, Art and the Aesthetic, an Institutional version of that lecture (see note 2) is still the place to begin
Analysis (Cornell University Press, 1974). meditation on these issues. I have also profited from writings
9. Blocker, The Aesthetics of Primitive Art, p. 148. by Berys Gaut and Stephen Davies on the subject. Lively au-
10. Brian Boyd has urged me in a personal communica- diences at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich,
tion to expand my list of recognition criteria to include sep- the University of Jena, and the University of Canterbury
arate items for (a) artifactuality and (b) having been made deepened my understanding of these issues. Brian Boyd gen-
for an audience. I resist for the reasons given, but his may erously supplied superb commentary and, as always, Margit
be the wiser view. Dutton provided me insights I could find nowhere else.