Art, definition of

References and further reading

These readings are not introductory in style, though none is forbiddingly technical or formal.

	Beardsley, M.C. (1966) Aesthetics from Classical Greece to the Present, New York: Macmillan. (Introductory history of aesthetics covering the main theories and definitions.)
	Beardsley, M.C. (1982) ‘Redefining Art’, in M.J. Wreen and D.M. Callen (eds) The Aesthetic Point of View, Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press, 298–315. (A functionalist definition according to which art provides aesthetic experience.)
	Beardsley, M.C. (1983) ‘An Aesthetic Definition of Art’, in H. Curtler (ed.) What Is Art?, New York: Haven, 15–29.
	Bell, C. (1958) Art, New York: Capricorn Books. (Originally published 1914. Art is defined in terms of significant form.)
	Carney, J.D. (1991) ‘Style Theory of Art’, The Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 72: 272–89. (A recursive definition identifying style as the crucial relation.)
	Carroll, N. (1988) ‘Art, Practice, and Narrative’, The Monist, 71: 140–56. (Introduces a theory according to which the continuity of a narrative charts the course of art. The account is elaborated and defended in 1993 and 1994.)
	Carroll, N. (1993) ‘Historical Narratives and the Philosophy of Art’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 51: 313–26. (Elaborates and refines a theory first introduced in 1988 according to which the continuity of a narrative charts the course of art.)
	Carroll, N. (1994) ‘Identifying Art’, in R.J. Yanal (ed.) Institutions of Art, University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 3–39. (Advances the theory of 1993 while criticizing alternative views.)
	Davies, S. (1991) Definitions of Art, Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press. (Detailed review of philosophical treatments of the topic since the 1950s; contains a bibliography.)
	Dickie, G. (1969) ‘Defining Art’, The American Philosophical Quarterly, 6: 253–6. (Dickie’s first formulation of the institutional theory.)
	Dickie, G. (1974) Art and the Aesthetic: An Institutional Analysis, Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press. (The first developed account of an institutional theory.)
	Dickie, G. (1984) The Art Circle: A Theory of Art, New York: Haven. (The institutional theory revised and refined.)
	Diffey, T.J. (1969) ‘The Republic of Art’, British Journal of Aesthetics 9: 145–56. (The most sophisticated of the first articulations of the institutional theory.)
	Diffey, T.J. (1985) Tolstoy’s ‘What Is Art?’, London: Croom Helm. (An account of Tolstoy’s theory of art as expression.)
	Levinson, J. (1979) ‘Defining Art Historically’, British Journal of Aesthetics 19: 232–50. (First version of his recursive definition.)
	Levinson, J. (1989) ‘Refining Art Historically’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 47: 21–33. (Revises and defends Levinson (1979).)
	Levinson, J. (1993) ‘Extending Art Historically’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 51: 411–23. (Revises and defends Levinson (1979) and (1989).)
	Schlesinger, G. (1979) ‘Aesthetic Experience and the Definition of Art’, The British Journal of Aesthetics, 19: 167–76. (Works of art defined functionally as artifacts that produce aesthetic experience.)
	Sparshott, F. (1982) The Theory of the Arts, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Detailed coverage of the arts, including their definition.)
	Stecker, R. (1994) ‘Historical Functionalism or the Four Factor Theory’, British Journal of Aesthetics 34: 255–65. (A historicist, sophisticated version of functionalism.)
	Tolhurst, W. (1984) ‘Towards an Aesthetic Account of the Nature of Art’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 42: 261–9. (A historicist version of functionalism.)
	Tolstoy, L. (1930) What is Art? and Essays on Art, trans. A. Maude, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (The title essay, which is philosophically naive, was originally published in 1898. Defines art as the communication and arousal of feeling.)
	Weitz, M. (1956) ‘The Role of Theory in Aesthetics’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 15: 27–35. (A famous attempt to show that art has no definable essence.)