Art as Language systematically considers the implications of the pervasive belief that art is a language or functions like language. This insightful book clarifies the similarities and differences between expression in speech and expression in art, and examines Wittgenstein's work on language and mind as it applies to several prominent aesthetic theories.

Working from a Wittgensteinian perspective, G. L. Hagberg opens with a reexamination of some of the foundational aesthetic theorists of the earlier part of the twentieth century, including R. G. Collingwood and Susanne Langer. He uncovers the sources of many contemporary issues in philosophical aesthetics and investigates the ways in which problems have been conceptualized and theoretical advances have been formulated. He then discusses the nature of linguistic intention and explores its significance for understanding artistic intention and creation. Here Hagberg draws on Wittgenstein's work on linguistic meaning, and particularly on "private language," to provide a deeper understanding of artistic meaning.

The book closes with an analysis of the issues raised by leading aesthetic philosophies in the post-Wittgenteinian years. Focusing on the work of Arthur Danto, George Dickie, and Joseph Margolis, Hagberg discusses the philosophical presumptions and hidden complexities in recent theories of artistic perception, in theories concerning the nature of the art object, and in the institutional conception of the arts. Throughout Art as Language, he tests the claims of aesthetics against artistic practices in order to rethink the fundamental positions of the most important aesthetic theories of the last century.

About the Author

G. L. Hagberg is Professor of Philosophy at Bard College. He is the author of Meaning and Interpretation: Wittgenstein, Henry James, and Literary Knowledge, also from Cornell.

Reviews

The arguments are persuasive and deftly executed, and the examples are well chosen. Initiates into the main debates of analytic aesthetics who share the author's sense that the latter tradition is in need of internal critique... will not be disappointed.

-- Casey Haskins, SUNY at Purchase * The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism *

Art as Language is in itself extremely valuable as an example of the still largely unappreciated relevance of Wittgenstein's work to traditional philosophical issues.... This book, as a more or less encyclopedic critique of aesthetic theories from a Wittgensteinian perspective, will be enlightening to aesthetic theorists who want to know, not what Wittgenstein said about art, but what the relevance of his work is to their use of language as a point of reference for interpreting art.

* Choice *

In a series of acute arguments, Hagberg dismantles the region of grand aesthetic theory that defines art in the terms philosophy has traditionally used to define language.... Written with excellence in argumentation, judiciousness, and a capacious knowledge of Wittgenstein.

-- Daniel Herwitz * Common Knowledge *



Book Information
ISBN 9780801485312
Author G. L. Hagberg
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 16mm