Co-authored with Christy Mag Uidhir, this reaffirms the pluralism but retreats from the final comments of our earlier paper. See also this related note.
Art pluralism is the view that there is no single, correct account of what art is. Instead, art is understood through a plurality of art concepts and with considerations that are different for particular arts. Although avowed pluralists have retained the word “art” in their discussions, it is natural to ask whether the considerations that motivate pluralism should lead us to abandon art talk altogether; that is, should pluralism lead to eliminativism? This paper addresses arguments both for and against this move. We ultimately argue that pluralism allows one to retain the word “art”, if one wants it, but only in a loose, conversational sense. The upshot of pluralism is that talk of art in general cannot be asked to do theoretical and philosophical work.
@ARTICLE{MagUidhir+Magnus2024, AUTHOR = {P.D. Magnus and Christy {Mag U}idhir}, TITLE = {Does art pluralism lead to eliminativism?}, JOURNAL = {Estetika}, YEAR = {2024}, VOLUME = {61}, NUMBER {1}, PAGES = {73--80}, DOI = {https://doi.org/10.33134/eeja.381} }
The first on-line draft of this paper was posted 22aug2023.