Mª José Alcaraz’s PhD dissertation Arthur Danto’s definition of art: from indiscernible objects to embodied meanings has been the most downloaded one in the University of Murcia during the academic year 2011-2012. For this reason, Mª José Alcaraz and her tutor Paca Pérez Carreño were awarded at a ceremony that took place the 19th of November 2012 in Covalecencia Building, rectory of the University of Murcia.
Dated in 2006 and published in 2008, the thesis deals with Arthur Danto’s definition of art, whose validity she tried to assess. It is noticeable that Danto’s proposal strongly depends upon the acceptance of the experiment of perceptual indiscernible objects that nevertheless have a different ontological status. For this reason, the author analyzed the perceptual view implied by the formulation of the experiment and she also tried to characterize other compatible perceptual views that are compatible with the experiment in order to grant its validity. Mº José analyzed the notion of “artworld” which was put forward by Danto as a necessary condition for art and, finally, she assessed his definition of art in terms of “aboutness” and “embodiment”. This definition –she argues– is not sufficient to cover all the objects that we usually classify as art for it is not at all obvious that every object satisfies them.
More information:
https://www.um.es/actualidad/gabineteprensa.php?accion=vernota&idnota=39421
https://www.um.es/prinum/index.php?opc=noticias&off=0&ver=497
