Action, Art, History

Engagements with Arthur C. Danto

Daniel Herwitz, Michael Kelly, Daniel Herwitz, Michael Kelly

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2007
• eBook ISBN:
  9780231510844
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Aesthetics in Philosophy

Arthur C. Danto is unique among philosophers for the breadth of his philosophical mind, his eloquent writing style, and the generous spirit embodied in all his work. Any collection of essays on his philosophy has to engage him on all these levels, because this is how he has always engaged the world, as a philosopher and person.

In this volume, renowned philosophers and art historians revisit Danto's theories of art, action, and history, and the depth of his innovation as a philosopher of culture. Essays explore the importance of Danto's philosophy and criticism for the contemporary art world, along with his theories of perception, action, historical knowledge, and, most importantly for Danto himself, the conceptual connections among these topics. Danto himself continues the conversation by adding his own commentary to each essay, extending the debate with characteristic insight, graciousness, and wit.

Contributors include Frank Ankersmit, Hans Belting, Stanley Cavell, Donald Davidson, Lydia Goehr, Gregg Horowitz, Philip Kitcher, Daniel Immerwahr, Daniel Herwitz, and Michael Kelly, testifying to the far-reaching effects of Danto's thought. Danto brought to philosophy the artist's unfettered imagination, and his ideas about postmodern culture are virtual road maps of the present art world. This volume pays tribute to both Danto's brilliant capacity to move between philosophy and contemporary culture and his pathbreaking achievements in philosophy, art history, and art criticism.

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Half title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents 
• Introduction
• 1. Arthur Danto at Columbia and in New York
• 2. Danto’s Action
• 3. Crossing Paths
• 4. For the Birds/Against the Birds: The Modernist Narratives of Danto and Adorno (and Cage)
• 5. Photoshop, or, Unhanding Art
• 6. At the Doom of Modernism: Art and Art Theory in Competition
• 7. The Sell-By Date
• 8. Danto on Tansey: The Possibilities of Appearance
• 9. Danto, History, and the Tragedy of Human Existence
• 10. History and the Sciences