Ontology of Artworks
The ontology of art asks what kind of thing a work of art is: a physical object, an abstract type, an action, an imaginary entity, or something else.
Definition
The ontology of artworks is the study of the metaphysical category to which works of art belong—physical particulars, abstract types or kinds, performances, or abstract artifacts—and of their conditions of identity, existence, and instantiation.
Scope
This area covers the metaphysics of artworks: the category distinction between singular works such as paintings and multiple works such as novels and symphonies, the type/token analysis and its rivals, the ontology of musical works and performances, and the status of fictional objects and characters. It treats how a work's category bears on its identity, persistence, and conditions of correct instantiation. It does not cover the definition of art or its evaluation, treated in neighboring areas.
Sub-topics
Core questions
- Is a work of art a physical object, an abstract type, or something else?
- How do singular works such as paintings differ ontologically from multiple works such as symphonies?
- What is the relation between a musical work and its performances?
- Do fictional characters exist, and if so, as what sort of entity?
Key theories
- Type/token theory of multiple artworks
- On this view, defended by Wollheim and others, a novel or symphony is an abstract type, and the printed copies or performances are its tokens; appreciating the work is appreciating the type through a token.
- Autographic vs. allographic arts
- Goodman distinguishes autographic arts, such as painting, where even the most exact copy is a forgery, from allographic arts, such as music, where the work is fixed by a notation and any correct instance is genuine.
History
Systematic ontology of art emerged in analytic aesthetics in the 1960s, when Wollheim's Art and Its Objects and Goodman's Languages of Art posed the question of what kind of object a work is and drew the autographic/allographic distinction. Subsequent work refined type/token theories, debated whether musical works are eternal structures or created abstract artifacts, and connected the field to general metaphysics of abstract objects, with Thomasson and others treating artworks and fictional characters as abstract artifacts.
Debates
- Created vs. discovered abstract works
- Whether multiple works such as symphonies are timeless structures merely discovered by composers, or abstract artifacts brought into existence by creative acts, is a central ontological dispute.
- Do physicalist ontologies suffice?
- Whether artworks can be identified with physical objects or events, or whether some works require abstract entities, divides physicalist from realist ontologies of art.
Key figures
- Richard Wollheim
- Nelson Goodman
- Jerrold Levinson
- Amie Thomasson
Related topics
Seminal works
- wollheim1968
- goodman1968
Frequently asked questions
- Where is a symphony, exactly?
- Not in any one place: a symphony is plausibly an abstract type or structure that can be instanced in many performances and scores, which is why its ontology differs from that of a single painting tied to a physical canvas.
- What is the autographic/allographic distinction?
- Goodman's distinction marks arts like painting, where the work is identified with a particular object so that copies are forgeries (autographic), from arts like music, where the work is fixed by notation and any compliant instance is authentic (allographic).