Paths From the Philosophy of Art to Everyday Aesthetics (
2019)
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Abstract
In “How Art Teaches: A Lesson from Goodman”, Markus Lammenranta
inquires if and how artworks can convey propositional knowledge about
the world. Lammenranta argues that the cognitive role of art can be
explained by revising Nelson Goodman’s theory of symbols. According to
Lammenranta, the problem of Goodman’s theory is that, despite providing
an account of art’s symbolic function, it denies art the possibility of mediating
propositional knowledge. Lammenranta claims that Goodman’s theory can
be augmented by enlarging it with an account of direct reference developed
by Bertrand Russell and contemporary philosophy of language. On this
basis, an expanded version of Goodman’s theory can explain how artworks
can express propositions even without being linguistic, representational, or
non-fictive. Lammenranta explicates his theory by explaining how abstract
paintings and literary fictions can mediate propositional claims about the
actual, everyday world.