Kendall Walton's ‘Categories of Art’: A Critical Commentary

摘要

Kendall Walton’s ‘Categories of Art’ is one of the most famous and, arguably, most important papers nin modern aesthetics. Despite this, and the various references to it and discussions of it within the nliterature, there are no general commentaries on this essay. In addition to outlining a general nframework for approaching the article, I identify and explicate the two main exegetical issues nregarding it. The frst concerns how to understand Walton’s main thesis that the aesthetic character nof artworks is determined, in part, by their ‘correct category’. I suggest that the traditional ninterpretation of Walton’s proposal is mistaken, and defend an alternative view at length. The second nissue concerns the relationship between Walton’s view and competing accounts of the aesthetics of nartworks. Here I suggest that Walton’s position is unique, contrasting the views of both typical nformalists, on the one hand, and ordinary contextualists, on the other, in philosophically signifcant nways. Careful refection on this particular issue helps reveal some very important distinctions among naesthetic theories, which have not been previously drawn or emphasized.