Action, Art, History: Engagements with Arthur C. Danto

by Daniel Herwitz (Editor), Michael Kelly (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231137966
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	03/06/2007
Series:	Columbia Themes in Philosophy
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Arthur C. Danto is the Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy emeritus at Columbia University and art critic for The Nation. His many books include Narration and Knowledge, After the End of Art, Nietzsche as Philosopher, and Art in the Historical Present, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. He was awarded the Prix Philosophe in 2003.Daniel Herwitz is director of the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan, where he also holds professorships in art and philosophy. He has taught at the University of Natal, South Africa, where he was chair of the Department of Philosophy. In addition to numerous articles on philosophy, art, politics, and culture, he is the author of Race and Reconciliation: Essays from the New South Africa and Making Theory/Constructing Art: On the Authority of the Avant-Garde. He has just completed a manuscript called Diana's Grace: Aura and Icon in our Time, about film, television, and celebrity, and is at work on a volume of short stories, one of which recently appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review. Michael Kelly is chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Formerly he was the executive director of the American Philosophical Association and managing editor of the Journal of Philosophy. He has taught philosophy at Columbia and philosophy and art history at the University of Delaware and is the author of Iconoclasm in Aesthetics and the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics.

Table of Contents

Introduction, by Daniel Herwitz and Michael Kelly
1. Arthur Danto at Columbia and in New York, by Akeel Bilgrami / A Note on My Responses, by Arthur Danto
2. Danto's Action, by Donald Davidson / Response, by Arthur Danto
3. Crossing Paths, by Stanley Cavell / Response, by Arthur Danto
4. For the Birds/Against the Birds: The Modernist Narratives of Danto and Adorno (and Cage), by Lydia Goehr /
Response, by Arthur Danto
5. Photoshop, or, Unhanding Art, by Gregg Horowitz / Response, by Arthur Danto
6. At the Doom of Modernism: Art and Art Theory in Competition, by Hans Belting / Response, by Arthur Danto
7. The Sell-By Date, by Daniel Herwitz / Response, by Arthur Danto
8. Danto on Tansey: The Possibilities of Appearance, by Michael Kelly / Response, by Arthur Danto
9. Danto, History, and the Tragedy of Human Existence, by Frank R. Ankersmit / Response, by Arthur Danto
10. History and the Sciences, by Philip Kitcher and Daniel Immerwahr/ Response, by Arthur Danto

What People are Saying About This

David Carrier

Before Arthur Danto—the most important living philosopher of art—became famous for his aesthetic theory, he was well known for his studies of Nietzsche, historiography, and the theory of action. This collection of very lively, eminently readable essays addressing the full range of Danto's concerns provides a most satisfying intellectual portrait. Building upon and arguing with his claims, it makes an essential contribution to ongoing dialogue, which is sure to be lively and productive.

— David Carrier, Champney Family Professor at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Art

Dieter Henrich

Art, Action, and History is a fascinating interchange of ideas and arguments centered on Arthur Danto's work. This festschrift is more informative and more stimulating than a philosophical autobiography could possibly be. Danto's early views on action, history, and knowledge illuminate in surprising ways his later views on art, and substantiate his stature as the leading philosophical art-critic of our time. Danto's mind and his subtle and witty style inspire his challengers and coauthors. The result is a volume that exhibits a unity of analytical rigor and intellectual richness that could hardly emerge anywhere except in Arthur Danto's environment.

— Dieter Henrich, professor emeritus at the University of Munich and Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Editorial Reviews

An excellent... well-edited book.

British Journal of Aesthetics - Michalle Gal

Columbia University Press

From the Publisher

An excellent... well-edited book.

— Michalle Gal

British Journal of Aesthetics