Abstract

This chapter stages an ongoing conversation between Arthur Danto and the author. In a series of encounters from 1985 till 2012 (in New York City and elsewhere) the problem of defining art is explored from different angles. Eventually, two kinds of definition are distinguished. On the one hand, a definition may aspire to identify peculiar characteristics of the things that are commonly regarded members of the noble class of artworks. On the other hand, a definition might also name criteria for deciding whether an object may become a member of this class in the first place. Danto focused on the first task because he felt, quite rightly, that the second would require competences that philosophy does not dispose of.