Abstract

Answers to the question ‘what is art?’ may take any of three forms. A theory of art states what makes any item an art work. A theory of the arts states what makes certain activities (e.g. painting, music, poetry, and dance) arts when other activities (e.g. philosophy or cooking) are not arts. A theory of each art states what makes any item a work in a particular art (e.g. what makes an item a painting or what makes an item a dance). These three classes of theories are not equivalent. According to a buck passing theory of art, what makes any item a work of art is that it is a work in a specific art form. The outlines of an argument for the theory is sketched. In addition, an argument is given to show that this theory is no less able than its competition to connect in a systematic way with a theory of the arts and theories of the specific art forms.