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Against the Anti Theory Position on Art

Document Type

Religion and Philosophy

Abstract

In Nobody Needs a Theory of Art, Dominic Lopes argues that engagement with art does not require a general theory of what art is. Lopes defends what he calls (R) : that an item is art if and only if it belongs to one of the arts, and maintains that “All we need in a theory of art we get from (R)”(126). He argues that philosophical effort should shift away from defining art and toward theorizing individual art forms. The thesis of this paper is that Lopes is mistaken, because the practices of identifying, evaluating, and disputing art all require criteria that function as a theory. Lopes’s attempt to replace theories of art with theories of the arts does not eliminate the need for a general theoretical framework but rather presupposes one. I will argue first that classificatory practices require criteria, second that such criteria amount to a theory of art, and third that attempts to deny this rely on a narrow conception of what theory is, neglecting the scope of the term.

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