The Journal Of Aesthetics And Art Criticism And American Analytic Aesthetics

Analytical philosophy was born in Europe, but it blosoms in the United States where the native pragmatist philosophy was originally dominating. Analytic aesthetics, which employs the methodology of analytic philosophy, became the mainstream school. Since Alexander Gottliel Baumgarten the subject Aesthetica, for nearly200years, Germany has been the regional center of aesthetic study. However, since the Second World War, the regional center has transfered from continental Europe to America, from Germany to the United States. From the start, American aesthetics has been almost solely represented by the American Society of Aesthetics (ASA refers to its shortform) and its "official organ" the journal of aesthetics and art criticism (JAAC refers to its shortform). In American aesthetics, analytic aesthetics has become not only a relatively independent branch, but also one that has great impact globally on the aesthetic field.Actually, the formation, development and evolution of American analytic aesthetics can be attributed to the inseparable interaction of the following three factors. First of all, from the perspective of the thought resources, it has intergrated both analytical philosophyand the local pragmatism philosophy. Second, in methodological perspectives, the methodology of the analytical philosophy constitutes the backbone of aesthetic analysis, which becomes a critical part of its getting rid of the metaphysics of traditional aesthetics, its theoretical construction and its future development. Third, as the Society and the Journal became the authority of the subject's institutionalization, American aesthetics has become increasingly the exclusive property of philosophers, largely taken over in the mainstream by philosophers working within what is commonly called the Anglo-American tradition. JAAC not only witnesses the progress of analytic aesthetic to be the mainstream American aesthetics but also leads the development of aesthetics, both in themes and concerns. Based on analytical and pragmatical philosophy thought resources, analytic methodology and the representing journal, analytic aesthetics lauched a campaign for cleaning traditional metaphysics, gave rise to a revolution of the aesthetic theory in terms of anti-essentialism, neo-essentialism and pluralism, in which, the discussion of the definition of art has been the central concern to the central problem "what is art?", providing a comprehensive, very wide, important domain of aesthetic and philosophial problem.In the radical change of art practics, the urgent task aesthetics of the mainstream American aesthetics-analysis is to solve a series of problems in the philosophy of art. As the representative of the aesthetic institutionalizing, JAAC and ASA played a more and more important leading role in methodology, theme and concerns for the development of the discipline. Since JAAC and ASA represents the institutionalization of American aesthetics, and analytic aesthetics is its mainstream, this dissertation starts with the magazine as a window to explore the main course of the development and future trends of analytic aesthetics, mainly taking the definitions of art associated with the core question "what is art?" as clues.Since the Dadaist movement in the1920s, the rages of avant-garde art broke the rules that traditionally art appreciation and art criticism can be solve with a "good eye". The great change of the art world has turned the tide, and unprecedentedly changed cognitive way of the art, which needs a new perspective of epistemology and methodology in the philosophical level. The complexity of the art world makes the traditional aesthetic theory disoriented. As a representative of the contemporary art, the avant-garde art gave rise to the profound philosophical problems."Is art necessary to possess aesthetic qualities?""What is art?""How to identify art works from other object?""What role does art theory play for identifying art?""What's the point for and interpretation of art and art criticism?" Pursuing and answering these questions become necessary and urgent. Among them,"what is art?" is the essential pressing problems. Based on an objective analysis of art practice, analytic aesthetics launched a revolution, taking removing the traditional metaphysics as an opportunity, which marks a new ideological trend, along with kind of the evolution of logic and of knowledge form, the former universalism fading out of people's perspective, anti-essentialist trends steped onto the stage of the history of aesthetics. However, with anti-essentialist dispelling and deconstruction, aesthetics is trapped in a sense of disorientation and uncertainty. That is, the definition of art involved in another round of a dilemma after out of one predicament.Anti-essentialists like William Kennick, Weitz and Ziff mainly accepted "language games","family resemblance","form of life" and "open concept of art" rooted in Wittgenstein's philosophical thoughts to oppose any theory of the essentialism, against the necessary and sufficient conditions for the definition, which is undoubtedly a canceling attitude to aesthetics. Nelson Goodman, as a representative of the anti-essentialism pluralists, claims epistemology of worldmaking, falling into a trap of relativism and no certainty. The great internal changes in art practice and people's need concerning art press for art theory to explain the complexity of the art works, to try to define art in a new way, for anchoring their belief, values, the knowledge conversion. This may mean that in the new historical stage, aesthetics and the philosophy of art urgently need a new perspective in response to the above questions. Therefore, a new essentialism approach to the nature of art theory is on its way.It is the main concern to go beyond the traditional metaphysical essentialism, follow the real historical, social and cultural characteristics of arts in practice. The later analytic aesthetics primarily took its trace in a neo-essentialist approach to guide the definitions of art, which stick to the non-exhibited properties beyong the traditional "exhibited" ones. However, the essentialist approach still cannot avoid critisim. With rejection of traps in psychology, sociology, politics or religion, Beardsley determined to defend the autonomy of art or aesthetic and artistic value, defend the aesthetic value of art, defend art aesthetic principles as criteria of the basic position. He devoted into the aesthetic definition of art. Danto did his contribution in his keen insight into the combination of historicism and essentialism in the contemporary art. In addition to Danto's historical art theory, dickie posed institutional art theory, to define arts from the social and cultural practice. This new round of art definitions has a different perspective from the traditional one. It is mainly embodied in the neo-essentialist definition, which featured procedural definitions. It's obvious that Beardsly paid too much emphasis on the aesthetic experience of art works, the functional aspect of arts, but neglects or rejects the functions and values of arts in the other aspects. What's more, it can't be a convincing explanation of the contemporary art for excluding the avante-arts. For Danto, dickie, representative of the neo-essentialism, its limitations are clear in the following major aspect:firstly, it's quite controversial whether it's an essentialist definition; The art world is not adequately institutionalized, which has awarded authority to declare items the function and position to art; the institutional theory is confined to the descriptive significance of art while neglecting art definition as the function of evaluation over emphasize legislative roles of the art.For more than half a century, the American domestic and foreign scholars, undergo enormous explorations, from uprooting the metaphysics to radical self-criticalness, to correct and enrich their theory. In fact, analytic aesthetic is not doomed to failure or death like what many scholars claimed. What ends is just some specific forms, and more importantly, it transformed into another form. Each time the aesthetic form of conversion is based on criticism reflection of existing aesthetic shape. Analytic aesthetic transcends the formed aesthetics, and also surmounts itself, in which confusion, debate and questioning, all show that contemporary American analytic aesthetics advances with the times, with self critical spirit and enterprising spirit without exception. On one hand, the analytic aesthetic has achieved the leading position, with great impact on the development of aesthetics; On the other hand, since the analytic aesthetics have successfully infiltrated other genres, despite gradually losing its inherent criticalness, it reflects its more inclusive and more powerful explanatory capacity. With the analytic approach to beauty and arts and the life form as the research orientation in the wide range of its possibility, analytic aesthetics will better serve our understanding of art and aesthetics, which will also have more extensive space and prospects.The main trend of the analytic aesthetics is to explore the artistic aesthetics system multidimensionally from cultural practice, cognitive science, historical narration, daily life and so on for the sake of the persistent concerns in particular stages of art theory. Art and life form become inexhaustible source of living water of analysis aesthetics. Breaking through the essentialist set patterns, seeking art and life's push in the form of interactive development, become the main trend of definitions of arts in analytic aesthetics. Among them, the art theory of pragmatism, from defining art to defining individual arts, the artistic field gain the rallying point in this multicultural era of art.