Hegel, Nietzsche and Danto on the end of art: A critique of the end of art

This dissertation investigates how the aesthetic theories of Hegel, Nietzsche and Danto frame the end of art thesis. Chapter one situates the origin of the end of art in the historical context of the ancient quarrel between philosophy and poetry. Aristotle's defense of poetry, a response to Plato's expulsion of the poets, suggests a solution. Chapter two covers Hegel's account of the nature of art and the historical unfolding of art's concept. Within the framework of his broader theory, Hegel's notions of the Sublime, the Beautiful and the Ugly are contrasted with Kant's. The differences found in the aesthetic theories of each underscore why Hegel's conception of art necessitates its end. Nietzche's shifting stance toward art is the topic of chapter three. The influence of Schopenhauer on his aesthetic theory is explored while bringing to the fore issues concerning why art ends as a way of revitalizing culture. In chapter four, Danto's essentialist theory of art is analyzed in the historical context of the twentieth century. While Danto borrows heavily from Hegel, his theory has neither the metaphysics of Hegel nor the nihilism of Nietzsche. For Danto the era of art ends when its internal narrative is no longer driven by the question of what art is. At this point, freed from its philosophical drive for self-definition, art can express itself freely but it requires the philosopher-critic for interpretation. The dissertation isolates two major factors connected to the notion that art has ended: art as a transitory mode of knowledge and art as a medium of symbolic communication. The final chapter addresses these issues. A discussion of Aristotle examines the first issue, suggesting a way of viewing art that would not predict its end. After laying the groundwork for a more balanced relationship between art and philosophy, the second theme is addressed by crafting a communicative theory of art. Building on Ernst Gombrich's historical study of the artist's language of visual representation, the theory is applied to what Danto calls post-historical art. Rather than viewing the artworld's increased reliance on the philosopher-critic to interpret the artwork's non-visible concept as the end of art, as Hegel, Nietzsche and Danto do, my theory's recognition that art's linguistic schemata develop progressively predicts a diminished role for theoretical interpretation as art overcomes the deficit of its communicative capacity.