THE (IM)POSSIBILITY OF DEFINING ART WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON CLUSTER ACCOUNT AND DISJUNCTIVE DEFINITION

Abstract

Defining as a method being used to specify theoretical practices of a specific notion, in art philosophy encounters difficulties, and therefore defining the term art, as well as derived concepts such as a work of art, tends to be one of the main problems of aesthetics nowadays. In its first part, this paper represents a description of elementary essential and anti-essential understanding of necessity i.e. inability to define art, while in its second part it deals with the latest cluster account i.e. disjunctive definition of art. Although they tend to use adequacy and logical simplicity to define art as a concept with no clear boundaries and extent, the cluster i.e. disjunctive solutions do not surpass disadvantages of previous attempts of defining. In fact, disjunctive essentialism offers pluralism of solutions based on possible combinations of necessary art conditions represented through disjunctive logical form. Therefore, a great deal of remarks towards essentialistic theories has validity related to this understanding.