The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Relational theories of art: the history of an error

Relational theories of art: the history of an error
Relational theories of art: the history of an error
Relational theories of art—paradigmatically, the ‘Institutional’ theory—arose from dissatisfaction with the Wittgenstein-inspired ‘family resemblance’ account of art, and were taken not merely to be preferable in various ways to that account, but actually to falsify it. We argue that this latter thought is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the falsification-conditions of a family resemblance account; and we suggest that, once the reasons for this are appreciated, any apparent motivation to engage in relational theorizing about art evaporates.
0007-0904
141-151
Neill, Alex
356f9035-0820-4df8-838d-94b5bd219814
Ridley, Aaron
64d82169-aa92-4352-975d-2ef8bb3f2cc7
Neill, Alex
356f9035-0820-4df8-838d-94b5bd219814
Ridley, Aaron
64d82169-aa92-4352-975d-2ef8bb3f2cc7

Neill, Alex and Ridley, Aaron (2012) Relational theories of art: the history of an error. The British Journal of Aesthetics, 52 (2), 141-151. (doi:10.1093/aesthj/ays004).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Relational theories of art—paradigmatically, the ‘Institutional’ theory—arose from dissatisfaction with the Wittgenstein-inspired ‘family resemblance’ account of art, and were taken not merely to be preferable in various ways to that account, but actually to falsify it. We argue that this latter thought is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the falsification-conditions of a family resemblance account; and we suggest that, once the reasons for this are appreciated, any apparent motivation to engage in relational theorizing about art evaporates.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: March 2012
Organisations: Philosophy

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 336232
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/336232
ISSN: 0007-0904
PURE UUID: 9056a66c-7398-4e29-a748-4708d27a5301

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 19 Mar 2012 15:55
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 10:40

Export record

Altmetrics

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×