ART, PHILOSOPHY OF

art, philosophy of: translation

The philosophy of art is distinguished from the wider topic of aesthetics only by confining attention to the aesthetic appreciation of deliberately produced works of art. A central problem is therefore that of defining what feature distinguishes such works from works of entertainment, craft, things produced for other purposes, or things in nature. Although this can seem to be a pointless quest, the category retains great moral and political importance, for instance in distinguishing erotica from pornography.