George Dickie

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George Thomas Dickie (born August 12, 1926 in Palmetto , Florida , † March 24, 2020 ) was an American philosopher . Dickie worked exclusively in the field of aesthetics in the tradition of analytical philosophy . In his two main works Art and the Aesthetic. An Institutional Analysis (1974) and The Art Circle. A Theory of Art (1984) he developed the institutional theory of art. While Dickie had a lasting influence on the discussion of analytical aesthetics in the Anglo-Saxon-speaking world, his works are still largely unknown in Germany and have so far remained untranslated.

Life

After studying at Florida State University , Dickie received his doctorate in 1959 from the University of California with a thesis on Francis Hutcheson's ethical theory and then worked at the University of Houston , Washington State University and the University of Edinburgh . From 1965 until his retirement in 1994/95, Dickie taught at the University of Illinois in Chicago . From 1992 to 1994 he was President of the American Society for Aesthetics. He has received awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities , the American Council of Learned Societies and the Guggenheim Foundation, among others .

Art theory

Based on critical investigations of classical theories on aesthetic experience, attitude and perception, Dickie came to the conclusion that art cannot be determined by reference to mental states or directly perceptible properties. Instead, hit Dickie before, an institution that art world ( artworld ) to take to the starting point of the definition of art. A work of art is an artifact that a group of experts has given the status of a work of art. According to Arthur C. Danto's judgment , Dickie's theory implies an "empowering elite".

Dickie adopted the term artworld from Danto. According to his statement, Dickie founded " the institutional theory of art [...] as it were from a creative misunderstanding of my writings". Danto also understood his art theory as an institutional theory, but unlike Dickie he understood the institutionally composed art world as a loose association of people who enter into a “discourse of reasons” that “transfers the status of art to things”.

Dickie compared the granting of art status to a christening act that is subject to certain conventions. He distinguished between primary and secondary conventions: Primary conventions require the artist and audience to be involved in an artistic activity; secondary conventions determine how works of art are to be presented.

Works

  • Aesthetics. An Introduction , Indianapolis 1971
  • Art and the Aesthetic. An Institutional Analysis , Ithaca, London 1974
  • Aesthetics: A critical Anthology (together with RJ Sclafani / R. Roblin [eds.]), New York 1977
  • The Art Circle. A Theory of Art , New York 1984
  • Evaluating Art , Philadelphia 1988
  • The Century of Taste. The Philosophical Odyssey of Taste in the Eighteenth Century , Oxford 1995
  • Introduction to Aesthetics. An Analytic Approach, New York 1997
  • Art and Value , Malden u. a. 2001

literature

  • Dimitri Liebsch: George Dickies Institutional Theories. In: Thomas Hecken / Axel Spree (ed.): Benefit and clarity. Anglo-American Aesthetics in the 20th Century , Paderborn 2002, pp. 91–123
  • Karlheinz Lüdeking : Analytical Philosophy of Art. An introduction. Munich, UTB 1998, pp. 163-182
  • Bernhard Roten: George Dickie . In: Monika Betzler, Mara-Daria Cojocaru , Julian Nida-Rümelin (eds.): Aesthetics and philosophy of art. From antiquity to the present in individual representations (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 375). 2nd, updated and supplemented edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-520-37502-5 , pp. 263-267.

Remarks

  1. ↑ In Memoriam: George Dickie. University of Illinois at Chicago, April 4, 2020, accessed April 9, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Arthur C. Danto: Reunion with the Art World: Comedies of Likeness . In: ders .: Art after the end of art . Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 1996, p. 53.
  3. ↑ Arthur C. Danto: Reunion with the Art World: Comedies of Likeness . In: ders .: Art after the end of art . Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 1996, p. 55.
  4. ↑ See Bernhard Roten: George Dickie. In: Monika Betzler, Julian-Nida Rümelin, Mara-Daria Cojocaru (eds.): Aesthetics and philosophy of art. From antiquity to the present in individual representations , 2nd edition Stuttgart: Kröner 2012 (1998), p. 265
personal data
SURNAME Dickie, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dickie, George Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Palmetto , Florida
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 2020