Iconoclasm in Aesthetics

Although philosophers have characteristically taken the view that art is a vehicle of some universal meaning or truth, art historians emphasize the concrete, historical location of the individual work of art. Is aesthetics capable of sustaining these two approaches? Or, as Michael Kelly argues: Is art actually determined by its historical particularity? His book covers the views of four philosophers—Heidegger, Adorno, Derrida, and Danto—ultimately iconoclasts, despite their significant philosophical engagement with the arts.

Discusses the work of four influential philosophers of art: Heidegger, Adorno, Derrida, and Danto.

Michael Kelly is Executive Director of the American Philosophical Association.