What part do emotions play in our appreciation of art? Jesse Prinz explores the sense of wonder at artworks in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.
This is philosophy bites with me, Nigel.
Warburton, and me, David Edmonds.
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Ever since Marcel Duchamp exhibited urinal signed R.
Mutt in an open art exhibition in 1917, questions have been raised about what art is.
His so called ready mades were decidedly cool conceptual pieces devoid of emotional content.
Since then, the idea that art has a link with emotion seems to have gone out of fashion.
But it's an idea that Jesse Prince of City University, New York's graduate center, wants to resurrect.
Jesse Prince, welcome to philosophy Bites.
It's wonderful to be here.
The topic we're going to focus on is art and emotion.
Historically, in the 20th century, going into the 21st century, emotions have been downplayed.
In the philosophy of art, there's a sense in which we've moved away from saying that art is all about emotion.
I think that's exactly right.
At the turn of the century, emotion was crucial to theories of art.
We have formalists saying that art is going to involve significant form, where significant form is formal qualities of work that excite certain emotions.
And we have expressive theories saying that art is about transmitting your passions as an artist to the audience.
But then that all disappears.
And I think the second half of the 20th century has been a flight away from the emotions in our theories of art.