An Ontology of Multiple Artworks

Abstract

Abstract An Ontology of Multiple Artworks is the first book-length critical analytic treatment in over forty years of the metaphysical issues relating to the different kinds of ‘multiple’ artworks. Multiple artworks are works that can have multiple ‘instances’: for example, there can be multiple copies of a novel, or multiple performances of a musical work. This book takes an adequate ontology of multiple artworks to be reflectively accountable to the kinds of considerations to which authors have appealed in arguing for ontological understandings of works, in particular multiple art forms. Nine such ‘explananda’ structure the discussion. After clarifying what ‘multiplicity’ in the arts amounts to, it critically assesses the ‘Platonist’ idea that multiple artworks must be abstract entities of some sort existing independently of our creative and appreciative practices. It measures Platonism against the different explananda and also ‘weights’ the explananda themselves. It also reflects upon the methodological constraints that should govern this kind of philosophical inquiry. It argues that Platonism about multiple artworks is seriously compromised, and considers different non-Platonist options. It further argues that the account that best explains the weighted explananda is the ‘Wollheimian-type’ theory according to which multiple artworks are performances essentially embedded in artistic practices. Finally, it assesses sceptical challenges to the very idea that there are such things as multiple artworks.

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