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Single Idea 8113

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 5. Art as Language ]

Full Idea

In Goodman's account, knowing what a painting represents is logically like understanding a sentence in a natural language. It requires a grasp of the 'symbol system' to which the painting belongs.

Gist of Idea

Art is like understanding a natural language, and needs a grasp of a symbol system

Source

report of Nelson Goodman (The Languages of Art [1976]) by Sebastian Gardner - Aesthetics 2.3.2

Book Ref

'Philosophy: a Guide Through the Subject', ed/tr. Grayling,A.C. [OUP 1995], p.603

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A Reaction

This may fit some pictures well (e.g. early Flemish painting, with its complex iconography), but others hardly at all. You can enjoy a first experience of (say) ballet long before you get the hang of the 'symbol system' involved.

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The 4 ideas with the same theme [art is best understood as a language]:

8113	Art is like understanding a natural language, and needs a grasp of a symbol system [Goodman, by Gardner]

20439

Artistic symbols are judged by the fruitfulness of their classifications [Goodman, by Giovannelli]

12162

In literature, word replacement changes literary meaning [Scruton]

12166

If music refers to love, it contains no predication, so it is expression, not language [Scruton]