Card 5.2.2 · Root V — Aesthetics
Artistic Intention
Does the artist get to say what the work means?
This node asks whether what the maker meant determines what the work means.
Where it sits
Under 5.2 Philosophy of art. Borders 5.2.3 Interpretation, 6.10.1 Reference.
The rival answers
| Position | Claim |
|---|---|
| Actual intentionalism | Meaning is what the artist intended |
| Hypothetical intentionalism | Meaning is what an ideal audience would attribute |
| Anti-intentionalism | The work's meaning is in the work; intention is irrelevant |
| Conventionalism | Meaning is fixed by the conventions the work operates in |
| Value-maximising | Choose the reading that makes the work best |
Key figures
| Figure | Dates | Tradition | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley | 20th c. | Analytic | The intentional fallacy |
| Roland Barthes | 1915–1980 | Continental | The death of the author |
| E. D. Hirsch | 1928–2024 | Analytic | Defended authorial meaning |
| Jerrold Levinson | b. 1948 | Analytic | Hypothetical intentionalism |
Also on this question: Monroe Beardsley W. K. Wimsatt
Connections
→ 5.2 · ↔ 5.2.3, 6.10.1, 6.2, 5.6 · ◇ intentionalism, anti-intentionalism · ○ Modern; Table 10
→ narrower questions · ↔ questions it borders · ◇ the positions, mapped in Part III of the book · ○ the eras and comparison tables (Parts IV and V)
The full card is in the book
In The Coordinates of Thought this card goes on to a worked example that sets the answers against one case, and to where the question touches daily life — page 225.
On Coordinates of Thought
Conversations about this question in Beauty & art:
- Beauty is objective 6 replies
- The institutional theory of art is circular, and it’s the vicious kind 5 replies
- Hume’s ‘true judges’ are the best answer we have to whether taste can be wrong 5 replies
- I make cedar doors. Am I an artist, a craftsman, or is that the wrong question? 5 replies
- Reproduction did not wither the aura of art; it made the aura more valuable 5 replies