Skip to content
Coordinates of ThoughtHome of Philosophy
Join

Thinker · TH-0178

George Dickie

George Dickie was an American philosopher of art who taught for most of his career at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is…

FollowStart a topic about George Dickie

1926 – 2020 · Chicago

Traditions: Analytic

George Dickie was an American philosopher of art who taught for most of his career at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is best known for the institutional theory of art, according to which something is a work of art by virtue of its place within the practices of the artworld rather than any perceptible feature it has. He also argued against the idea of a special 'aesthetic attitude'. His later formulation, The Art Circle, recast the theory in terms of a network of interlocking roles and practices.

Key ideas

  • Being a work of art is a matter of an object's relation to the institution or practices of the artworld, not of its intrinsic features.
  • In his early version, an artefact becomes art when status as a candidate for appreciation is conferred on it by someone acting for the artworld.
  • In his later version, art is defined through a circle of mutually dependent notions: artist, public, artworld and artworld system.
  • There is no distinctive aesthetic attitude; so-called disinterested attention is just ordinary attention.

Major works

  • "The Myth of the Aesthetic Attitude" (1964)
  • Art and the Aesthetic: An Institutional Analysis (1974)
  • The Art Circle: A Theory of Art (1984)

In the conversation