On Nelson Goodman's Artistic View

Nelson Goodman was a prestigious analytic philosopher as well as analytic aesthete,and he also made remarkable contribution to other fields,such as logical philosophy,analytic philosophy,modern nominalism and neo-pragmatism.Nelson Goodman put modern nominalism,world tectonics and semiotic reference into multiple artistic practices,therefore,formed his unique theory of art semiotics,which is of vital importance to our thoroughly study of aesthetics and art philosophy,as well as to artistic creation and criticism.It sparked a heated discussion in Europe and America the time when he raised the view in 1960 s,whereas the thing was quiet different in China for the sake of ideology and theoretical background.Although we had made some progress in studying it,however,mainly confined to analytic philosophy,pragmatism and semiology,and lacked studying in his artistic view,let alone the comparative analysis of history of art theories.Therefore,it’s of great potential and significance in studying Nelson Goodman’s artistic view.This study is demonstrated mainly in three charters,that is,the foundation of Nelson Goodman’s artistic view,the essential contents of Nelson Goodman’s artistic view and comments of Nelson Goodman’s artistic view.Charter one analyzed four vital aspects among multiple foundations of Nelson Goodman’s artistic view.In section one,modern nominalism,studied the impact which the concept “recognize particular while deny general” on artistic ontology.In the second section,world tectonicsit,studied the significance which the concept of structuralism made to artistic values,and the relation between art and science.In the third section,semiotic reference,analysed the relationship between reference and meaning,then,interpreted example illustration and metaphor.And in the last section,presented the influence of multiple artistic practices to Nelson Goodman’s artistic view,when he acted as an art collector,creator and educator.Charter two is focused on the essential contents of Nelson Goodman’s artistic view.That’s include the concept of reappearance and demonstration in art,the view ofart form,and the view of art recognition.The concept of reappearance in art discriminated Goodman’s criticism on the similarity theory of reappearance,while put forward the innovative theories of reappearance reference and reproduce reality.The concept of demonstration in art discussed Goodman’s skeptical of traditional points of demonstration,and he generalized demonstration as metaphoric instantiation.The view of art form discussed the existing forms and distinguishing standards of authentic and counterfeit work,signature and instance art,and first-order and second-order art.The view of art recognition pointed out Goodman’s change from“what is art”to“when is for art”,and also compared the merits and demerits of Goodman’s functionalism in defining art.As a conclusion,then,in the third charter,contributions and limitations of Nelson Goodman’s Artistic View are analysed.His uniqueness and contributions are presented through “the first book on analytic aesthetics”,“the epistemological turn of aesthetics” and “the linguistic analysis as methodology”.On the other hand,from the perspect of “relative narrow theoretical perspective” and “the limit in artistic analysis by semiologic means” showed his limitations and controversies.