Aaron read and liked Jim's review of The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art:

"I picked this book up both because I thought that as a relative newcomer to art appreciation, it would be helpful to have a thoughtful theoretical account of art, its aims, the aesthetic standards we do or should bring to bear on it, and so on; and b...more I picked this book up both because I thought that as a relative newcomer to art appreciation, it would be helpful to have a thoughtful theoretical account of art, its aims, the aesthetic standards we do or should bring to bear on it, and so on; and because the book's title suggested that all of this might have something to do with philosophy generally (as opposed to the philosophy of art in particular), which is certainly an interest of mine. I think the book succeeds much better on the former front than the latter, but to be fair that is because, despite the title, "The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art" is not primarily about philosophy, but, instead--and happily for me--is about art.

As one should probably expect from a collection of essays, the quality and ambition of the pieces vary a bit, but they are almost always at least interesting. "The End of Art" is probably the gem of the collection, as it most explicitly and thoroughly sets out the author's Hegelian philosophy of art and of art history. (Its explicit Hegelianism, with its suggestion of a linear, progressive history of art, and an "end" to that history, made me skeptical, but I actually found the theory pretty plausible--though admittedly I know very little about the subject.) The title essay is also thought-provoking, though I have to say that I found Danto's discussion of Plato's Republic--one of the few subjects in the book that I actually do know a little about--to be rather thin in places.

Danto is a self-consciously stylish author, and occasionally his flair veers into a slightly annoying preciousness, but much less so than I worried might happen. More often the stylistic flourishes are at least amusing or clever, and sometimes they really help to underscore the author's insights.

Perhaps the highest praise I have for Danto's work is that, having returned to more ordinary art history books, I find myself applying some of Danto's categories and insights, and finding them remarkably helpful in understanding at least the progression of modern art, which is his primary subject here. For me, at least, that was really what I most wanted out of the book, and I'm glad it delivered.(less) "