写真的芸術作品の様相フレキシビリティ

Abstract

Many philosophers support a type theory of repeatable artworks : an artwork is a type. Guy Rohrbaugh criticizes this theory and proposes an individuality theory of artwork : an artwork is an individual, not a type. One of his criticisms of the type theory is that artworks have de re modal flexibility which type theory does not accommodate. The Steerage could have been slightly more shaded, but according to the type theory, every print of The Steerage necessarily has exactly the same shades as it has. In this paper I argue that the individuality theory has its own problem with modal flexibility. Part of modal flexibility of a photographic artwork comes from the photographer's selection of a photograph for publication : Steiglitz may have chosen another photograph B as The Steerage, so The Steerage could have been photograph B, rather than photograph A. The individuality theory does not accommodate this type of modal flexibility.