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Verdicts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2010

Jerry S. Clegg
Jerry S. Clegg
Affiliation:
Mills College
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Extract

As philosophers attempt to treat aesthetic evaluationof some distinctive use sentences are put to, a prime model in terms suggested for offering a “value-judgment” has been that of rendering a verdict. Collingwood, for example, some time ago wrote that the critic and civil magistrate are alike in their use of language, for judgment “means” verdict. More recently, Arnold Isenberg and Frank Sibley have agreed that at least some aesthetic judgments are verdicts, and the late Margaret Macdonald has written a widely anthologized paper defending in detail this conception. In spite of its currency, the model has fatal deficiences and rather than illustrating important aspects of our critical talk, succeeds only in revealing some dubious assumptions at work in the search for special sentence uses. Since Miss Macdonald has offered the most extensive and subtle suggestions on this topic, I will concentrate on her paper, “Some Distinctive Features of Arguments Used in Criticism of the Arts” to illustrate the points I wish to make.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , June 1963 , pp. 75 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1963

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References

1 Collingwood, R. G., The Principles of Art (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1938), p. 88.Google Scholar

2 Isenberg, Arnold, “Critical Communication,” The Philosophical Review, Volumn LVIII (07, 1949), 330–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Sibley, Frank, “Aesthetic Concepts,” The Philosophical Review, Volume LXVIII (1959), 421–450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Macdonald, Margaret, “Some Distinctive Features of Arguments Used in Criticism of the Arts,” reprinted (revised) in Elton, William (ed.), Aesthetics and Language (Oxford, 1954), 114–130.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., p. 121.

6 Ibid., p. 119.

7 Ibid., p. 127.

8 Ibid., pp. 127–138.

9 Ibid., p. 129.

10 Ibid., p. 126.

11 Ibid., p. 130.

12 It should be noted that Collingwood, unlike Macdonald, appeals to the model of a verdict to explain how judgments could be objectively established—as the guilt or innocence ofa defendant is proved, for example. The same model has been used, therefore, for contrary reasons.