Book Review - Art and Art-Attempts

Reviews "Art and art-attempts," by Christy Mag Uidhir (Oxford University Press, 2013). The book is a sophisticated philosophical exploration of the nature of art that starts from a deceptively simple claim, namely, that artworks are products of intentional action. Beginning with the widely shared assumption about art's intention dependence, he constructs a novel framework within which to think about art: a theory of art-attempts. This review will consider the central argument for the attempt theory of art, which is the foundation of the rest of the book. From there, I will consider the implications of the attempt theory of art for his account of authorship and its relation to the notion of a work under a particular description. [Revised Publication Abstract]