INTENTIONALISM AND ANTI-INTENTIONALISM IN CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL AESTHETICS

Actual intentionalism, hypothetical intentionalism and anti-intentionalism are the three most prominent theories of interpretation which contemporary Anglo-American analytical philosophers of art have defended in recent decades. In this article, I shall survey these theories in terms of how each addresses the issue of the relevance of authorial intentions, for the interpretation of artworks, then register and discuss several of the main objections raised during subsequent polemics. In the concluding section of my article, I shall defend the view that, given the theoretical difficulties that encumber both actual intentionalism and radical anti-intentionalism; it is some qualified form of hypothetical intentionalism that best recommends itself as a descriptive (rather than normative) theory of interpretation.