Are Some Perfumes Works of Art?

Brozzo, CHIARA

Abstract

What more do we need to fully appreciate perfumes, beyond considering them objects for aesthetic appreciation? My contention is that our appreciation of some perfumes would be largely incomplete, unless we acknowledged them as works of art. I defend the claim that some perfumes are works of art from the point of view of different definitions. Nick Zangwill's aesthetic definition makes it easy to defend the proposed claim, but is not very informative for the purposes of fully appreciating some perfumes. On the other hand, Jerrold Levinson's intentional‐historical definition and Dominic Lopes's approach to defining art make it more challenging to defend the proposed claim. I show that, even so, the challenge may be met. Moreover, the challenge is well worth engaging with, since tackling it uncovers features of some perfumes that are essential to their full appreciation.

Citation

Brozzo, C. (2020). Are Some Perfumes Works of Art?. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 78(1), 21-32. https://doi.org/10.1111/jaac.12687

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 24, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Feb 4, 2020
• Publication Date: Feb 4, 2020
• Deposit Date: Feb 6, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 6, 2020
• Journal: Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
• Print ISSN: 0021-8529
• Electronic ISSN: 1540-6245
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 78
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 21-32
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jaac.12687
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1308788