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if art is subjective wouldn't that will make it a tatuology? Can The statemente"I like X more than Y, therefore X is better than Y be considered a tautological argument? because it equates repeat the personal preference (liking something more). with objective superiority (being better).

This statement doesn't provide any objective criteria or reasoning for why X is better than Y; it simply restates the subjective preference of the person making the statement. So when discussing this and art is the whole goal about objectifying the phenomenological perception of art? Or the rationalisation of your perception and opinion?

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  • Is "X is better than Y" a common thing to say about two pieces of art in a philosophical context? In a colloquial context, it is indeed synonymous with "I like X more than Y", and someone else can reasonably say "I like Y more than X", and they're both feasibly correct - they in fact do like that one more than the other one! But are philosophers saying things like this? And if so, in what context?
    – TKoL
    Commented Dec 20, 2023 at 13:20
  • If some particular philosopher establishes a criteria for how "good" art is, he could ostensibly prove that some pieces meet that criteria more fully, or "better", than others do - but of course there's no necessity that other people accept that that's a good criteria to use. One persons criteria for good art is not another persons, so who's to say if one criteria is better than anothers?
    – TKoL
    Commented Dec 20, 2023 at 13:22
  • Right, so... why is this even a question? Which philosophers are saying some art is better than other art?
    – TKoL
    Commented Dec 21, 2023 at 9:09
  • I’m voting to close this question because the content is spam.
    – Mark Andrews
    Commented Dec 31, 2023 at 23:38

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Imagine you are walking through a gallery of thousands of paintings, some of which impress you and some of which don't. Would you not feel some compulsion to understand why? Now suppose I am walking with you through the same gallery- would you expect me to be impressed by the same paintings and for the same reasons? Either way, how would you account for it?

Appreciation of art is manifestly subjective. Anyone with an analytic bent might be tempted to identify independent dimensions by means of which works of art could be compared. You might consider, for example, originality, the presence of metaphor, the degree to which the depiction is realistic, the range of colours, the composition, the perspective, the apparent skill displayed, the subject matter, whether some emotional resonance is triggered within you, and so on. What weight you attach to each of those is up to you. You might find that some aspects of an artwork are appreciated in the same way and to the same extent by the majority of people who view it. Does that make the evaluation more valid in some way? I think that to assume so would be to confuse validity with popularity, but you are free to take a different view. Ultimately, the only logical way to assess different works of art in a consistent way is to declare what (arbitrary) criteria you are going to adopt, and apply them consistently. You can then say that picture A is better than picture B because you have defined 'better' to mean a particular weighted combination of ratings.

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  • Quantify? That doesnt "resonate" with me when I look at the world and a piece of art. Maybe it's a limitation of language.
    – 8Mad0Manc8
    Commented Dec 14, 2023 at 22:26

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