You’re staring at a painting in a gallery and see a symbol of love. In the same image, your friend sees a symbol of war. To settle the debate you Google the work only to learn that the artist had neither topic in mind when they created it. Was anyone wrong? Or, perhaps, is everyone right? Should this change how you see the painting, or should your personal interpretation be safe from this new information? This animation from TED-Ed traces the history of this ongoing debate over art and intention, exploring the contending viewpoints of philosophers and art critics such as Monroe Beardsley, Walter Benn Michaels and Noël Carroll, each of them – either ironically or appropriately – with their own unique perspective.
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Consciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
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Meaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
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Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
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History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
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Earth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
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Meaning and the good life
Leading 1950s thinkers on the search for happiness in trying times
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Biology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
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Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
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Virtues and vices
Why Bennie tried to disappear, and what happened when he was found decades later
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