Ontology of art as metaphysics of the ordinary

Abstract

The possibility of defining an ontology of art —asking, therefore, which kind of things would be a work of art— follows two alternative horizons: that of a prescriptive Metaphysics (which goes back to the reflections by Heidegger in The Origin of the Work of Art, that bestows to Art an alternative truth to the scientific truth, although also endowed with a vigorous attitude of opening to reality), and that of a descriptive Metaphysics (which is satisfied —productively, on the other hand— with describing a work of art as an ordinary object).