ABSTRACT
I believe that every item properly classified as a work of art can contribute to human knowledge. In other words, I maintain that all artworks possess cognitive value. One might dispute this thesis in two ways. Some people will hold that no works of art have cognitive value. On their view, an artwork, unlike a work of history or science, is not the sort of thing from which one can learn. Alternatively, one might hold that, although some artworks have cognitive value, not all of them do. This second objection states that a satisfactory definition of art will not make reference to cognitive value. The bulk of this essay is designed to show that the first sort of objection is mistaken. This first chapter has the more modest goal of replying to the second objection. In this chapter, I assume that one can learn from at least some of the things which have been classified as works of art. I then argue that art ought to be defined in such a way that only items with cognitive value count as artworks.
