ABSTRACT
I have promised to propose a theory of the nature of mass art. By claiming that this theory pertains to the nature of mass art, I maintain that my theory is concerned with classifying mass art, rather than with either condemning or commending it. This is meant to distinguish my approach from previous philosophical theories of mass art, which seem preoccupied, at least implicitly, with evaluating mass art either morally, politically, or aesthetically. Dwight MacDonald, [R.G.] Collingwood, [Theodor] Adorno, [Max] Horkheimer, [Clement] Greenberg, and, more recently, Guy Debord and Jean Baudrillard, all appear to me to provide characterizations of mass art primarily in order to condemn it, while Walter Benjamin and Marshall McLuhan present theories meant to valorize it. I, on the other hand, hope merely to say what it is-to classify mass art rather than to judge it morally, politically, or aesthetically.
