ABSTRACT
As has become clear from part one, the most important task of the sociology of art is to explore how the internal and external organization of art worlds makes the functioning of art possible in a society. At the core of this study is the answer to the question: ‘What does art do?’ In the first part of this study, the question was introduced and discussed, but certainly not conclusively answered. In the second part, this subject will be examined more closely, albeit without attempting to write a short philosophy of art or even to try to do justice to the various positions and arguments that play a significant role within the field. Rather, a line of thought is pursued in the attempt to answer the question what the arts do, to bring the aim and the purpose of this book into focus, namely to develop models that can be useful for examining how the organization of art worlds contributes to the functioning of art. In this connection, the central concepts of the philosophy of art – among them the difference between aesthetic and artistic experience, distance and disinterestedness – can be applied and critically examined on the basis of their legitimacy at the present time.
