How Is a Criterion of Individuation Determined for Art-Work?
Posted: February 19th, 2012, 12:14 am
Leibniz in his Discourse on Metaphysics (Sec. IX) is credited with the idea of the Identity of Indiscernibles which holds that no two substances or things exactly resemble each other, i.e., have exactly the same properties. Instead, identical things must have all identical properties.
But how does one discover the identical idea in two different works of art? In aesthetics, unlike ontology, how does one know the same artistic idea is represented in two differentiated works? What could be the criterion of individuation of a work of art?
The following two images are those respectively used by New English Teas, a tea wholesaler, and Temple Island Collections, a souvenir shop.
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______The Defendent's Photographic Work_______________The Claimant's Photographic Work_____
Both photographic works show a London bus crossing the Thames at Westminster bridge with the Palace of Westminster in the background. The pictures are clearly not identical -- nor is the former a copy of the latter.
But the claimant Temple Island Collections charged New English Teas with copyright infringement. In the case in England and Whales Patents County Court where the reasoning is explained in some detail, Judge Birss concluded that the intellectual creation in the photographic work pictured on the left above infringed upon the copyright of the photographic work on the right above. Since the photographer of the photograph on the left was aware of the photography on the right when the picture was made, the judge ruled against him while recognizing "how different ostensibly independent expressions of the same idea actually look."
The legal decision was based on a "qualitative assessment of the reproduced evidence."
From the standpoint of aesthetics, I'm puzzled as to how can we know when the identical artistic idea is present in two different works of art when the representations present have no physical dimensions or proportions in common?
But how does one discover the identical idea in two different works of art? In aesthetics, unlike ontology, how does one know the same artistic idea is represented in two differentiated works? What could be the criterion of individuation of a work of art?
The following two images are those respectively used by New English Teas, a tea wholesaler, and Temple Island Collections, a souvenir shop.
_______
_______________________The Defendent's Photographic Work_______________The Claimant's Photographic Work_____
Both photographic works show a London bus crossing the Thames at Westminster bridge with the Palace of Westminster in the background. The pictures are clearly not identical -- nor is the former a copy of the latter.
But the claimant Temple Island Collections charged New English Teas with copyright infringement. In the case in England and Whales Patents County Court where the reasoning is explained in some detail, Judge Birss concluded that the intellectual creation in the photographic work pictured on the left above infringed upon the copyright of the photographic work on the right above. Since the photographer of the photograph on the left was aware of the photography on the right when the picture was made, the judge ruled against him while recognizing "how different ostensibly independent expressions of the same idea actually look."
The legal decision was based on a "qualitative assessment of the reproduced evidence."
From the standpoint of aesthetics, I'm puzzled as to how can we know when the identical artistic idea is present in two different works of art when the representations present have no physical dimensions or proportions in common?