Art and the Impossible

Abstract

In this article, the author contrasts possibilism (the view that art is about the logically possible and that it cannot be about the impossible) with impossibilism (the view that art can be and sometimes is about the logically impossible as well). The author argues in favor of possibilism. The main insight is that since impossible objects are necessarily non-existent art cannot be about them, it has to be about something that can exist. Also, the author formulates five more detailed views about the issue. Further, the author discusses related notions like imaginability and conceivability. The author holds that Hume’s insight that an object cannot be conceived as non-existent counts in favor of possibilism. Besides, the author introduces the distinction between real and apparent content of the work of art, believing that this distinction can be relevant in the discussion between possibilism and impossibilism. In the rest of the article, the author analyzes several prima facie counterexamples to possibilism (Jean-Luc Picard, Anna Karenina, paradox of patricide, Escher’s graphics) and tries to explain them away.