Works of Art as Persons
Edited by Miloš Ćipranić Author(s) Miguel Tamen, Maurizio Ferraris Publisher Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade Akademska knjiga, Novi Sad Published 2020 ISBN 978-86-80484-58-7 Pages 134 Edition Minima
From rhetoric to jurisprudence, various disciplines have dealt with the practice of attributing human features and abilities to insensate objects. The agency of works of art acting as fictitious persons is not only recognized at the level of aesthetic experience, but also outside it, because there have been cases in which they were subject to legal liability. Personhood is not reducible to individual human beings. However, since works of art lack senses and consciousness, there is ultimately a limit to the personifying metaphor.