This book examines the little understood end-of-art theses of Hegel Nietzsche and Danto. The
end-of-art claim is often associated with the end of a certain standard of taste or skill.
However at a deeper level it relates to a transformation in how we philosophically understand
our relation to the 'world'. Hegel Nietzsche and Danto each strive philosophically to
overcome Cartesian dualism redrawing the traditional lines between mind and matter. Hegel sees
the overcoming of the material in the ideal Nietzsche levels the two worlds into one and
Danto divides the world into representing and non-representing material. These attempts to
overcome dualism necessitate notions of the self that differ significantly from traditional
accounts the redrawn boundaries show that art and philosophy grasp essential but different
aspects of human existence. Neither perspective however fully grasps the duality. The
appearance of art's end occurs when one aspect is given priority: for Hegel and Danto it is
the essentialist lens of philosophy and in Nietzsche's case the transformative power of
artistic creativity. Thus the book makes the case that the end-of-art claim is avoided if a
theory of art links the internal practice of artistic creation to all of art's historical
forms.
