Danto has argued that what all works
of art have in common is that they all relate in some way to an `artworld', to an accepted artistic theory,
or to the history of art as a whole. So if someone puts a toilet in the middle of an art gallery and
calls it art, then it is art if (and only if) it makes sense in the history of the development
of art over the centuries. Maybe the history of art was just ready for a toilet in an art gallery then,
and what distinguishes it from ordinary toilets are the interpretations which those educated in art history
put upon it. Danto has a view of the development of the history of art inspired by Hegel. He claims that
eventually, through its growing consciousness of itself, art becomes philosophy and thus comes
to an end.
possible writer on art/aesthetics