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critics to agree among themselves about what is of rational science; but the reader may pursue itself to be changed ?
authentic and what is sham, once the notion of this rather Byzantine quarrel between Kuhn The tendency is to think of representational
`representation' - in the sense of a thing which and Popper in Criticism and the Growth of styles as links in a chain of reasoning that
refers to something other than itself - drops Knowledge,21 so I shall not elaborate on it converge steadily on a single issue, when in
away from art (along with the view that Dewey further. fact the opposite seems to occur. As step
once called the 'spectator theory' of man). The primarily philosophical nature of the follows step in the development of art, we find
In the light of earlier theories, Kuhnian paradigm, and his view of science as a that the lines for possible subsequent
representational art appeared as an interpolated non-goal-orientated process, would seem to development increase rather than decrease in
closed system in which the terminal point had allow of more fruitful comparisons with the number: it is in the nature of open systems to
been implicit from the beginning and all that heuristic nature of much contemporary art. increase in size and complexity as they evolve.
needed to be discovered was the solution, or Moreover, since being an artist now means Even though the kind of experimental thinking
the rest of the way to get there. The artist who questioning the nature of art, the ramifications we find in art is set (like other forms of thinking)
is operating from within such a closed system of Kuhn's fundamental question - as to what to reach issues and to solve problems in a step
is in the position of a spectator searching for `evolution', 'development' and 'progress' could sequence, it is never satisfied with this; it must
something which he must treat as being in mean in the absence of a specified goal - need continually achieve new openings and new
some way already 'there'. By this account, the to be answered as much for art as they do for possibilities. Cognitive psychologists stress the
existence of art, as I have tried to show, hinges science. anticipatory nature of cognitive activity and the
on imagining that there is one objective and Just as we now know that scientific progress constant tendency of the mind to go beyond the
true account of nature and that the measure of requires more than merely 'adding to' existing information given. Microphysicists, for
artistic achievement is the extent to which it knowledge and the systematic building up of example, continually seek new modes of
brings us closer to that goal. (I have argued that achievement, we also know, since the shift into conceptual organization from which the
this is essentially what is implied by the main modern style, that progress is not made in art finding of new entities will follow.
thesis in 'Art and Illusion'). by the accumulation of knowledge within That the earlier models will not hold good
The experimental artist, on the other hand, existing categories but by leaps into new has only become apparent over a long period of
must add to some structure that is not yet categorical systems. Art is not merely a time: the finite and clearly definable goal of
finished and that he himself is not going to (descriptive) statement about the way the world progress as postulated by the early historians is
complete; this is more in keeping with the is; it is rather a recommendation that the world no longer tenable, once nature does not serve
open-ended, paradigm-type situation described ought to be looked at in a given way.22 This is as a model and constant reference point. The
by Thomas S. Kuhn in 'The Structure of not to say, however, that thinking does not Popperian schematization breaks down for art
Scientific Revolutions'. Here, the terminal point proceed through a succession of steps, or stages, at the first appearance of abstract forms which
has continually to be discovered or constructed : or that there is not some connection of necessity have been dissociated from any particular
it is a matter of finding something which is not from step to step, as is evidenced historically content to the extent of becoming entirely free
yet known. by the sequence of thought within a stylistic of figurative elements. Teleological models,
Kuhn has defined scientific activity as tradition or paradigm. It is here that Kuhn's which revert to the fallacy of a goal outside art
fundamentally a matter of creating frameworks distinction between 'normal' and 'revolutionary' (verisimilitude), to explain its progress are
(paradigms) and of fitting systems together, science becomes useful. Briefly, normal science unable to explain how new forms emerge which
rather than of simply discovering the 'truth' consists in attempting to solve the problems are not mere resultants of what went before,
about nature through incremental additions of raised by the paradigm without bringing into and were not even contained in them.
facts. Where Kuhn considers that science question its basic assumptions. Those The parallel with science was, and still is,
advances through the replacement of paradigms committed to a particular paradigm (e.g. useful, but only if we can find a model which is
(rather than by adding to knowledge), Popper Ptolemaic astronomy or Einsteinian relativity capable of explaining how non-representational
sees science as the search for theories which in science; Renaissance perspective or Cubism styles could have come about. Despite
correspond better to the facts. For Popper, in art) take their basic cognitive and appearances to the contrary, the processes
truth exerts a regulative and selective influence methodological framework as firmly encountered in both modern and historic
on the relative validity of theories (so that if one established and concentrate on resolving issues art are continuous and it is my
overthrows a theory, it is always for a better within that framework. Thus, normal science assumption that a cognitive theory which
one). Kuhn, on the other hand, is critical of the (or stylistic traditions in art) leads to the holds for representational modes ought
Popperian notion of 'falsification', on the systematic accumulation of relatively precise to hold for the more complex and anomalous
grounds that many theories (for example, the knowledge, an activity which Kuhn defines as phenomena that confront us today and may
Ptolemaic) were replaced before the new `puzzle-solving'. even help us to make sense of their direction.
theory had in fact been tested.18 In Popper's Now, if we think of the art within a stylistic The history of art reflects the history of the
view (as in Gombrich's), truth is approached by tradition such as the Renaissance as 'normal' development of cognitive mechanisms, a history
successive approximations; it is the direction in art, Gombrich's Popperian model perfectly well which, as Piaget shows, is a slow and laborious
which one is moving, but it is not something one describes the kind of linear progress made liberation of forms from their content. Only in
ever finally achieves. The aim remains, within such a tradition. But - and this has been the most elementary types of subject-object
however: to find theories which, in the light of the main thrust of my argument - it does not relationship is cognitive activity linked to
critical discussion, get nearer to the truth.' 9 account for the kind of radical innovation which pragmatic results. Experimental thinking
Kuhn has appalled Popperians, however, results in a new paradigm altogether, or a comes as a relatively late development in the
with his notion that the 'match' between the complete change in conceptual framework. It search for knowledge of the world, since it has
ontology of a theory and its 'real' counterpart in does not explain, for example, why artists to be based on much prior accumulation,
nature may be illusive in principle.20 He has should have abandoned the illusionistic description and classification of observed facts.
been put on the mat for his apparent readiness paradigm which conceived of painting as a It seems clear that if the historian is to save his
to relinquish the idea that changes of paradigm `window-on-reality' in favour of the flat, non- hypothesis of progress, therefore, it can only
necessarily carry scientists closer and closer to illusionistic space of modern abstract art. Put be by treating the history of art as a
the truth. He suggests that science may not in in another way, if styles within a tradition may developmental learning process into which the
fact evolve towards anything, a claim which, be compared with the sequence of moves demands and conditions of successive periods
according to Popperians, leads to the breakdown within a game structure, what causes the game have put their own specific content.q

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