Rafael De Clercq
Biographic Data
| ID | 1021952 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rafael De Clercq |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rafael |
| FAMILY NAME | De Clercq |
| SIGNATURE | DE CLERCQ R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lingnan University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4168-7227 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 17 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The Empty World as the Null Conjunction of States of Affairs
Actual Causation and Minimality
The Dehumanization of Architecture
Modern buildings do not easily harmonize with other buildings, regardless of whether the latter are also modern. This often-observed fact has not received a satisfactory explanation. To improve on existing explanations, this article generalizes one of Ortega y Gasset's observations concerning modern fine art and then develops a metaphysics of styles that is inspired by work in the philosophy of biology. The resulting explanation is that modern ar…
A Philosopher Looks at Architecture
In the introduction to his book, Paul Guyer writes that if he ‘was ever properly trained in anything at all, it was as an historian of philosophy’ (p. 14). It should not come as a surprise, then, that the way this ‘philosopher looks at architecture’ (to echo the title of the book) is primarily historical. Guyer discusses buildings and theories of architecture mostly in chronological order, pointing out changes and differences, but also, and above…
The Historical Ontology of Art
In this article, I argue that our ontology of art has undergone a major change in the course of modern history. While we currently think of artworks as parts arranged in a certain way, there was a time when artworks were thought of as metaphysically more akin to ordinary artefacts such as tables and chairs; that is, as wholes having replaceable parts. This change in our ontology of art is reflected in our approach to art restoration. But what exp…
Resemblance and Representation
De Clercq reviews the book Resemblance and Representation: An Essay in the Philosophy of Pictures, by Ben Blumson
Women in Philosophy
A number of philosophers attribute the underrepresentation of women in philosophy largely to bias against women or some kind of wrongful discrimination. They cite six sources of evidence to support their contention: (1) gender disparities that increase along the path from undergraduate student to full-time faculty member; (2) anecdotal accounts of discrimination in philosophy; (3) research on gender bias in the evaluation of manuscripts, grants, …
The Metaphysics of Art Restoration
Art restorations often give rise to controversy, and the reason does not always seem to be a lack of skill or dedication on the side of the restorer. Rather, in some of the most famous cases, the reason seems to be a lack of agreement on basic principles. In particular, there seems to be a lack of agreement on how the following two questions are to be answered. First, what is art restoration supposed to achieve, in other words, what is the goal o…
On some putative graph-theoretic counterexamples to the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles
Modern Architecture and the Concept of Harmony
The aim of this paper is to achieve a better understanding of why modern buildings do not easily harmonize with one another. After proposing, and defending, an analysis of the concept of architectural harmony, the paper turns to three possible views on whether we can expect more harmony from modern architecture in the future
Scruton on Rightness of Proportion in Architecture
In The Aesthetics of Architecture, Roger Scruton makes at least four claims about rightness of architectural proportion. The present paper lists those claims, briefly discusses the way they are related, and, finally, selects one as the topic of discussion: the claim that there cannot be an exact, mathematical definition of rightness of proportion. Scruton's arguments for this claim are reviewed. The first is found to be substantially correct, whe…
The Structure of Aesthetic Properties
Aesthetic properties are often thought to have either no evaluative component or an evaluative component that can be isolated from their descriptive component. The present article argues that this popular view is without adequate support. First, doubt is cast on the idea that some paradigmatic aesthetic properties are purely descriptive. Second, the idea that the evaluative component of an aesthetic property can always be neatly separated from it…
Melody and Metaphorical Movement
In recent issues of this journal, Roger Scruton and Malcolm Budd have debated the question whether hearing a melody in a sequence of sounds necessarily involves an ‘unasserted thought’ about spatial movement. According to Scruton, the answer is ‘yes’; according to Budd, the answer is ‘no’. The conclusion of this paper is that, while Budd may have underestimated the viability of Scruton's thesis in one of its possible interpretations, there is no …
Presentism and the Problem of Cross-Time Relations
Presentism is the view that only present entities exist. Recently, several authors have asked the question whether presentism is able to account for cross-time relations, ie, roughly, relations between entities existing at different times. In this paper I claim that this question is to be answered in the affirmative. To make this claim plausible, I consider four types of cross-time relation and show how each can be accommodated without difficulty…
Closer
The Aesthetic Peculiarity of Multifunctional Artefacts
Echoing a distinction made by David Wiggins in his discussion of the relation of identity, this paper investigates whether aesthetic adjectives such as 'beautiful' are sortal-relative or merely sortal-dependent. The hypothesis guiding the paper is that aesthetic adjectives, though probably sortal-dependent in general, are sortal-relative only when used to characterize multifunctional artefacts. This means that multifunctional artefacts should be …
Perceptual Indiscriminability
A series of unnoticeably small changes in an observable property may add up to a noticeable change. Crispin Wright has used this fact to prove that perceptual indiscriminability is a non‐transitive relation. Delia Graff has recently argued that there is a ‘tension’ between Wright's assumptions. But Graff has misunderstood one of these, that ‘phenomenal continua’ are possible; and the other, that our powers of discrimination are finite, is sound. …
The Structure of Aesthetic Properties
Aesthetic properties are often thought to have either no evaluative component or an evaluative component that can be isolated from their descriptive component. The present article argues that this popular view is without adequate support. First, doubt is cast on the idea that some paradigmatic aesthetic properties are purely descriptive. Second, the idea that the evaluative component of an aesthetic property can always be neatly separated from it…
Presentism and the Problem of Cross-Time Relations
Presentism is the view that only present entities exist. Recently, several authors have asked the question whether presentism is able to account for cross-time relations, ie, roughly, relations between entities existing at different times. In this paper I claim that this question is to be answered in the affirmative. To make this claim plausible, I consider four types of cross-time relation and show how each can be accommodated without difficulty…
The Metaphysics of Art Restoration
Art restorations often give rise to controversy, and the reason does not always seem to be a lack of skill or dedication on the side of the restorer. Rather, in some of the most famous cases, the reason seems to be a lack of agreement on basic principles. In particular, there seems to be a lack of agreement on how the following two questions are to be answered. First, what is art restoration supposed to achieve, in other words, what is the goal o…
Scruton on Rightness of Proportion in Architecture
In The Aesthetics of Architecture, Roger Scruton makes at least four claims about rightness of architectural proportion. The present paper lists those claims, briefly discusses the way they are related, and, finally, selects one as the topic of discussion: the claim that there cannot be an exact, mathematical definition of rightness of proportion. Scruton's arguments for this claim are reviewed. The first is found to be substantially correct, whe…
Closer
The Aesthetic Peculiarity of Multifunctional Artefacts
Echoing a distinction made by David Wiggins in his discussion of the relation of identity, this paper investigates whether aesthetic adjectives such as 'beautiful' are sortal-relative or merely sortal-dependent. The hypothesis guiding the paper is that aesthetic adjectives, though probably sortal-dependent in general, are sortal-relative only when used to characterize multifunctional artefacts. This means that multifunctional artefacts should be …
Perceptual Indiscriminability
A series of unnoticeably small changes in an observable property may add up to a noticeable change. Crispin Wright has used this fact to prove that perceptual indiscriminability is a non‐transitive relation. Delia Graff has recently argued that there is a ‘tension’ between Wright's assumptions. But Graff has misunderstood one of these, that ‘phenomenal continua’ are possible; and the other, that our powers of discrimination are finite, is sound. …
Perceptual Indiscriminability
A series of unnoticeably small changes in an observable property may add up to a noticeable change. Crispin Wright has used this fact to prove that perceptual indiscriminability is a non‐transitive relation. Delia Graff has recently argued that there is a ‘tension’ between Wright's assumptions. But Graff has misunderstood one of these, that ‘phenomenal continua’ are possible; and the other, that our powers of discrimination are finite, is sound. …
Closer
The Aesthetic Peculiarity of Multifunctional Artefacts
Echoing a distinction made by David Wiggins in his discussion of the relation of identity, this paper investigates whether aesthetic adjectives such as 'beautiful' are sortal-relative or merely sortal-dependent. The hypothesis guiding the paper is that aesthetic adjectives, though probably sortal-dependent in general, are sortal-relative only when used to characterize multifunctional artefacts. This means that multifunctional artefacts should be …
Presentism and the Problem of Cross-Time Relations
Presentism is the view that only present entities exist. Recently, several authors have asked the question whether presentism is able to account for cross-time relations, ie, roughly, relations between entities existing at different times. In this paper I claim that this question is to be answered in the affirmative. To make this claim plausible, I consider four types of cross-time relation and show how each can be accommodated without difficulty…
Melody and Metaphorical Movement
In recent issues of this journal, Roger Scruton and Malcolm Budd have debated the question whether hearing a melody in a sequence of sounds necessarily involves an ‘unasserted thought’ about spatial movement. According to Scruton, the answer is ‘yes’; according to Budd, the answer is ‘no’. The conclusion of this paper is that, while Budd may have underestimated the viability of Scruton's thesis in one of its possible interpretations, there is no …
The Structure of Aesthetic Properties
Aesthetic properties are often thought to have either no evaluative component or an evaluative component that can be isolated from their descriptive component. The present article argues that this popular view is without adequate support. First, doubt is cast on the idea that some paradigmatic aesthetic properties are purely descriptive. Second, the idea that the evaluative component of an aesthetic property can always be neatly separated from it…
Scruton on Rightness of Proportion in Architecture
In The Aesthetics of Architecture, Roger Scruton makes at least four claims about rightness of architectural proportion. The present paper lists those claims, briefly discusses the way they are related, and, finally, selects one as the topic of discussion: the claim that there cannot be an exact, mathematical definition of rightness of proportion. Scruton's arguments for this claim are reviewed. The first is found to be substantially correct, whe…
Modern Architecture and the Concept of Harmony
The aim of this paper is to achieve a better understanding of why modern buildings do not easily harmonize with one another. After proposing, and defending, an analysis of the concept of architectural harmony, the paper turns to three possible views on whether we can expect more harmony from modern architecture in the future
On some putative graph-theoretic counterexamples to the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles
The Metaphysics of Art Restoration
Art restorations often give rise to controversy, and the reason does not always seem to be a lack of skill or dedication on the side of the restorer. Rather, in some of the most famous cases, the reason seems to be a lack of agreement on basic principles. In particular, there seems to be a lack of agreement on how the following two questions are to be answered. First, what is art restoration supposed to achieve, in other words, what is the goal o…
Women in Philosophy
A number of philosophers attribute the underrepresentation of women in philosophy largely to bias against women or some kind of wrongful discrimination. They cite six sources of evidence to support their contention: (1) gender disparities that increase along the path from undergraduate student to full-time faculty member; (2) anecdotal accounts of discrimination in philosophy; (3) research on gender bias in the evaluation of manuscripts, grants, …
Resemblance and Representation
De Clercq reviews the book Resemblance and Representation: An Essay in the Philosophy of Pictures, by Ben Blumson
The Historical Ontology of Art
In this article, I argue that our ontology of art has undergone a major change in the course of modern history. While we currently think of artworks as parts arranged in a certain way, there was a time when artworks were thought of as metaphysically more akin to ordinary artefacts such as tables and chairs; that is, as wholes having replaceable parts. This change in our ontology of art is reflected in our approach to art restoration. But what exp…
A Philosopher Looks at Architecture
In the introduction to his book, Paul Guyer writes that if he ‘was ever properly trained in anything at all, it was as an historian of philosophy’ (p. 14). It should not come as a surprise, then, that the way this ‘philosopher looks at architecture’ (to echo the title of the book) is primarily historical. Guyer discusses buildings and theories of architecture mostly in chronological order, pointing out changes and differences, but also, and above…
The Dehumanization of Architecture
Modern buildings do not easily harmonize with other buildings, regardless of whether the latter are also modern. This often-observed fact has not received a satisfactory explanation. To improve on existing explanations, this article generalizes one of Ortega y Gasset's observations concerning modern fine art and then develops a metaphysics of styles that is inspired by work in the philosophy of biology. The resulting explanation is that modern ar…
The Empty World as the Null Conjunction of States of Affairs
Actual Causation and Minimality
Epistemology (17 works) · Philosophy (17 works) · Mathematics (9 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Aesthetics (8 works) · Art (7 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Metaphysics (7 works) · Architecture (5 works) · Architecture and Art History Studies (5 works)