ABSTRACT
The Nature of Art art. Besides or instead of enjoying a work because of the unconscious fantasy it provokes, it ought also to be possible to admire it because it is a well-constructed symbol. This, of course, is the point artists are likely to stress against Freud. Art can be used as a vehicle for fantasy; but artists want their work itself to engage our interest. The philosophical objection is that if there were an explanation of how art fulfils the function Freud assigns to it, this would create a gap between internal and external criteria for evaluating art. There would then be ways of enjoying art that are independent of fantasy satisfaction; so the theory cannot explain what it is to enjoy art as such, but only certain of its enjoyable uses.
