Our panel of 91 professional philosophers has responded to

75
 questions about 
Beauty
75
 questions about 
Perception
96
 questions about 
Time
151
 questions about 
Existence
39
 questions about 
Race
105
 questions about 
Art
218
 questions about 
Education
392
 questions about 
Religion
2
 questions about 
Culture
110
 questions about 
Animals
154
 questions about 
Sex
36
 questions about 
Literature
54
 questions about 
Medicine
2
 questions about 
Action
51
 questions about 
War
170
 questions about 
Freedom
43
 questions about 
Color
208
 questions about 
Science
5
 questions about 
Euthanasia
77
 questions about 
Emotion
88
 questions about 
Physics
134
 questions about 
Love
244
 questions about 
Justice
70
 questions about 
Truth
89
 questions about 
Law
58
 questions about 
Punishment
1280
 questions about 
Ethics
67
 questions about 
Feminism
34
 questions about 
Music
374
 questions about 
Logic
58
 questions about 
Abortion
574
 questions about 
Philosophy
124
 questions about 
Profession
4
 questions about 
Economics
81
 questions about 
Identity
117
 questions about 
Children
23
 questions about 
History
27
 questions about 
Gender
110
 questions about 
Biology
69
 questions about 
Business
80
 questions about 
Death
284
 questions about 
Mind
282
 questions about 
Knowledge
31
 questions about 
Space
221
 questions about 
Value
32
 questions about 
Sport
24
 questions about 
Suicide
287
 questions about 
Language
68
 questions about 
Happiness

Question of the Day

One needn't know who first coined a word or even how it was originally used for that word to be meaningful, and similarly the fact that the origins of ancient artworks are murky doesn't entail that they are without meaning. The original meaning may be lost, but new meanings are generated, often retaining traces (often more) of earlier meanings. Now, of course, some words are more commonly understood than others, and there are lots of artworks that hold generally shared meanings for people. Sublime landscapes, beautiful portraits, and rousing political artworks support common interpretations galore. So, it seems pretty clear to me that meaning is transmitted and shared through artwork. Sure, when pushed different people generate different shades of meaning and different connotations when asked about how they understand words, but the agreement, facility, and approval with which people share word usage points to shared meanings. And some words are understood only within recondite discourses by small audiences scholars and technicians. So it is with a some artwork, especially the most avant garde and experimental. Poets often twist and strain the meaning of words, which can make shared meaning difficult, but often not impossible to tease out. The meaning of paintings is the product of a conversation between the painter, the audience, and critics, as well as other painters. That meaning can change over time, or not. I might add that I think, just as it is with words, it's not exactly right to speak of a single meaning for an artwork. One remarkable property of good art, like powerful language, is how fecund it is, how much meaning and different meanings it generates.