Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols (1968) is
Nelson Goodman's most influential work and the founding text of analytic aesthetics. The book applied the rigorous methods of analytic philosophy to questions about art that had been largely reserved for impressionistic criticism: What is representation? How do pictures refer? What distinguishes art from non-art? What is
expression? Goodman's answers rejected Romantic assumptions wholesale. Art is not emotional self-expression—it is
symbolic reference through structured systems. Pictures do not copy reality—they construct versions through conventional
denotation and
exemplification. The aesthetic is not a feeling—it is a cluster of formal properties (density, repleteness, exemplificational richness) that certain symbol systems exhibit. The book introduced the autographic/allographic distinction, the theory of notation, the analysis of denotation and exemplification as referential modes, and the concept of expression as metaphorical exemplification. Its 277 pages are densely argued, technically demanding, and unsentimental to a degree that alienated many readers trained in Continental or Romantic aesthetics. But the framework proved generative: it reshaped aesthetics, influenced cognitive science's understanding