Defending the discovery model in the ontology of art: A reply to Amie Thomasson on the qua problem

According to the discovery model in the ontology of art, the facts concerning the ontological status of artworks are mind-independent and, hence, are facts about which the folk may be substantially ignorant or in error. In recent work Amie Thomasson has claimed that the most promising solution to the 'qua problem'-a problem concerning how the reference of a referring-expression is fixed-requires us to give up the discovery model. I argue that this claim is false. Thomasson's solution to the qua problem-a hybrid descriptive/causal theory of reference-fixing-has a superior competitor, in the form of the account of reference-fixing suggested by Gareth Evans; and Evans's theory leaves the discovery model untouched. © British Society of Aesthetics 2012.