Whether art can be defined or even necessary to be defined has become a central topic in the discussion of art philosophy for nearly half a century. In this protracted debate, the theory of "art is definable" by Ludwig Wittgenstein led to the so-called "proceduralism", which has a huge influence in the contemporary art world: the social, cultural and historical positioning of art replaces the definition of art itself. Proceduralism is actually abandoning the pursuit of the inner definition of art.

This lecture analyzes several inherent flaws of proceduralism, which can lead to its decline. However, the increasing importance of art in contemporary society has forced people to rethink what art is. The lecture advocates returning to functionalism, instead of returning to the centralized function theory that has been abandoned. Proceeding from semiotics, a new definition of art "detachment" is proposed, which regards art as a form so that the receiver can reach the detached character of symbolic text from mediocrity.