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20This is the first modern, annotated and scholarly edition of Jean-Baptiste Du Bos’ _Critical Reflections on Poetry and Painting_, one of the seminal works of modern aesthetics in any language.
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3Jenefer Robinson, Ed., Music and MeaningJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56 (3): 314-316. 1998.
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12Authenticities: Philosophical Reflections on Musical PerformanceJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 54 (2): 198-200. 1995.
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14Literary Fiction and the Cultivation of VirtueCroatian Journal of Philosophy 19 (2): 315-330. 2019.Many philosophers have claimed that reading literary fiction makes people more virtuous. This essay begins by defending the view that this claim is empirical. It goes on to review the empirical literature and finds that this literature supports the claim philosophers have made. Three mechanisms are identified whereby reading literary fiction makes people more virtuous: empathy is increased when readers enter imaginatively into the lives of fictional characters; reading literary fiction promotes …Read more
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3Feeling and Imagination: The Vibrant Flux of Our Existence (review)Review of Metaphysics 57 (1): 180-180. 2003.This book is an exploration of “affective attachment,” which Singer describes as “the part of affective life which is pertinent to the phenomenon of attachment.” Affective attachment includes sex, love, and compassion. It is difficult to summarize Singer’s views on this topic. Singer sees the book as a systematic exploration of affective attachment, “a single unfolding of speculative thought.” At the same time he allows that he finds “that our affective being is so mercurial that touching on it …Read more
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160The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2009._The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation_ undertakes a comprehensive and systematic investigation of the moral and aesthetic questions that arise from the practice of cultural appropriation. Explores cultural appropriation in a wide variety of contexts, among them the arts and archaeology, museums, and religion Questions whether cultural appropriation is always morally objectionable Includes research that is equally informed by empirical knowledge and general normative theory Provides a coherent an…Read more
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18Empiricism and the Ontology of JazzRevista Portuguesa de Filosofia 74 (4): 1255-1266. 2018.This essay argues that there is no alethic basis for adopting one ontology of jazz music rather than another. Any ontology of jazz that is consistent with the available empirical evidence may be adopted, though pragmatic reasons may exist for favouring one ontology of jazz over another. There are empirical differences between jazz and much of classical music, but one may adopt the same ontology for jazz that one adopts for works classical music.
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10Hick, Darren Hudson. Artistic license: The philosophical problems of copyright and appropriation. The university of chicago press, 2017, VIII + 231 pp., $30.00 paper (review)Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 76 (3): 362-365. 2018.
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8LEVINSON, JERROLD. Aesthetic Pursuits: Essays in the Philosophy of Art. Oxford University Press, 2017, 197 pp., $55.00 cloth (review)Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 76 (2): 235-237. 2018.
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53Jean-Baptiste Du Bos’ Critical Reflections on Poetry and Painting and Hume’s TreatiseBritish Journal of Aesthetics 58 (2): 119-130. 2018.It has long been known that Jean-Baptiste Du Bos exercised a considerable influence on Hume’s essays and, in particular, on the ‘Of the Standard of Taste’ and ‘Of Tragedy’. It has also been noted that some passages in the Treatise bear marks of Du Bos’ influence. In this essay, we identify many more passages in the Treatise that bear unmistakable signs of Du Bos’ influence. We demonstrate that Du Bos certainly had a significant impact on Hume as he wrote the Treatise. We go on to argue that Hume…Read more
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92How Classical Music is Better than Popular MusicPhilosophy 91 (4): 523-540. 2016.In at least one respect, classical music is superior to popular music. Classical music has greater potential for expressiveness and, consequently, has more potential for psychological insight and profundity. The greater potential for expressiveness in classical music is due, in large part, to it greater harmonic resources. The harmonies in classical music are more likely to be functional, more contrary motion is employed, and modulation is more common. Although popular music employs rhythms not …Read more
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Truth Within the Limits of Language Alone: A Defence of Anti-RealismDissertation, Boston University. 1985.An answer is provided to the question of the conditions under which sentences are true. Realists claim that reality provides the truth conditions of sentences. Realism is rejected. An anti-realist position according to which truth is relative to the theories of linguistic communities is adopted. A sentence is true if and only if warranted by theories held to be correct by a community. ;Many of the standard objections to anti-realism and relativist positions are considered and refuted. Anti-reali…Read more
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149‘Nothing Comes from Nowhere’: Reflections on Cultural Appropriation as the Representation of Other CulturesIn James O. Young & Conrad G. Brunk (eds.), The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation, Wiley‐blackwell. 2009.This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Is ‘subject appropriation’ a misnomer? Subject appropriation and misrepresentation Cultural Appropriation and Assimilation Harm and Accurate Representation Privacy Authenticity and Subject Appropriation Envoy Conclusion References.
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14Questioning foundations: Truth, subjectivity, and cultureHistory of European Ideas 21 (5): 718-719. 1995.
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102Art and the educated audienceJournal of Aesthetic Education 44 (3): 29-42. 2010.When writing about art, aestheticians tend to focus on the work of art and on the artist who produces it. When they refer to audiences, they typically speak only of the effect that the artwork has on its audience. Aestheticians pay little, if any, attention to the important active role that an audience plays in the workings of a healthy art world. My goal in this essay is to do something to end the neglect of the audience. I will focus on the role of the informed or, as I will call it, educated …Read more
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20Relativism and anti-realismRatio 9 (1): 68-77. 1996.I characterise a relativist account of truth as one according to which the truth value of a sentence can vary without its meaning changing. Relativism is to be contrasted with absolutism, which states that the truth values of sentences cannot change, so long as their meanings remain constant. I argue that absolutism follows from the realist account of meaning and truth conditions. According to realism, the meaning of a sentence consists in objective truth conditions and sentences are true if and…Read more
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39Kivy on Musical GeniusBritish Journal of Aesthetics 51 (1): 1-12. 2011.Peter Kivy argues that Handel was the first composer to be regarded as a genius and that only in the eighteenth century was the philosophical apparatus in place that would enable any composer to be conceived of as a musical genius. According to Kivy, a Longinian conception of genius transformed Handel into a genius. A Platonic conception of genius was used to classify Mozart as a genius. Then Kant adopted a Longinian conception of genius and this shaped the perception of Beethoven. Kivy is wrong…Read more
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4Global Anti-Realism (review)Dialogue 40 (4): 814-815. 2001.Full disclosure: I am the author of a book with a title only typographically different from that of the one under review. The present book is avowedly hostile to global anti-realism while mine is a sustained defence of the position. My route to global anti-realism is discounted by page 4 of Cortens’s book. If my remarks sometimes have a critical tenor, no one should be surprised. Still, I found much to admire in this book. It contributes significantly to our understanding of global anti-realism.
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Language |
Aesthetics |