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67New Objections to Cultural Appropriation in the ArtsBritish Journal of Aesthetics 61 (3): 307-316. 2021.Some writers have objected to cultural appropriation in the arts on the grounds that it violates cultures’ property rights. Recently a paper by Erich Matthes and another by C. Thi Nguyen and Matthew Strohl have argued that cultural appropriation does not violate property rights but that it is nevertheless often objectionable. Matthes argues that cultural appropriation contributes to the oppression of disadvantaged cultures. Nguyen and Strohl argue that it violated the intimacy of cultures. This …Read more
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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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17Authenticities: Philosophical Reflections on Musical PerformanceJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 54 (2): 198-200. 1995.
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15Literary 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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114The 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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19Empiricism 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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12Hick, 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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14LEVINSON, 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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55Jean-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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97How 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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152‘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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464The Poverty of Musical OntologyJournal of Music and Meaning 13 1-19. 2014.Aaron Ridley posed the question of whether results in the ontology of musical works would have implications for judgements about the interpretation, meaning or aesthetic value of musical works and performances. His arguments for the conclusion that the ontology of musical works have no aesthetic consequences are unsuccessful, but he is right in thinking (in opposition to Andrew Kania and others) that ontological judgements have no aesthetic consequences. The key to demonstrating this concl…Read more
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25E. Lepore : "Truth and Interpretation: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Donald Davidson" (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 66 (n/a): 249. 1988.
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48The Ancient and Modern System of the ArtsBritish Journal of Aesthetics 55 (1): 1-17. 2015.Paul Oskar Kristeller famously argued that the modern ‘ system of the arts ’ did not emerge until the mid-eighteenth century, in the work of Charles Batteux. On this view, the modern conception of the fine arts had no parallel in the ancient world, the middle-ages or the modern period prior to Batteux. This paper argues that Kristeller was wrong. The ancient conception of the imitative arts completely overlaps with Batteux’s fine arts : poetry, painting, music, sculpture, and dance. Writers from…Read more
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77Coherence, anti-realism and the vienna circleSynthese 86 (3). 1991.Some members of the Vienna Circle argued for a coherence theory of truth. Their coherentism is immune to standard objections. Most versions of coherentism are unable to show why a sentence cannot be true even though it fails to cohere with a system of beliefs. That is, it seems that truth may transcend what we can be warranted in believing. If so, truth cannot consist in coherence with a system of beliefs. The Vienna Circle's coherentists held, first, that sentences are warranted by coherence wi…Read more
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Language |
Aesthetics |