Boston University
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1985
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
  • Michael Dummett, Thought and Reality
    Philosophy in Review 27 (5): 334. 2007.
  •  36
    Inquiry in the Arts and Sciences
    Philosophy 71 (276): 255-273. 1996.
    In his 1836 lectures to the Royal Institute, the great landscape painter John Constable stated that ‘Painting is a science, and should be pursued as an inquiry into the laws of nature.’ Landscape, he went on to say, should ‘be considered a branch of natural philosophy, of which pictures are but the experiments.’1Constable makes two claims in this striking passage. The first is that painting is a form of inquiry. This is, by itself, a bold claim, but Constable goes on to state that painters and s…Read more
  •  80
    Destroying works of art
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 47 (4): 367-373. 1989.
  •  52
    The ‘great divide’ in music
    British Journal of Aesthetics 45 (2): 175-184. 2005.
    Several prominent philosophers of music, including Lydia Goehr and Peter Kivy, maintain that the experience of music changed drastically in about 1800. According to the great divide hypothesis, prior to 1800 audiences often scarcely attended to music. At other times, music was appreciated as part of social, civic, or religious ceremonies. After the great divide, audiences began to appreciate music as an exclusive object of aesthetic experience. The great divide hypothesis is false. The musicolog…Read more
  •  61
    Between rock and a Harp place
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 53 (1): 78-81. 1995.
  •  97
    Art and the educated audience
    Journal 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
  •  40
    Relativism and the Evaluation of Art
    The Journal of Aesthetic Education 31 (1): 9. 1997.
  •  17
    Relativism and anti-realism
    Ratio 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
  •  36
    Kivy on Musical Genius
    British 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
  •  4
    Global 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.
  •  14
    The Semantics of Aesthetic Judgements (edited book)
    Oxford University Press UK. 2017.
    Are aesthetic judgements simply expressions of personal preference? If two people disagree about the beauty of a painting are both judgements valid or can someone be mistaken about the aesthetic value of an artwork? This volume brings together some of the leading philosophers of art and language to debate the status of aesthetic judgements.
  •  3
    Critical Notice
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 17 (2): 491-500. 1987.
  •  138
    The concept of authentic performance
    British Journal of Aesthetics 28 (3): 228-238. 1988.
  •  101
    Art, knowledge, and exemplification
    British Journal of Aesthetics 39 (2): 126-137. 1999.
  •  161
    Relativism, standards and aesthetic judgements
    International Journal of Philosophical Studies 17 (2). 2009.
    This paper explores the various available forms of relativism concerning aesthetic judgement and contrasts them with aesthetic absolutism. Two important distinctions are drawn. The first is between subjectivism (which relativizes judgements to an individual's sentiments or feelings) and the relativization of aesthetic judgements to intersubjective standards. The other is between relativism about aesthetic properties and relativism about the truth-values of aesthetic judgements. Several plausible…Read more
  •  184
    Art, authenticity and appropriation
    Frontiers of Philosophy in China 1 (3): 455-476. 2006.
    It is often suggested that artists from one culture (outsiders) cannot successfully employ styles, stories, motifs and other artistic content developed in the context of another culture. I call this suggestion the aesthetic handicap thesis and argue against it. Cultural appropriation can result in works of high aesthetic value
  •  9
    Jeanette Bicknell, Why Music Moves Us Reviewed by
    Philosophy in Review 29 (5): 316-317. 2009.
    Review of Why Music Moves Us by Jeanette Bicknell.
  •  2
    Evaluation and the Cognitive Function of Art
    The Journal of Aesthetic Education 29 (4): 65. 1995.
  •  156
    The metaphysics of jazz
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 58 (2): 125-133. 2000.
  •  14
    Batteux: The Fine Arts Reduced to a Single Principle
    Oxford University Press UK. 2015.
    The Fine Arts Reduced to a Single Principle by Charles Batteux was arguably the most influential work on aesthetics published in the eighteenth century. It influenced every major aesthetician in the second half of the century, and is the work generally credited with establishing the modern system of the arts: poetry, painting, music, sculpture and dance. Batteux's book is also an invaluable aid to the interpretation of the arts of eighteenth century. And yet there has never been a complete or re…Read more
  •  33
    Still more in defense of colorization
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 50 (3): 245-248. 1992.
  •  2
    Art and the Educated Audience
    Journal of Aesthetic Education 44 (3): 29. 2010.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Art and the Educated AudienceJames O. Young (bio)1. IntroductionWhen 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 i…Read more
  •  126
    Resemblance, Convention, and Musical Expressiveness
    The Monist 95 (4): 587-605. 2012.
    Peter Kivy and Stephen Davies developed an influential and convincing account of what features of music cause listeners to hear it as expressive of emotion. Their view (the resemblance theory) holds that music is expressive of some emotion when it resembles human expressive behaviour. Some features of music, they believe, are expressive of emotion because of conventional associations. In recent years, Kivy has rejected the resemblance theory without adopting an alternative. This essay argues tha…Read more
  •  59
    Key, temperament and musical expression
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 49 (3): 235-242. 1991.
  •  42
    Critique of Pure Music
    Oxford University Press. 2014.
    James O. Young seeks to explain why we value music so highly. He draws on the latest psychological research to argue that music is expressive of emotion by resembling human expressive behaviour. The representation of emotion in music gives it the capacity to provide psychological insight--and it is this which explains a good deal of its value