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95Work and Object: Explorations in the Metaphysics of Art, by Peter LamarqueMind 121 (484): 1088-1095. 2012.
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88On a Proposed Test for Artistic ValueBritish Journal of Aesthetics 54 (4): 395-407. 2014.In a recent paper, Robert Stecker proposes the following test for whether a value possessed by an artwork is artistic or not: ‘Does one need to understand the work to appreciate its being valuable in that way? If so, it is an artistic value. If not, it is not.’ An important question here is what Stecker means by ‘appreciation’ in this context. Stecker himself says little about this, but I offer him two accounts of the nature of appreciation, both of which are suggested by remarks of his own. It …Read more
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72Upholding Standards: A Realist Ontology of Standard Form JazzJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 72 (3): 277-290. 2014.In “All Play and No Work,” Andrew Kania claims that standard form jazz involves no works, only performances. This article responds to Kania by defending one of the alternative ontological proposals that he rejects, namely, that jazz works are ontologically continuous with works of classical music. I call this alternative “the standard view,” and I argue that it is the default position in the ontology of standard form jazz. Kania has three objections to the standard view. The bulk of the article …Read more
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72Types, Tokens, and Talk about Musical WorksJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 75 (3): 249-263. 2017.It has recently been suggested that the type/token theorist concerning musical works cannot come up with an adequate semantic theory of those sentences in which we purport to talk about such works. Specifically, it has been claimed that, since types are abstract entities, a type/token theorist can only account for the truth of sentences such as “The 1812 Overture is very loud” and “Bach's Two Part Invention in C has an F-sharp in its fourth measure” by adopting an untenable semantic claim: namel…Read more
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71A minimalist explanation of truth’s asymmetryAmerican Philosophical Quarterly 55 (4): 389-404. 2018.Suppose that Eleanor is drowsy. Truth's asymmetry is illustrated by the following fact: while we accept that <Eleanor is drowsy> is true because Eleanor is drowsy, we do not accept that Eleanor is drowsy because <Eleanor is drowsy> is true. This asymmetry requires an explanation, but it has been alleged, notably by David Liggins, that the minimalist about truth cannot provide one. This paper counteracts this pessimism by arguing that the minimalist can successfully explain the asymmetry conceptu…Read more
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66Artistic Value and Sentimental Value: A Reply to Robert SteckerJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 71 (3): 282-288. 2013.
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60Indirect Speech, Parataxis and the Nature of Things SaidJournal of Philosophical Research 22 211-227. 1997.This paper makes the following recommendation when it comes to the IogicaI form of sentences in indirect speech. Davidson’s paratactic account shouId stand, but with one emendation: the demonstrative ‘that’ should be taken to refer to the Fregean Thought expressed by the utterance of the content-sentence, rather than to that utterance itseIf. The argument for this emendation is that it is the onIy way of repIying to the objections to Davidson’s account raised by Schiffer, McFetridge and McDowell…Read more
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59Resurrecting the Identity Theory of TruthBradley Studies 2 (1): 42-50. 1996.1. The conclusion of Stewart Candlish’s pithy survey of identity theories of truth is that he is not yet convinced that any instance is more than an “historical curiosity”. Candlish in effect presents the would-be identity theorist with a dilemma: identity theories are either substantial, yet intrinsically implausible ); or else they are trivial.
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49John R. Searle claims that P.F. Strawson's well known objections to correspondence theories of truth can be side‐stepped, if we regard the correspondence theorist's facts as ‘conditions in the world’ rather than as complex objects. In response, I claim both that Searle's notion of a ‘condition in the world’ is obscure, and that such conditions cannot be the facts of a correspondence theorist on account of their being unsuited for truthmaking.The failure of Searle's attempt to come up with a corr…Read more
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37Reading Metaphysics: Selected Texts with Interactive Commentary (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2007.This collection brings together key contemporary texts in metaphysics and features an interactive commentary which helps readers engage the texts critically and to use them to develop their own views. Each text is followed by a detailed commentary, setting it in context Includes questions designed to help readers think hard about what the author is saying and why, to think of objections, and to formulate his or her own views Aims to improve the reader’s ability to engage critically with philosop…Read more
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32Musical Understandings and Other Essays on the Philosophy of Music, by Stephen Davies: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 256, £40.00/us$75.00 (hardcover) (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 91 (3): 625-625. 2013.No abstract
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32Blurred Lines: Ravasio on “Historically Informed Performance”Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 78 (1): 85-90. 2020.The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Volume 78, Issue 1, Page 85-90, Winter 2020.
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27Style Appropriation, Intimacy, and ExpressivenessBritish Journal of Aesthetics 61 (3): 373-386. 2021.This paper is about style appropriation: the use by someone of stylistic cultural innovations distinctive of a cultural group that is not her own. While I agree with the key insight of C. Thi Nguyen and Matthew Strohl : 981-1002) – namely, that style appropriation is sometimes found objectionable because group intimacy is believed to have been breached – I disagree with their core claim that the settled beliefs of the group cannot be wrong about whether its group intimacy has, in fact, been comp…Read more
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26Rails Invisibly Laid to InfinityPhilosophical Quarterly 73 (1): 84-104. 2022.This paper addresses what I call ‘the constitutive question’ concerning the rules we follow: namely, what determines the standard for a rule's correct application. John McDowell has offered a putative ‘middle position’ between two extreme, unacceptable answers: empirical idealism, which takes the requirements of a rule in any given situation to be constituted by our reaction to the case; and hard platonism, which takes these requirements to be delivered by unvarnished reality as absolutely the s…Read more
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24Being True to Works of MusicOxford University Press. 2020.Julian Dodd offers an original approach to the controversial concept of authenticity in musical performance. He argues that the fundamental norm is not historical authenticity but interpretive authenticity: being faithful to the work by evincing a profound, far-reaching, or sophisticated understanding of it.
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21Facing facts by Stephen Neale oxford university press, 2001. Pp. XV + 254. £25Philosophy 78 (1): 123-145. 2003.
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20In his last work, "Crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology", Edmund Husserl formulated a radical new approach to phenomenological philosophy. Unlike his previous works, in the "Crisis" Husserl embedded this formulation in an ambitious reflection on the essence and value of the idea of rational thought and culture, a reflection that he considered to be an urgent necessity in light of the political, social, and intellectual crisis of the interwar period. In this book, Jame…Read more
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19Indirect Speech, Parataxis and the Nature of Things SaidJournal of Philosophical Research 22 211-227. 1997.This paper makes the following recommendation when it comes to the IogicaI form of sentences in indirect speech. Davidson’s paratactic account shouId stand, but with one emendation: the demonstrative ‘that’ should be taken to refer to the Fregean Thought expressed by the utterance of the content-sentence, rather than to that utterance itseIf. The argument for this emendation is that it is the onIy way of repIying to the objections to Davidson’s account raised by Schiffer, McFetridge and McDowell…Read more
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17On a Davidsonian objection to minimalismAnalysis 57 (4): 267-272. 1997.Two features of Paul Horwich's minimalist conception of truth (1990) make it stand out from the deflationary crowd. First, Horwich takes propositions to be the primary vehicles of truth (1990: 17-18, Ch. 6). Second, he claims that an explicit definition of truth applicable to propositions cannot be given (1990: 26-31), and hence that the meaning of 'true' can only be determined by our disposition to assent to the infinitely many (non-paradoxical) instances of the following schema: (E) The propos…Read more
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17Of affairsIn Robin Le Poidevin, Simons Peter, McGonigal Andrew & Ross P. Cameron (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics, Routledge. pp. 322. 2009.
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16Art, Mind, and Narrative: Themes From the Work of Peter Goldie (edited book)Oxford University Press UK. 2016.This volume presents new essays on art, mind, and narrative inspired by the work of the late Peter Goldie, who was Samuel Hall Professor of Philosophy at the University of Manchester until 2011. Divided into three sections - Narrative Thinking; Emotion, Mind, and Art; and Art, Value, and Ontology - the book presents fascinating new philosophical work on these intertwined subjects. Topics covered include the role of narrative thinking in our lives, the nature of our imaginative engagement with fi…Read more
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15Blurred Lines: Ravasio on “Historically Informed Performance”Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 78 (1): 85-90. 2020.
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8Discussions: Hornsby on the Identity Theory of TruthProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 99 (1): 225-232. 1999.Julian Dodd; Discussions: Hornsby on the Identity Theory of Truth, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 99, Issue 1, 1 June 1999, Pages 225–232, http.
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6Conflict and Difference: the Pre-requisite of CollaborationJournal of Intelligent Systems 4 (1-2): 29-46. 1994.