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35The Aesthetics of Imperfection Reconceived: Improvisations, Compositions, and MistakesJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 78 (3): 289-302. 2020.ABSTRACT Ted Gioia associated the “aesthetics of imperfection” with improvised music. In an earlier article, I extended it to all musical performance. This article reconceives my discussion, offering more precise analyses: The aesthetics of imperfection is now argued to involve open, spontaneous response to contingencies of performance or production, reacting positively to idiosyncratic instruments; apparent failings in performance, and so on. Perfectionists, in contrast, prefer a planning model…Read more
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3Scruton's philosophy of culture: Elitism, populism, and classic artBritish Journal of Aesthetics 49 (4): 389-404. 2009.Scruton is a self-confessed elitist for whom culture is ‘the creation and creator of elites’, though its meaning ‘lies in emotions and aspirations that are common to all’. This article argues that one can uphold his humane conception of the value of high culture without endorsing elitism. It develops a surprisingly unelitist strand in Scruton's thinking into a meritocratic middle way between elitism and populism, in order to explain why art is in some sense an elite product, but with communal re…Read more
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8Music and the aural artsBritish Journal of Aesthetics 47 (1): 46-63. 2007.The visual arts include painting, sculpture, photography, video, and film. But many people would argue that music is the universal or only art of sound. In the modernist era, Western art music has incorporated unpitched sounds or ‘noise’, and I pursue the question of whether this process allows space for a non-musical soundart. Are there non-musical arts of sound—is there an art phonography, for instance, to parallel art photography? At the same time, I attempt a characterization of music, contr…Read more
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168Memory and self-consciousness: immunity to error through misidentificationSynthese 171 (3): 409-417. 2009.In The Blue Book, Wittgenstein defined a category of uses of “I” which he termed “I”-as-subject, contrasting them with “I”-as-object uses. The hallmark of this category is immunity to error through misidentification (IEM). This article extends Wittgenstein’s characterisation to the case of memory-judgments, discusses the significance of IEM for self-consciousness—developing the idea that having a first-person thought involves thinking about oneself in a distinctive way in which one cannot think …Read more
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4Groups, individuals, and evolutionary restraints: the making of the contemporary debate over group selectionBiology and Philosophy 27 (2): 299-312. 2012.Groups, individuals, and evolutionary restraints : the making of the contemporary debate over group selection Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-14 DOI 10.1007/s10539-011-9255-5 Authors Andrew Hamilton, Center for Biology and Society, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4501 USA Christopher C. Dimond, Center for Biology and Society, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4501 USA Journal Biology and Philosophy Online ISSN 1572-8404 Pri…Read more
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9Artistic TruthRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 71 229-261. 2012.According to Wittgenstein, in the remarks collected as Culture and Value , ‘People nowadays think, scientists are there to instruct them, poets, musicians etc. to entertain them. That the latter have something to teach them; that never occurs to them.’ 18th and early 19th century art-lovers would have taken a very different view. Dr. Johnson assumed that the poets had truths to impart, while Hegel insisted that ‘In art we have to do not with any agreeable or useful child's play, but with an unfo…Read more
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39Against Modernism and Postmodernism on Art and Entertainment: A Kristeller Thesis of EntertainmentBritish Journal of Aesthetics 63 (1): 41-56. 2022.This article develops a Wittgensteinian treatment of the relationship between art and entertainment, combining universal and historically conditioned features.
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7Meeting report: First ISHPSSB off-year workshop (review)Biology and Philosophy 20 (4): 927-929. 2005.
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3The russell/bradley dispute and its significance for twentieth century philosophy - by Stewart CandlishPhilosophical Books 49 (3): 264-266. 2008.No Abstract
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4The Quest for voice: On music, politics, and the limits of philosophyBritish Journal of Aesthetics 42 (3): 327-328. 2002.
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2The Oxford Handbook to Continental PhilosophyBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 18 (1): 171-175. 2010.This Article does not have an abstract
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20Scruton's Philosophy of Culture: Elitism, Populism, and Classic Art: ArticlesBritish Journal of Aesthetics 49 (4): 389-404. 2009.Scruton is a self-confessed elitist for whom culture is ‘the creation and creator of elites’, though its meaning ‘lies in emotions and aspirations that are common to all’. This article argues that one can uphold his humane conception of the value of high culture without endorsing elitism. It develops a surprisingly unelitist strand in Scruton's thinking into a meritocratic middle way between elitism and populism, in order to explain why art is in some sense an elite product, but with communal re…Read more
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5'Scottish commonsense' about memory: A defence of Thomas Reid's direct knowledge accountAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 81 (2): 229-245. 2003.Reid rejects the image theory --the representative or indirect realist position--that memory-judgements are inferred from or otherwise justified by a present image or introspectible state. He also rejects the trace theory , which regards memories as essentially traces in the brain. In contrast he argues for a direct knowledge account in which personal memory yields unmediated knowledge of the past. He asserts the reliability of memory, not in currently fashionable terms as a reliable belief-form…Read more
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53Knowledge, Reason and Taste: Kant's Response to Hume (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 88 (4): 737-739. 2010.No abstract
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59II—Rhythm and Stasis: A Major and Almost Entirely Neglected Philosophical ProblemProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 111 (1pt1): 25-42. 2011.This article develops a dynamic account of rhythm as ‘order‐in‐movement’ that opposes static accounts of rhythm as abstract time, as essentially a pattern of possibly unstressed sounds and silences. This dynamic account is humanistic: it focuses on music as a humanly‐produced, sonorous phenomenon, privileging the human as opposed to the abstract, or the organic or mechanical. It defends the claim that movement is the most fundamental conceptualization of music—the basic category in terms of whic…Read more
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6Intention and the authority of avowalsPhilosophical Explorations 11 (1). 2008.There is a common assumption that intention is a complex behavioural disposition, or a motivational state underlying such a disposition. Associated with this position is the apparently commonsense view that an avowal of intention is a direct report of an inner motivational state, and indirectly an expression of a belief that it is likely that one will A. A central claim of this article is that the dispositional or motivational model is mistaken since it cannot acknowledge either the future-direc…Read more
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3Elucidating the tractatus: Wittgenstein's early philosophy of language and logic - by Marie McGinnPhilosophical Books 49 (3): 266-269. 2008.No Abstract
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2Aesthetics and the environmen: The appreciation of nature, art and architectureBritish Journal of Aesthetics 41 (4): 444-446. 2001.
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33Aesthetics and music * by Andy Hamilton (review)Analysis 69 (2): 397-398. 2007.Aesthetics and Music is a rich and interesting study. Hamilton's approach is innovative. He interleaves chapters on the history of philosophical thought about music with more theoretical discussions of music, sound, rhythm and improvisation, but does not cover the work–performance relation, depiction or expression. He draws on an atypically broad range of examples, including avant-garde, medieval, non-Western and jazz. The assumptions are humanist: ‘I wish to argue for an aesthetic conception of…Read more
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6The Aesthetics of Western Art MusicPhilosophical Books 40 (3): 145-159. 1999.Book reviewed in this article: Roger Scruton, The Aesthetics of Music.
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7Mild Cognitive Impairment: Which Kind Is It?Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 13 (1): 51-52. 2006.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Mild Cognitive Impairment:Which Kind Is It?Andy Hamilton (bio)Keywordshuman kinds, mild cognitive impairment, multiple personality disorder, practical kinds, social constructionThere is much stimulating material in the Graham and Ritchie's paper (2006), concerning not just disease-classification but also the ethics of diagnosis. My concern is with the way in which they adduce Ian Hacking's views in the philosophy of science in suppor…Read more
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20On Certainty on the Foundations of History as a DisciplineTopoi 41 (5): 979-985. 2022.Wittgenstein had little to say directly on philosophy of history. But some pertinent remarks in _On Certainty_ have received little attention, apart from in Elizabeth Anscombe's short article on Hume and Julius Caesar. That article acknowledges its debt to _On Certainty,_ which responses to Anscombe have failed to recognise. Wittgenstein focuses in _On Certainty_ on apparently empirical propositions that seem to be certainties, but in fact form a rule-like framework for judging. I have called th…Read more
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Groups, individuals, and the emergence of socialityIn Frédéric Bouchard & Philippe Huneman (eds.), From Groups to Individuals: Evolution and Emerging Individuality, Mit Press. 2013.
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1131Art, Beauty and MoralityIn Silvia Caprioglio Panizza & Mark Hopwood (eds.), The Murdochian Mind, Routledge. 2022.In this chapter, we examine Iris Murdoch’s views about art. We highlight continuities and differences between her views on art and aesthetics, and those of Plato, Kant, and Freud. We argue that Murdoch’s views about art, though traditionally linked to Plato, are more compatible with Kant’s thought than has been acknowledged—though with his ethics rather than his aesthetics. Murdoch shows Plato’s influence in her idea that beauty is the good in a different guise. However, Murdoch shows a more Kan…Read more
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17Carnap’s Construction of the World: The _Aufbau_ and the Emergence of Logical Empiricism (review)Philosophical Quarterly 50 (200): 402-405. 2000.
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24Rhythm and Movement: The Conceptual Interdependence of Music, Dance, and PoetryMidwest Studies in Philosophy 44 (1): 161-182. 2019.Midwest Studies In Philosophy, EarlyView.