University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1974
College Park, Maryland, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics
Aesthetics
  •  23
    The Aesthetics of Music (review)
    Philosophical Review 109 (4): 608-614. 2000.
    As readers of this book will discover, from several disputes with me contained in its pages, Scruton and I are not in accord on a number of matters in the philosophy of music. Notwithstanding that, and more generally the fact that the book is controlled by a phenomenological-idealist perspective on music that I regard as fundamentally misplaced, in my estimation The Aesthetics of Music is the most valuable work to date on the subject of its title, one that addresses that subject in its full rang…Read more
  •  51
    Contextualisme esthétique
    Philosophiques 32 (1): 125-133. 2005.
    Je me fixe deux objectifs dans ce texte. Le premier est de situer l’esthétique ou la philosophie de l’art par rapport à la philosophie en général et d’expliquer pourquoi elle a été la préoccupation centrale de tant de philosophes dans la tradition. Mon second objectif est de définir un courant dominant de l’esthétique des trente dernières années, que je nomme « contextualisme », et d’expliquer son importance en ce qui concerne les réflexions des artistes, critiques, théoriciens et publics à prop…Read more
  •  223
    Why there are no tropes
    Philosophy 81 (4): 563-580. 2006.
    This paper effectively inverts the argument of an earlier paper of mine, “The Particularisation of Attributes”, to argue that there are no necessarily particularised and unshareable attributes of the sort that contemporary metaphysics calls tropes. In that earlier paper I distinguished two kinds of attributes, namely, properties and qualities, and argued that if there were tropes they could only be particularised qualities, i.e. particularisations of, say, redness, rather than particularisations…Read more
  •  53
    Jazz Vocal Interpretation: A Philosophical Analysis
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 71 (1): 35-43. 2013.
  •  1
    Properties, Qualities, and Categoriality
    Dissertation, University of Michigan. 1974.
  •  59
    Aesthetic uniqueness
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 38 (4): 435-449. 1980.
  •  120
    The place of real emotion in response to fictions
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 48 (1): 79-80. 1990.
  •  441
    Hume's standard of taste: The real problem
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 60 (3). 2002.
  •  1
    Plaisanteries immorales
    Nouvelle Revue d'Esthétique 6 (2): 143-150. 2010.
    Résumé Pouvons-nous trouver une plaisanterie raciste ou sexiste à la fois drôle et moralement condamnable? Certains répondent « non », soit en tentant de montrer que l’immoralité disparaît dans le contexte de la plaisanterie, soit en soutenant que de telles plaisanteries ne sont pas réellement drôles ou ne devraient pas être trouvées telles. L’article soutient au contraire que oui! Et c’est de la mauvaise foi que de ne pas le reconnaître. La question est alors de savoir si leur immoralité nuit à…Read more
  •  38
    An Ontology of Art, by Gregory Currie (review)
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 52 (1): 215-222. 1992.
  •  2
    Evaluating music
    Revue Internationale de Philosophie 50 (198): 593-614. 1996.
  •  46
    Musical thinking
    Midwest Studies in Philosophy 27 (1). 2003.
  •  161
    Aesthetics and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection (edited book)
    Cambridge University Press. 1998.
    This major collection of essays stands at the border of aesthetics and ethics and deals with charged issues of practical import: art and morality, the ethics of taste, and censorship. As such its potential interest is by no means confined to professional philosophers; it should also appeal to art historians and critics, literary theorists, and students of film. Prominent philosophers in both aesthetics and ethics tackle a wide array of issues. Some of the questions explored in the volume include…Read more
  •  29
    Truth, Fiction, and Literature (review)
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 57 (4): 964-968. 1997.