University of California, San Diego
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 2005
Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
  •  13
    The Aesthetics of Design
    In Fritz Allhoff, Jessica Wolfendale & Jeanette Kennett (eds.), Fashion - Philosophy for Everyone: Thinking with Style, Wiley. pp. 51--69. 2011.
  • Artistic truth
    In Anthony O'Hear (ed.), Philosophy and the Arts, Cambridge University Press. 2013.
  •  3
    The aesthetics of imperfection in music and the arts: spontaneity, flaws and the unfinished (edited book)
    with Lara Pearson
    Bloomsbury Academic. 2020.
    The aesthetics of imperfection emphasises spontaneity, disruption, process and energy over formal perfection and is often ignored by many commentators or seen only in improvisation. This comprehensive collection is the first time imperfection has been explored across all kinds of musical performance, whether improvisation or interpretation of compositions. Covering music, visual art, dance, comedy, architecture and design, it addresses the meaning, experience, and value of improvisation and spon…Read more
  •  10
    Ludwig Wittgenstein is arguably the most important philosopher of the twentieth century. In _On Certainty_ he discusses central issues in epistemology, including the nature of knowledge and scepticism. _The Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Wittgenstein and On Certainty_ introduces and assesses: Wittgenstein's career and the background to his later philosophy the central ideas and text of _On Certainty_, including its responses to G.E. Moore and discussion of fundamental issues in the theory of …Read more
  •  13
    Ludwig Wittgenstein is arguably the most important philosopher of the twentieth century. In On Certainty he discusses central issues in epistemology, including the nature of knowledge and scepticism. The Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Wittgenstein and On Certainty introduces and assesses: Wittgenstein's career and the background to his later philosophy the central ideas and text of On Certainty , including its responses to G.E. Moore and discussion of fundamental issues in the theory of knowl…Read more
  •  13
    The Philosophy of Rhythm: Aesthetics, Music, Poetics (edited book)
    with Peter Cheyne and Max Paddison
    Oxford University Press, USA. 2019.
    Rhythm is the fundamental pulse that animates poetry, music, and dance across all cultures. And yet the recent explosion of scholarly interest across disciplines in the aural dimensions of aesthetic experience--particularly in sociology, cultural and media theory, and literary studies--has yet to explore this fundamental category. This book furthers the discussion of rhythm beyond the discrete conceptual domains and technical vocabularies of musicology and prosody. With original essays by philos…Read more
  •  8
    The Aesthetics of Design
    In Fritz Allhoff, Jessica Wolfendale & Jeanette Kennett (eds.), Fashion - Philosophy for Everyone: Thinking with Style, Wiley. 2011.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Design as Problem‐Solving or Design as Fashion? The Rise of Design As a Profession: Is Design a Response to Consumerism? Consumerism, Self‐expression, and The “Invention” of Design Consumerism Is Not Essential to Design Were Neolithic Flint Tools Designed? Can We Avoid Designing? – The Idea of “Useless Work” The Function and Value of Fashion.
  •  794
    Philosophy of Biology
    In Fritz Allhoff (ed.), Philosophies of the Sciences, Wiley‐blackwell. 2010.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction What Are the Biological Sciences (Not)? Systematics Ecology and Evolution Levels of Selection Conclusion References.
  •  4
    The Aesthetics of Western Art Music (review)
    with Roger Scruton
    Philosophical Books 40 (3): 145-159. 1999.
    Book reviewed in this article:Roger Scruton, The Aesthetics of Music.
  • Proprioception as Basic Knowledge of the Body
    In René Woudenberg, Sabine Roeser & Ron Rood (eds.), Basic Belief and Basic Knowledge: Papers in Epistemology, De Gruyter. pp. 269-292. 2005.
  •  14
    Aesthetics
    Philosophical Books 44 (2): 187-192. 2003.
  •  82
  •  7
    The cambridge history of nineteenth-century music
    British Journal of Aesthetics 43 (1): 86-89. 2003.
  •  5
    The Cambridge History of Nineteenth‐century Music (review)
    British Journal of Aesthetics 43 (1): 86-89. 2003.
  •  29
    The Aesthetics of Imperfection Reconceived: Improvisations, Compositions, and Mistakes
    Journal 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
  •  68
    The art of recording and the aesthetics of perfection
    British Journal of Aesthetics 43 (4): 345-362. 2003.
    Recording has transformed the nature of music as an art by reconfiguring the opposition between the aesthetics of perfection and imperfection. A precursor article, ‘The Art of Improvisation and the Aesthetics of Imperfection’, contrasted the perfectionist aesthetic of the ‘work-concept’ with the imperfectionist aesthetic of improvisation. Imperfectionist approaches to recording are purist in wanting to maintain the diachronic and synchronic integrity of the performance, which perfectionist recor…Read more
  •  60
    Scruton's philosophy of culture: Elitism, populism, and classic art
    British 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
  •  7
  •  142
    Music and the aural arts
    British 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
  •  162
    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
  •  101
    Groups, individuals, and evolutionary restraints: the making of the contemporary debate over group selection
    with Christopher C. Dimond
    Biology 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
  •  37
    Artistic Truth
    Royal 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
  •  16
    This article develops a Wittgensteinian treatment of the relationship between art and entertainment, combining universal and historically conditioned features.
  •  52
    Meeting report: First ISHPSSB off-year workshop (review)
    with Melinda Fagan, Patrick Forber, Vivette GarcÍa Deister, Matthew H. Haber, and Grant Yamashita
    Biology and Philosophy 20 (4): 927-929. 2005.
  •  15
    Scruton's Philosophy of Culture: Elitism, Populism, and Classic Art: Articles
    British 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