University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1974
College Park, Maryland, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics
Aesthetics
  • Indication, abstraction, and individuation
    In Christy Mag Uidhir (ed.), Art and abstract objects, Oxford University Press. 2012.
  • Beauty is Not One: The Irreducible Variety of Visual Beauty
    In Elisabeth Schellekens Dammann & Peter Goldie (eds.), The Aesthetic Mind: Philosophy and Psychology, Oxford University Press. pp. 190-207. 2011.
  • Approach to Aesthetics: Collected Papers on Philosophical Aesthetics
    with Frank Sibley, John Benson, Betty Redfern, Jeremy Roxbee Cox, and Emily Brady
    Philosophical Quarterly 52 (207): 237-246. 2002.
  •  26
    Forum on Jerrold Levinson, "Contemplating Art"
    with M. Rotili, A. Bertinetto, M. Di Monte, F. Focosi, and L. Giombini
    Lebenswelt: Aesthetics and Philosophy of Experience 5 1-38. 2014.
    Jerrold Levinson’s Contemplating Art provides the readers with a variety of heterogeneous topics and issues. The discussants who took part in the Forum about Levinson’s book chose four different “tracks” dealt with, offering four different reflections. The main topics of the debate are: music, historicity, aesthetic properties and aesthetic contextualism. Starting on the fact that music is one of the main fields of Contamplating Art Alessandro Bertinetto focus his paper on the ‘musical’ chapters…Read more
  •  192
    Aesthetic concepts: essays after Sibley (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 2001.
    Exploring key topics in contemporary aesthetics, this work analyzes the issues that arise from the unique works of Frank Sibley (1923-1996), who developed a distinctive aesthetic theory through a number of papers published between 1955 and 1995. Here, thirteen philosophical aestheticians bring Sibley's insight into a contemporary framework, exploring the ways his ideas foster important new discussion about issues in aesthetics. This collection will interest anyone interested in philosophy, art t…Read more
  •  6
    Die expressive Besonderheit des Jazz
    Zeitschrift für Ästhetik Und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft 59 (1): 93-103. 2014.
    In this essay I try to identify what is specific to jazz – or at least, mainstream or core jazz – from the point of view of its expression. Along the way I address the vexing question of the essence of jazz, and briefly explicate the concept of musical expression of emotion that I am working with. I next postulate a Gestalt of jazz, which I attempt to circumscribe both through its underlying musical characteristics and the use of paradigm examples, and suggest that such a Gestalt comports well w…Read more
  •  7
    Prolegomenon to a Morality of Music
    In Alessandro Arbo, Michel LeDu & Sabine Plaud (eds.), Wittgenstein and Aesthetics: Perspectives and Debates, De Gruyter. pp. 161-166. 2012.
  •  13
    16 Hypothetical Intentionalism: Statement, Objections, and Replies
    In Michael Krausz (ed.), Is There a Single Right Interpretation?, Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 309-318. 2002.
  •  19
    La chanson populaire comme microcosme moral : les leçons de vie des standards de jazz
    with G. Chevallier and C. Talon-Hugon
    Nouvelle Revue D’Esthétique 11 (1): 147. 2013.
  •  129
    The Art Circle (review)
    Philosophical Review 96 (1): 141-146. 1987.
  •  26
    An Error Concerning Noses
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 75 (1): 9-13. 2017.
    We identify a strategy for getting beliefs from fiction via three assumptions: a certain causal generality holds in the fiction and does so because causal generalities in fiction are carried over from what the author takes to be fact; the author is reliable on this topic, so what the author takes to be fact is fact. We do not question. While will, in particular cases, be doubtful, the strategy is vulnerable more generally to the worry that what looks like a causal generality may be instead an au…Read more
  •  67
    Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters
    Mind 111 (442): 380-385. 2002.
  •  226
    The pleasures of aesthetics: philosophical essays
    Cornell University Press. 1996.
    What Is Aesthetic Pleasure? When is pleasure in an object properly denominated aesthetic? The characterization of aesthetic pleasure is something that ...
  •  23
    The end of art and beyond: essays after Danto (edited book)
    Humanities Press. 1997.
    The first half of this collection addresses these themes as given voice by the philosopher and critic Arthur Danto, while the second part contains essays of a more independent cast which assume a variety of stating points aimed at illuminating the theoreticity, temporality, computability, and abstract possibilities of present and future arts.
  •  12
    The Mind and its Depths
    Philosophical Quarterly 45 (178): 100-103. 1995.
  •  1
  • Paintings, photographs, titles
    with No Returns George Shaw
    In Damien Freeman & Derek Matravers (eds.), Figuring Out Figurative Art: Contemporary Philosophers on Contemporary Paintings, Acumen Publishing. 2014.
  •  14
    Music-Specific Emotion: An Elusive Quarry
    Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 53 (2): 115. 2020.
  •  17
    Aesthetic Properties
    Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 79 191-227. 2005.
    Jerrold Levinson maintains that he is a realist about aesthetic properties. This paper considers his positive arguments for such a view. An argument from Roger Scruton, that aesthetic realism would entail the absurd claim that many aesthetic predicates were ambiguous, is also considered and it is argued that Levinson is in no worse position with respect to this argument than anyone else. However, Levinson cannot account for the phenomenon of aesthetic autonomy: namely, that we cannot be put in a…Read more
  •  9
    Aesthetic Properties
    Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 79 191-227. 2005.
    [Derek Matravers] Jerrold Levinson maintains that he is a realist about aesthetic properties. This paper considers his positive arguments for such a view. An argument from Roger Scruton, that aesthetic realism would entail the absurd claim that many aesthetic predicates were ambiguous, is also considered and it is argued that Levinson is in no worse position with respect to this argument than anyone else. However, Levinson cannot account for the phenomenon of aesthetic autonomy: namely, that we …Read more
  •  58
    Who's Afraid Of A Paraphrase?
    Theoria 67 (1): 7-23. 2001.
    I first show why Davidson was wrong to maintain that there is no such thing as metaphorical meaning, that which paraphrases strive to capture. I then sketch a conception of metaphors as utterances in contexts, and suggest how such utterances can acquire metaphorical meanings despite there being no semantic rules for the projection of such meanings. I next urge the essentiality of a metaphor's verbal formulation to its being the metaphor it is, and I conclude with some reflections on common and u…Read more
  •  286
    La créativité
    In Julien A. Deonna & Emma Tieffenbach (eds.), Petit Traité des Valeurs, Edition D’ithaque. 2018.
    La créativité est une valeur aujourd’hui abondamment conférée à des objets fort divers. Ainsi, bien qu’elle soit principalement discutée dans le domaine de l’art, on en parle souvent à propos des sciences, du sport, de l’entrepreneuriat, de la politique, de la pédagogie ou encore de situations plus ordinaires, telles que la créativité culinaire ou humoristique. En quoi ces diverses formes de créativité se ressemblent-elles ? Qu’est-ce qui fait leur valeur et en quoi se distinguent-elles de proch…Read more
  •  10
    The Oxford Handbook of Western Music and Philosophy (edited book)
    with Tomás McAuley, Nanette Nielsen, and Ariana Phillips-Hutton
    OUP. 2020.
    Whether regarded as a perplexing object, a morally captivating force, an ineffable entity beyond language, or an inescapably embodied human practice, music has captured philosophically inclined minds since time immemorial. In turn, musicians of all stripes have called on philosophy as a source of inspiration and encouragement, and scholars of music through the ages have turned to philosophy for insight into music and into the worlds that sustain it. In this Handbook, contributors build on this l…Read more
  •  16
    S. Levarie and E. Levy, Musical Morphology
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 43 (2): 222-223. 1984.
  •  6
    Essay Review
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 49 (3): 253-258. 1991.
  •  31
    Truth, Fiction, and Literature (review)
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 57 (4): 964-968. 1997.
  •  39
    Nonexistent Objects
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 40 (1): 96-99. 1980.
  •  92
    Narration in Light: Studies in Cinematic Point of View
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 47 (3): 290-292. 1989.
  • Oxford Handbook of Music and Philosophy (edited book)
    Oxford University PRess. 2021.