• Resemblance theories
    In Theodore Gracyk & Andrew Kania (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Music, Routledge. 2011.
  •  8
    Articulates an imaginationist solution to the question of how purely instrumental music can be perceived by a listener as having emotional content. Both musicians and laypersons can perceive purely instrumental music without words or an associated story or program as expressing emotions such as happiness and sadness. But how? In this book, Saam Trivedi discusses and critiques the leading philosophical approaches to this question, including formalism, metaphorism, expression theories, arousalism,…Read more
  •  30
    Themes in the Philosophy of Music
    Journal of Aesthetic Education 37 (3): 108. 2003.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Journal of Aesthetic Education 37.3 (2003) 108-112 [Access article in PDF] Themes in the Philosophy of Music, by Stephen Davies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, 283 pp., hardcover. Over the last few decades, there has been a remarkable output of several books and articles on the philosophy of music. Stephen Davies is one of the leading contributors to this growing literature in the Philosophy of Music. This important and…Read more
  •  51
    Artist-Audience Communication: Tolstoy Reclaimed
    Journal of Aesthetic Education 38 (2): 38. 2004.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Journal of Aesthetic Education 38.2 (2004) 38-52 [Access article in PDF] Artist-Audience Communication: Tolstoy Reclaimed Saam Trivedi Whoever is really conversant with art recognizes in [Tolstoy's What is Art?] the voice of the master.1There has to be some presumption that, as one of the greatest artists who ever lived, Tolstoy might actually have known what he was talking about.2It is widely accepted in contemporary Anglo-Ameri…Read more
  •  95
    Expressiveness as a property of the music itself
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 59 (4). 2001.
  •  46
    Imagination, music, and the emotions
    Revue Internationale de Philosophie 4 (4): 415-435. 2006.
  •  1
    Art as Communication: A Philosophical Inquiry
    Dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park. 1999.
    In the present work, I attempt to address the issue of what it means to say that art is a form of communication, that many works of art communicate to us, and that many avant-garde artworks do not communicate to us. These are claim often made by those who are appropriately backgrounded in the arts, and often even by laypersons. ;I focus largely on music and claim that artistic communication is important though not essential to be an artwork, and to be valuable as such. At least four different co…Read more
  •  23
    Philosophers on Music: Experience, Meaning, and Work: Book Reviews (review)
    British Journal of Aesthetics 49 (1): 91-93. 2009.
  •  33
    Emotional Truth by de sousa, ronald
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 70 (2): 239-241. 2012.
  •  195
    Music and metaphysics
    Metaphilosophy 39 (1). 2008.
    In this article, I assume that musical works are abstract types, and I raise and address a new question concerning musical ontology that may take the types view at least a step further: When do musical works cease to exist? I then propound my view about musical works as types, which is somewhat like the Aristotelian Realist position concerning universals. Next, I address some objections to that view. Finally, I provide some grounds for rejecting alternative views that see Western classical music…Read more
  •  128
    An epistemic dilemma for actual intentionalism
    British Journal of Aesthetics 41 (2): 192-206. 2001.
  • Metaphors and Musical Expressiveness
    In Kathleen Stock & Katherine Thomson-Jones (eds.), New Waves in Aesthetics, Palgrave-macmillan. pp. 41--57. 2008.
  •  86
    Against musical works as eternal types
    British Journal of Aesthetics 42 (1): 73-82. 2002.
    I criticize Julian Dodd's Platonist conception of musical works as discovered eternal types, and defend and elaborate upon Jerrold Levinson's conception of musical works as creatable indicated types. I raise broadly three sorts of worries for Dodd. First, I argue that Dodd conflates types with Platonist universals in claiming that types are eternal and discovered. Secondly, I raise worries for Dodd's Platonist claim that musical works are discovered not created. Here I argue that Dodd's claim go…Read more
  •  161
    Idealism and yogacara buddhism
    Asian Philosophy 15 (3). 2005.
    Over the last several years, there has been a growing controversy about whether Yogacara Buddhism can be said to be idealist in some sense, as used to be commonly thought by earlier scholars. In this paper, I first clarify the different senses of idealism that might be pertinent to the debate. I then focus on some of the works of Vasubandhu, limiting myself to his Vimsatika, Trimsika, and Trisvabhavanirdesa. I argue that classical Yogacara Buddhism, at least as found in these works of Vasubandhu…Read more