Theodore Gracyk

Many fans of country music have endorsed the common and longstanding view that commerce erodes the authenticity of the music they love. However, historians of the genre are as clear as can be: the genre was invented by the entertainment industry for commercial reasons. One might conclude that the fans are simply mistaken, and are being duped by the very thing they protest. This essay aims to provide a more sympathetic reading of their complaint by reading it as an endorsement of Martin Heidegger’s reflections on living authentically in the face of the commercialization of technology. To make this case, several meanings of authenticity must be disentangled, supporting the conclusion that fans tend to focus on commercially-crafted signifiers of authenticity at the expense of self-discovery that underlies the authenticity they desire.

Immanuel Kant's pre-Critical aesthetic theory denied the possibility of a transcendental deduction for claims of taste. However, his mature aesthetic theory, expressed in the Critique of Judgment, demanded such a deduction, and his mature theory was more complex than his pre-Critical theory in many other ways. Furthermore, these changes seem to many commentators to be at odds with Kant's views in the Critique of Pure Reason. For instance, pure aesthetic judgments seem to demand synthesis of a manifold in the absence of recognition in a concept, whereas the first Critique seems to deny the possibility of synthesis apart from use of the categories. Kant's reasons for changing his views and for advocating a theory so problematic for his own philosophy are usually attributed to the need to bridge the gap between practical and theoretical reason. This explanation does not provide an adequate account of Kant's actual claims in the third Critique. This dissertation aims at clarifying Kant's assertions that pure aesthetic judgments are basic to cognition of an objective world, and to the formation of empirical concepts through which the actual world is cognized. ;The dissertation has five chapters. Chapter One introduces the problem and surveys the existing literature. Chapter Two argues that empirical knowledge was an important concern for Kant, and that the third Critique was in part intended to address the topic of empirical concept formation. The remaining chapters deal with problems for this interpretation while arguing that it allows the first and third Critiques to be read as presenting a single coherent theory about cognition as requiring the use of empirical concepts

When academics analyze popular art, they usually subsume it under the rubric of "popular culture." Unfortunately, this approach assumes that "aesthetics is naked cultural hegemony, and popular discrimination properly rejects it."' Although it is accepted that jazz is particularly rich as a mass-culture artform, its status as popular music--something distinct from the Western tradition of "serious" composed music--taints it as distinctly less valuable. In an attempt to undercut this prevailing disregard for the aesthetic value of popular music, I shall focus on the special case of jazz as treated in the seminal writings of Theodor W. Adorno. His theories have supported the tendency to approach popular art in terms of a sociological critique that downplays its aesthetic dimension; I will argue that Adorno's writings actually support the appraisal of jazz (and, by extension, other popular music) on its own terms.

A spate of recent articles on Thomas Reid’s aesthetic theory constitutes a valuable commentary on both Reid’s own theory and on eighteenth-century aesthetics. However, while these articles provide a generally sympatheic introduction to Reid’s position, they are primarily expository in nature and uncritical in tone. I shall therefore address the plausibility of both Reid’s general aesthetic theory and the arguments advanced for the theory. I contend that his theory, however much an improvement over those offered by his contemporaries, is fatally flawed by internal confusion and inconsistency; he cannot justify his claim that beauty and sublimity are objective qualities of objects. My analysis focuses on Reid’s mature statement on aesthetics, the essay “Of Taste” found at the end of the Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man.

Harvey Siegel argues that minimum competency testing (MCT) is incompatible with strong sense critical thinking. His arguments are reviewed and contrasted with positions held by John E. McPeck and Michael Scriven. Siegel's arguments seem directed against the prevailing form of MCT. However, alternative formats which allow for the aggregate and context-sensitive nature of critical thinking are not doomed to the arbitrariness Siegel finds. MCT may be a legitimate and useful means for furthering critical thinking as one of our educational ideals

Surveying the full range of David Hume's remarks on beauty throughout his writings, the essay makes the case that his alleged aesthetic scepticism is his summary of the consequences of Francis Hutcheson's theory and not his own position. Hume's position is that the complexity of human aesthetic response encourages shallow evaluations of most art, but a response that parallels disinterested moral judgment can result in justified aesthetic evaluations. As such, Hume modifies the emphasis of "inner sense" analyses of beauty. For Hume, aesthetic predicates denote more than pleasant and unpleasant responses; any object which regularly causes pleasure in some viewers is properly regarded as beautiful. As a term of recommendation, "beauty" is justifiably ascribed to objects which regularly appeal to a delicacy of taste. The essay argues that interpretation of Hume's justification for the superiority of delicacy of taste depends on understanding how he uses the term "sentiment" in specific passages of the essay "Of the Standard of Taste," but his meaning has been misunderstood or overlooked by previous commentators.

_The Philosophy of Art_ is a highly accessible introduction to current key issues and debates in aesthetics and philosophy of art. Chapters on standard topics are balanced by topics of interest to today's students, including creativity, authenticity, cultural appropriation, and the distinction between popular and fine art. Other topics include emotive expression, pictorial representation, definitional strategies, and artistic value. Presupposing no prior knowledge of philosophy, Theodore Gracyk draws on three decades of teaching experience to provide a balanced and engaging overview, clear explanations, and many thought-provoking examples. All chapters have a strong focus on current debates in the field, yet historical figures are not neglected. Major current theories are set beside key ideas from Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Marx, and Hegel. Chapters conclude with advice on further readings, and there are recommendations of films that will serve as a basis for further reflection and discussion. Key ideas are immediately accompanied by exercises that will test students' reactions and understanding. Many chapters call attention to ideology, prejudices, and common clichés that interfere with clear thinking. Beautifully written and thoroughly comprehensive, _The Philosophy of Art_ is the ideal resource for anyone who wants to explore recent developments in philosophical thinking about the arts. It is also provides the perfect starting point for anyone who wants to reflect on, and challenge, their own assumptions about the nature and value of art

This essay focuses on certain norms of Western opera, most notably the long-standing practice of excluding those who possess unattractive voices from leading roles in opera productions. Aging voices are sometimes accepted, but otherwise the institution of Western opera reflects and reinforces the common social bias against people with unattractive voices. Resistance to casting ugly voices in leading opera roles is an overlooked category of the marginalization and silencing of a whole class of voices in the performing arts. I consider arguments that might be given in support of continuing this practice, but I argue that they fail. Current practice merits ethical censure, both for the selection process that is part of the means of production and, especially, for the attitude that the audience is prompted to deploy in engaging with the drama.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Philosophy and Literature 26.1 (2002) 173-187 [Access article in PDF] Symposium: On Ken Burns's "Jazz" Jazz After Jazz: Ken Burns and the Construction of Jazz History Theodore Gracyk As all action is by its nature to be figured as extended in breadth and in depth, as well as in length; and so spreads abroad on all hands... so all narrative is, by its nature, of only one dimension; only travels forward towards one, or towards successive points; narrative is linear, action is solid. Alas for our "chains" or chainlets, of "causes and effects." —Thomas Carlyle, "On History," 1830 Jazz and freedom are synonyms. —Mezz Mezzrow I JAZZ, A FILM BY KEN BURNS is a fascinating and monumental achievement. In this essay, I identify and critique some of the project's core assumptions. My principal target is the assumption that a specific essence of jazz underlies most (but not all) of the music that is regularly identified as jazz and that the historical unfolding of this essence is the true subject of a historical investigation of jazz. This assumption accounts for the project's otherwise puzzling suggestion that jazz history ended approximately thirty-five years ago.The most visible element of the historical project is the ten-part, nineteen-hour documentary, Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns. However, the historical project has three other public elements. The first is a book, Jazz: A History of America's Music. 1 Credited to both Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, the bulk of the book is the film's spoken text, which includes both a unifying narrative and numerous quotations. The book makes it clear that this text is primarily Ward's work. Second, there is a website that makes available extensive transcripts of many of the [End Page 173] seventy-five interviews conducted for use in the film. Third, there is a set of twenty-two compact discs, each giving an overview of an important jazz musician (e.g., one devoted to Count Basie, one devoted to Dizzy Gillespie). Highlights of these discs have, in turn, been assembled into a five-disc box set called Ken Burns Jazz. My aim is to reveal and examine the conceptual scaffolding that supports and organizes this vast, multifaceted project.What is the principal assumption of this historical project? The project consistently emphasizes the music's capacity to give audible embodiment to the idea of American democracy. At the same time, the project is less than forthcoming about the aesthetic assumptions embraced by Ward and Burns. Familiar and predictable arguments are introduced to justify the appellation of "art" and to address the issue of the purported death of jazz in the 1970s. However, these two strands of the larger argument may be at cross-purposes with the principal assumption and the ideology that jointly justify the project's status as jazz history.Let me begin by describing the principal assumption in some detail. While there is no reason to suppose that its source is Ken Burns or his chief collaborator, historian Geoffrey Ward, the following blurb was used to advertise the project: Jazz has been called the purest expression of American democracy; a music built on individualism and compromise, independence and cooperation. Join us for an exploration of jazz, America's greatest cultural achievement. In keeping with this theme, the narration and principal interviewees of the film are positioned to emphasize that jazz is an audible embodiment of the idea of American democracy. Let us call this idea the democracy thesis. It is placed as a frame around the whole film: Wynton Marsalis announces it in the opening minutes of the first episode, and then he reiterates it in fresh words at the end of the last episode. Although it is repeated with numerous variations, the democracy thesis proposes that jazz involves an ideal of democratic America, not the fact of life in America: jazz, Wynton Marsalis assures us, is "a glimpse of what America is going to be when it becomes itself. And this music tells you that it will become itself." 2 Jazz...

_The Philosophy of Art _is a highly accessible introduction to current key issues and debates in aesthetics and philosophy of art. Chapters on standard topics are balanced by topics of interest to today's students, including creativity, authenticity, cultural appropriation, and the distinction between popular and fine art. Other topics include emotive expression, pictorial representation, definitional strategies, and artistic value. Presupposing no prior knowledge of philosophy, Theodore Gracyk draws on three decades of teaching experience to provide a balanced and engaging overview, clear explanations, and many thought-provoking examples. All chapters have a strong focus on current debates in the field, yet historical figures are not neglected. Major current theories are set beside key ideas from Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Marx, and Hegel. Chapters conclude with advice on further readings, and there are recommendations of films that will serve as a basis for further reflection and discussion. Key ideas are immediately accompanied by exercises that will test students' reactions and understanding. Many chapters call attention to ideology, prejudices, and common clichés that interfere with clear thinking. Beautifully written and thoroughly comprehensive, _The Philosophy of Art _is the ideal resource for anyone who wants to explore recent developments in philosophical thinking about the arts. It is also provides the perfect starting point for anyone who wants to reflect on, and challenge, their own assumptions about the nature and value of art.