This is an overview of analytic philosophy of music. It is in five sections, as follows: 1. What Is Music? 2. Musical Ontology 3. Music and the Emotions 4. Understanding Music 5. Music and Value.

A review of Stephen Davies's book, Musical Works and Performances.

Aaron Ridley has recently attacked the study of musical ontology—an apparently fertile area in the philosophy of music. I argue here that Ridley's arguments are unsound. There are genuinely puzzling ontological questions about music, many of which are closely related to questions of musical value. While it is true that musical ontology must be descriptive of pre-existing musical practices and that some debates, such as that over the creatability of musical works, have little consequence for questions of musical value, none (...) of this implies that these debates themselves are without value. (shrink)

Aaron Ridley has recently attacked the study of musical ontology—an apparently fertile area in the philosophy of music. I argue here that Ridley's arguments are unsound. There are genuinely puzzling ontological questions about music, many of which are closely related to questions of musical value. While it is true that musical ontology must be descriptive of pre-existing musical practices and that some debates, such as that over the creatability of musical works, have little consequence for questions of musical value, none (...) of this implies that these debates themselves are without value. (shrink)

Subject and purpose: Using annual data for the periods 2009–2019, this paper examines trade flows between China and the Visegrad Group countries. The aim of this article is to assess real changes taking place in international trade in the Visegrad Group countries over the last eleven years. The starting point for the analysis was 2009 – the time after the 2008 economic crisis, and it was compared especially to 2018 – a year marked by a significant improvement in the economy. (...) The purpose is to discuss concerns related to the differences in bilateral trade between China and Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovak Republic. The main aim of this research is to distinguish the characteristics of bilateral trade by products between V4 and China in years 2009–2019. The purpose of this article is also to systematize and discuss points of view, rationalizing further empirical research. Two research hypotheses, resulting from the research purpose, were formulated: H1: in the V4 countries import exceeds export, and this trend seems to be growing, H2: Chinese goods imported to the V4 are much more sophisticated than those exported. Design/methodology/approach: To assess the initial and current situation on international trade between the V4 and China, the author uses variables obtained from WTO and OEC resources, diagnosing the situation in Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovak Republic. The collected empirical data were processed using theoretical methods such as analysis, synthesis, and comparison to formulate conclusions using deductive and inductive inference methods. Practical Implications: The results can be used in scientific and expert work on diagnostic and forecast trends in bilateral trade by products between the V4 and China. Originality/value: It concerns the indication of the importance of the V4 trade with China compared to the share of the V4 countries in world trade. It was also possible to identify the top export and import products of the V4. The findings also confirm the significant change in China’s trading structure. (shrink)

I argue that the work of art in rock music is a track constructed in the studio, that tracks usually manifest songs, which can be performed live, and that a cover version is a track (successfully) intended to manifest the same song as some other track. This ontology reflects the way informed audiences talk about rock. It recognizes not only the centrality of recorded tracks to the tradition, as discussed by Theodore Gracyk, but also the value accorded to live performance (...) skills, emphasized by Stephen Davies. (shrink)

I begin with an explication of “thought experiment”. I then clarify the role that intuitions play in thought experiments by addressing two important issues: the informativeness of thought experiments and the legitimacy of the method of thought experiments in philosophy and the natural sciences. I defend a naturalistic account of intuitions that provides a plausible explanation of the informativeness of thought experiments, which, in turn, allows thought experiments to be reconstructed as arguments. I also specify criteria for distinguishing bad “intuition (...) pumps” from legitimate thought experiments. These criteria help us to avoid being seduced by the dangerous suggestive power of misleading intuitions. (shrink)

In this article, I first consider the metaphysics of musical recordings: their variety, repeatability, and transparency. I then turn to evaluative or aesthetic issues, such as the relative virtues of recordings and live performances, in light of the metaphysical discussion.

A review of David Davies, _Art as Performance_ (Blackwell, 2004).

An overview of attempts to define music in the Western philosophical tradition.

I investigate the widely held view that fundamental musical ontology should be descriptivist rather than revisionary, that is, that it should describe how we think about musical works, rather than how they are independently of our thought about them. I argue that if we take descriptivism seriously then, first, we should be sceptical of art-ontological arguments that appeal to independent metaphysical respectability; and, second, we should give ‘fictionalism’ about musical works—the theory that they do not exist—more serious consideration than it (...) is usually accorded. CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

In this critical study of Julian Dodd’s Being True to Works of Music, I argue that the three-tier normative profile of the work-performance tradition in classical music that Dodd defends should be rejected in favour of a two-tier version. I also argue that the theory of work-performance defended in the book fits much more naturally with a contextualist ontology of musical works than with the Platonist ontology Dodd defends in Works of Music, despite his arguments to the contrary in the (...) afterword of the new book. Finally, I argue that the reasons he gives for preferring a ‘tradition-based’ over a ‘historicized’ theory of the understanding of classical scores are not convincing. (shrink)

With a focus on how national identity impacts the decision-making of the European Court of Justice, Elke Cloots provides an innovative adjudication scheme that purports to assist the ECJ in its search for a proper balance between respect for national identity and European integration.

I argue that even if video games are interactive artworks, typical video games are not works for performance and players of video games do not perform these games in the sense in which a musician performs a musical composition (or actors a play, dancers a ballet, and so on). Even expert playings of video games for an audience fail to qualify as performances of those works. Some exemplary playings may qualify as independent “performance-works,” but this tells us nothing about the (...) ontology of video games or playings of them. The argument proceeds by clarifying the concepts of interactivity and work-performance, drawing particularly on recent work by Dominic Lopes, Berys Gaut, and David Davies. (shrink)

This study investigates the function of the recourse to the messianic tradition of Judaism among German-Jewish intellectuals between 1900 and 1933. Messianic figures of thought play an important role in the Jewish discourse of identity. Moreover, they are used productively in the creation of general theories in the realm of cultural studies. The messianic figures of speech include not only figures of thought but also rhetorical figures of speech or tropes that reflect various constellations of sacrality and secularity in the (...) modern era. (shrink)

The study attempts to conduct a fundamental theological discussion with Feminist Theology, a new variety ofLiberation Theology. The basis for this discussion is R. R. Ruether's book Sexism and God- Talk, which can be viewed as the first attempt at a feminist dogmatic theology. The study concludes that the theological foundation of this Christian Feminism is a monistic-pantheistic understanding of God which results in an ethic with distinct totalitarian tendencies.

This study examined individual differences in mathematics learning by combining antecedent (A), opportunity (O), and propensity (P) indicators within the Opportunity-Propensity model. Although there is already some evidence for this model based on secondary datasets, there currently is no primary data available that simultaneously takes into account A,O and P factors in children with and without Mathematical Learning Disabilities (MLD). Therefore the mathematical abilities of 114 school-aged children (grade 3 till 6) with and without MLD were analyzed and combined with (...) information retrieved from standardized tests and questionnaires. Results indicated significant differences in personality, motivation, temperament, subjective well-being, self-esteem, self-perceived competence and parental aspirations when comparing children with and without MLD. In addition, A, O and P factors were found to underlie mathematical abilities and disabilities. For the A factors, parental aspirations explained about half of the variance in fact retrieval speed in children without MLD, and SES was especially involved in the prediction of procedural accuracy in general. Teachers’ experience contributed as O factor and explained about 6% of the variance in mathematical abilities. P indicators explained between 52 and 69% of the variance, with especially intelligence as overall significant predictor. Indirect effects pointed towards the interrelatedness of the predictors and the value of including A, O and P indicators in a comprehensive model. The role parental aspirations played in fact retrieval speed was partially mediated through the self-perceived competence of the children, whereas the effect of SES on procedural accuracy was partially mediated through intelligence in children of both groups and through working memory capacity in children with MLD. Moreover, in line with the componential structure of mathematics, our findings were dependent on the math task used. Different A, O and P indicators seemed to be important for fact retrieval speed compared to procedural accuracy. Also, mathematical development type (MLD or typical development) mattered since some A, O and P factors were predictive for MLD only and the other way around. Practical implications of these findings and recommendations for future research on MLD and on individual differences in mathematical abilities are provided. (shrink)

I discuss a recent notable attempt to sharply distinguish pornography from erotic art, and argue that the attempt fails. I then turn to methodological questions about how we ought to go about defining ‘pornography’, questions which lead quickly to others about why we want such a definition. I believe that philosophers of art can make important contributions to this definitional project, but only if their contributions are informed by recent work in feminism, philosophical analysis, and art history.

It has been hypothesized that illusory agency detection is at the basis of belief in supernatural agents and paranormal beliefs. In the present study a biological motion perception task was used to study illusory agency detection in a group of skeptics and a group of paranormal believers. Participants were required to detect the presence or absence of a human agent in a point-light display. It was found that paranormal believers had a lower perceptual sensitivity than skeptics, which was due to (...) a response bias to ‘yes’ for stimuli in which no agent was present. The relation between paranormal beliefs and illusory agency detection held only for stimuli with low to intermediate ambiguity, but for stimuli with a high number of visual distractors responses of believers and skeptics were at the same level. Furthermore, it was found that illusory agency detection was unrelated to traditional religious belief and belief in witchcraft, whereas paranormal beliefs were strongly related to illusory agency detection. These findings qualify the relation between illusory pattern perception and supernatural and paranormal beliefs and suggest that paranormal beliefs are strongly related to agency detection biases. (shrink)

Emotions shape judgments and decisions, including actions in response to climate change. Despite growing interest in the cognitive, social, and political determinants of climate (in)action, the role of emotions has received limited attention. This review discusses the role of hope in climate action. While many emotional states are oriented to the past or present, hope offers a positive vision of the future. In exploratory analyses of a nationally representative survey of US residents, we identify the most important predictors of hope, (...) climate action, and policy support from a large set of potential variables. We find suggestive evidence that hope, a construct comprised of cognitive, emotional, and contextual factors, is an important motivator of future-oriented action. (shrink)

In recent years, a rising interest in scientific imaging has become apparent, in art production and in thematic exhibitions, as well as in popular media and advertising. Images captured by, and supposedly read through, machines open up a new era – not only for an as-yet-undefined aesthetic journey, but also to reveal insight into a normally invisible layer of reality. A wide range of techniques is already well established – not only in science, but also in an artistic context. Based (...) on an overview of different media and their applications, the term phasmagraphy is introduced to be applied to the expanded boundaries of the visible photographic spectrum to the adjacent wavelengths beyond full-spectrum photography. (shrink)

ArgumentThe question, how organisms obtain their specific complex and functional forms, was widely discussed during the eighteenth century. The theory of preformation, which was the dominant theory of generation, was challenged by different alternative epigenetic theories. By the end of the century it was the vitalist approach most famously advocated by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach that prevailed. Yet the alternative theory of generation brought forward by Caspar Friedrich Wolff was an important contribution to the treatment of this question. He turned his (...) attention from the properties of matter and the forces acting on it towards the level of the processes of generation in order to explain the constitution of organismic forms. By regarding organic structures and forms to be the result of the lawfulness of ongoing processes, he opened up the possibility of a functional but non-teleological explanation of generation, and thereby provided an important complement to materialist and vitalist approaches. (shrink)

This article deals with the incompatibility of Christian and Jewish stereotypes in asceticism and tries to establish new models for approaching ascetic tendencies within the latter. In the context of halachic regulations we examine different ascetic aspects within Judaism, with a special focus on medieval Spain. In this area we observe a certain interaction between Jewish and Sufi trends, esp. in the works of Bachja ibn Paquda, Abraham bar Chijja and Abraham Maimonides. In the works of these authors we find (...) tripartite models of asceticism which signify the path to the deity. In a comparison with Sufi texts such as those of Al-Gazali, the three levels of repentance/law, meditation/path and the recognition of the divine truth are shown to be intertwined in a similar way, and all describe the way of the philosopher or mystic to the highest knowledge. In a further section this tripartite schema is compared to kabbalistic texts with their ideas of ascent and union with the divine within ecstatic kabbalah. In the first example we observe how an erotic impulse may lead to an ascetic way of life and how the horizontal move out of society leads to a vertical ascent of the soul and the foundation of a new, mobile society. In the second text we also detect the three intertwined stages of our model and see how ascetic preparations lead to an erotic union of the mystic’s soul with the divine intellect. Asceticism is described in both texts as a mode of transformation and the path between two extremes, which finally leads to intimate knowledge of the deity. (shrink)

It is held that absolute poverty causes approximately one third of all human deaths, some 18 million annually, and blights billions of lives with hunger and disease. This book develops universalizable norms aimed at tackling absolute poverty and the complex and multilayered problems associated with it.

Our contemporary condition is deeply infused with scientific-technological rationales. These influence and shape our ethical reasoning on war, including the moral status of civilians and the moral choices available to us. In this article, I discuss how technology shapes and directs the moral choices available to us by setting parameters for moral deliberation. I argue that technology has moral significance for just war thinking, yet this is often overlooked in attempts to assess who is liable to harm in war and (...) to what extent. This omission produces an undue deference to technological authority, reducing combatants, civilians and scenarios to data points. If we are to develop a maximally restrictive framework for harming civilians in war, which in my view should be a goal of just war thinking, then it is imperative that the scientific-technological dimension of contemporary war is given due attention. (shrink)

With the advent of strategic science, multidisciplinary and cross-institutional research is more and more becoming the rule. The problems encountered by such multidisciplinary research and development cooperations are highly varied. They derive from multiple differences in the backgrounds of the participants and are often perceived as cultural gaps that need to be bridged for cooperation. The main argument of the article is that multidisciplinary collaborations have mechanisms at their disposal to cooperate despite multiple problems counteracting such a cooperation. Since symbolic (...) communication is the primary medium of articulation across sites, this article focuses on how symbolic communication enables cooperation across sites without a deep comprehension of each other's work. Multidisciplinary cooperations start out with few shared symbolic resources, but as the cooperation continues, they may develop communicative boundarytranscending objects such as active and passive dictionaries and hybrid repertoires. (shrink)

Counterfactual thinking has become an established method to evaluate decisions in a range of disciplines, including history, psychology and literature. Elke Reinhuber argues it also has valuable applications in the Fine Arts and popular media. A fascination with the path not taken is a logical consequence of a world saturated with choices. Art which provokes and explores these tendencies can help to recognise and contextualise the impulse to avoid or endlessly revisit individual or collective decisions. Reinhuber describes the term (...) in broad strokes through the disciplines, to show how counterfactualism finds shape in contemporary art forms, especially in photography, film, immersive and interactive media art. (such as 360° content, virtual reality and augmented reality).She analyses the different stages of counterfactuals with examples where artists experience counterfactual thoughts in the process of art production, explore these thoughts in their artwork, or where the artwork itself evokes counterfactual thoughts in the audience. A fascinating exploration for scholars and students of Art, Media and the Humanities, and anybody else with an interest in choices, the art of decision making and - counterfactualism. (shrink)

Current analytical philosophies of romantic love tend to identify the essence of such love with one specific element, such as concern for the beloved person, valuing the beloved person or the union between the lovers. This paper will deal with different forms of the union theory of love which takes love to be the physical, psychic or ontological union of two persons. Prima facie, this theory might appear to be implausible because it has several contra-intuitive implications, and yet, I submit, (...) it is more coherent and attractive than it seems to be. I shall distinguish three specific models and thereby offer a differentiated account of the union theory which has not previously been provided in the literature. I will claim that two of these models should be rejected. I shall then defend the third model against certain possible objections ; but nevertheless, I shall conclude by showing how this model, too, faces further significant objections which ultimately expose the limits of the union theory of love. In conclusion, I will sketch the outlines of a non-reductive cluster theory of love. (shrink)

Philosophical reflections on the trope of the femme fatale in the films of Christopher Nolan.

Extending a strategy previously used by Clancy, Schacter, McNally, and Pitman , we administered a neutral and a trauma-related version of the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm to a sample of women reporting recovered or repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse , women reporting having always remembered their abuse , and women reporting no history of abuse . We found that individuals reporting recovered memories of CSA are more prone than other participants to falsely recalling and recognizing neutral words that were never presented. (...) Moreover, our study is the first to show that this finding even held when trauma-related material was involved. Correlational analyses revealed that fantasy proneness, but not self-reported traumatic experiences and dissociative symptoms were related to false recall and false recognition. (shrink)

I argue that if we want to condemn sexual relationships between professors and students we must also condemn friendships between them. On the other hand, if we want to allow such friendships, we must condone (some) professor-student sexual relationships. My main reasons for this conclusion are, first, that the differences between close friendships and sexual relationships are more subtle than most people think — there is no clear boundary between the two — and, second, anything that would concern us about (...) the latter should concern us about the former. I will argue, further, that though there may be reasons to avoid such relationships, there is nothing about the student-professor relationship in particular that should lead us to condemn all such relationships. (shrink)

An overview of analytic philosophy of music.

This article examines the history of Erich Auerbach’s relationship with the DVjs, in which science and politics intersect. In the early phase of his career, Auerbach attributed great importance to the DVjs and developed a special relationship with Rothacker in particular. This is evident from his letters to the journal’s editors, which are the focus of this study. When Rothacker began to take sides with National Socialism, Auerbach turned his back on the DVjs. After the Second World War, he was (...) one of the emigrated academics whose cooperation the journal sought. The effects of the political upheavals of 1933/45 on the DVjs can be exemplified by the relationship Auerbach had with it. (shrink)

Hebb's theory of cell assemblies is a precursor of the neural network approach used as an implicit hypothesis by most contemporary neuroscientists. Applying this model to language representation leads to demanding predictions about the organization of semantic categories. Other implications of a Hebbian approach to language representation, however, may prove problematic with respect to both neurolinguistic concepts and the results of neuroimaging studies.

Leben wir in einer simulierten Scheinrealität statt in einer Welt tatsächlich existierender Dinge? Diese These der so genannten Skeptiker lässt sich zwar nicht grundsätzlich widerlegen, erscheint aber ziemlich unwahrscheinlich.Im Kultfilm »Matrix« der Wachowski-Brüder von 1999 arbeitet Thomas A. Anderson tagsüber als Programmierer in einer Softwarefirma. Nachts schlüpft er in die Rolle eines berüchtigten Computerhackers, der unter dem Pseudonym Neo sein Gehalt aufbessert. In Wirklichkeit ist jedoch sein ganzes Leben, wie Neo im Lauf der Geschichte schmerzlich erfahren muss, bloß Teil einer (...) gigantischen computergenerierten Scheinwelt, der »Matrix«. Wohnung, Arbeitsplatz, Freunde, Stadt, Restaurants – sie alle existieren nicht, sondern sind nur Konstrukte einer Softwaresimulation. Man schreibt nicht mehr das Jahr 1999, sondern 2199. Bereits Anfang des 21. Jahrhunderts übernahmen, so der Filmplot, intelligente Maschinen die Macht auf der Erde. Sie halten Menschen in riesigen Anlagen zwecks Energiegewinnung. Deren Körper schwimmen in Kapseln, die mit Nährflüssigkeit gefüllt sind. Über Schläuche und Drähte sind die Menschen an Computer angeschlossen, die ihnen eine perfekte Scheinrealität vorgaukeln. (shrink)

Gregory Currie, arguing against recent psychoanalytic and semiotic film theory, has defended various realist theses about film. The strongest of these is that ‘weak illusionism’—the view that the motion of film images is an illusion—is false. That is, Currie believes film images really do move. In this paper I defend the common-sense position of weak illusionism, firstly by showing that Currie underestimates the power of some arguments for it, especially one based on the mechanics of projection, and secondly by showing (...) that film images exhibit neither garden-variety motion, nor a special response-dependent kind. (shrink)