Abstract

"Philosophy of music" is generally regarded as philosophical theorizing about music. Interpreting various German thinkers from the last three centuries through hermeneutical and neo-pragmatist lenses, Bowie reverses this order, focusing "on the philosophy which is conveyed by music itself" . In particular, Bowie uses music as a starting point for philosophical reflections on meaning and the role of philosophy in late modernity.Regarding meaning, Bowie uses ideas about music to argue that semantics should replace representation with expression, social practice, and inference as its core concepts; that rhythm is the basis for discursive thought; and that music provides a set of communal responses presupposed by linguistic practice. Bowie justifies these bold claims on the grounds that "any scientific account of what language is necessarily involves the circularity of using language to explain language" . The viciousness of this circle is unclear; Bowie's positive argument suggests that avoiding this circle requires language's meaning to be grounded in something non-linguistic . But nothing about scientific explanations of language precludes this. Surely we can use a scientific language to say that