Music and Metaphor SCHROEDER, Severin
The British journal of aesthetics,
2013, 2013-01-01, 20130101, Letnik:
53, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Peter Kivy's contour theory provides a promising explanation of the way we describe instrumental music as expressive of emotions. I argue that unlike Kivy, we emphasise the metaphorical character of ...such descriptions, the contour theory, as a strategy for unpacking such metaphors, can be defended convincingly against common objections. This approach is more satisfactory than those of Scruton and Peacocke, who make much of metaphorical experiences, but leave the underlying metaphors unexplained. Moreover, it gives the contour theory a wider scope than Kivy intended, for even very specific narrative descriptions of music in non-musical terms are perfectly legitimate as long as they are presented, and justified, as metaphors, that is, as mere comparisons, rather than as interpretative claims about the music's actual contents. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Expression and Extended Cognition COCHRANE, TOM
The Journal of aesthetics and art criticism,
09/2008, Letnik:
66, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Cochrane argues that, while it is certainly possible for a musical work to express emotions independent of those of the composer or performer, there is an extremely intimate connection between the ...emotional content of a piece of music and the emotional state of the producer of that music. He asserts that music can potentially play the same role as bodily changes in affecting one's emotional state.
Spackman seeks to characterize more carefully what might be meant by the claim that expressive qualities are ineffable. Central to his overall argument is the claim that expressive qualities are, as ...the traditional theorists maintained, fine-grained. He offers reasons why descriptive ineffability should be regarded as a source of value in the arts.
"Tortured by a longing for fame, wasting his days in argument, believing in countless ridiculous ideas, in systems, in criticisms, in the importance of the codification or reform of art, he Pellerin ...had reached the age of fifty without producing anything but sketches" (SE, p. 48). Another distraction is his servicing politics with art: glorifying the Revolution with a painting entitled The Genius of the Revolution (SE, p. 96), or another painting that "showed the Republic, or Progress, or Civilization, in the form of Christ driving a locomotive through a virgin forest.
PHILOSOPHER HENRI BERGSON HAS written at length about the creative process of artists and poets: the poet starts from "a fuller view of reality" than that of most people and then "plumbs the depths ...of his own nature in so powerful an effort of inner observation that he lays hold of the potential in the real, and takes up what nature has left as a mere outline or sketch in his soul in order to make of it a finished work of art. ...we can approach literature itself philosophically and become truly Bergsonian readers, who enter a work of literature without shedding the past and, instead, utilize that past toward a creative reading experience.
Although few philosophers agree about what it is for something to be defined as art, most, if not all, agree on one thing: art must be in some sense intention-dependent. Art and Art-Attempts is about ...taking intention-dependence seriously as a substantive necessary condition for being art. Artworks are the products of the attempts (goal-oriented intention-directed activities) in which we engage, and these attempts not only succeed or fail but have products that reflect that success or failure. It is not just that an artwork must be the product of intentional action but rather that an artwork must be the product of a successful art-attempt—an attempt with success conditions that if satisfied entail satisfaction of the conditions for being art (whatever those may be). To capture a substantive (non-trivial) sense in which art must be intention-dependent requires trading mere intention-dependence for a substantive attempt-dependence. What follows from art’s intention-dependence being so reframed is a unified, systematic, and productive framework for philosophical enquiry into the nature of art and its principal relata. Art and Art-Attempts aims neither to propose nor to defend any particular, precise answer to the question ‘What is art?’ Instead, Art and Art-Attempts shows the ways in which taking intention-dependence seriously as a substantive necessary condition for being art can be profoundly revelatory, and perhaps even radically revisionary, as to the scope and limits of what any particular, precise answer to such a question could viably be.
The Appeal of the Mystery GOLDMAN, ALAN H.
The Journal of aesthetics and art criticism,
08/2011, Letnik:
69, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
A crucial test for a theory of aesthetic value is its ability to explain the value of particular works, or better kinds of works, especially those that have been very widely appreciated over a ...significant course of time. In music, for example, the theory should be able to explain the wide use and appeal throughout the classical and romantic eras of the sonata-allegro form for large scale movements. In literature, the most widely read genre for more than a century has been the mystery or detective novel, and its appeal calls for explanation as well if we are to understand the nature of literary aesthetic value. My aim in this article is to explain the source of appeal of such fiction, which lies in the kind of aesthetic or literary value the better examples provide. The explanation will lend further support to the theory of aesthetic value that I have previously defended.
Zangwill elaborates that the aesthetic description of music is essentially nonliteral. An adequate aesthetic description of music must have resort to metaphor or other nonliteral devices. He defends ...this view against an apparently simple objection put by Malcolm Budd. According to him, musicians are led to consider issues concerning privacy and the language for describing sensations. In the light of these considerations, he develops the essentially nonliteralist thesis and explores some of its consequences.
POETIC SPEAKERS, SOPHISTIC WORDS Knudsen, Rachel Ahern
American journal of philology,
04/2012, Letnik:
133, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The relationship between poetically mediated myth and the emerging discipline of formal rhetoric in fifth-and fourth-century Athens has received little scholarly treatment, in part because of a ...paucity of texts that encompass both myth and formal rhetoric. This article sheds light on the relationship by examining four generically hybrid model speeches: Gorgias' Defense of Palamedes, Antisthenes' Ajax and Odysseus, and Alcidamas' Odysseus. I argue that these speeches represent a rare confluence of the Archaic poetic tradition with the inclination towards technique-based modes of discourse among the sophists.This innovative didactic strategy, whereby rhetoric appropriates the appeal of poetic storytelling and characterization, has affinities with a broader societal and literary trend toward mixing genres.
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