Philosophy of Music Philosophy 404
/ 504 — Syllabus TR 3:30 - 4:45 |
Professors: Daniel Bukvich, Music, Lionel Hampton School of Music 203,
885-7055 or 885-7524 Michael
O’Rourke, Philosophy, Morrill 411, 885-5997 or 885-7107, morourke@uidaho.edu , http://www.class.uidaho.edu/morourke
Office hours: Bukvich: See office hours posted on
his office door. O’Rourke: 12:30-1:30
Wednesday and Thursday, or by appointment
TLC 149
Justin Horn, Philosophy MA student, justin.horn@gmail.com . Justin will
hold a weekly office hour, do some of the grading, and help us deliver the
course. Texts: Eduard Hanslick, On the Musically
Beautiful, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Peter Kivy, An
Introduction to a Philosophy of Music, Oxford: Oxford University Press Kathleen Stock, Philosophers
on Music: Experience, Meaning and Work, Oxford: Oxford University Press These books will be on sale at the UI
Bookstore, although you are certainly welcome to order them online, if you
wish. There will be additional and recommended readings posted on e-reserve;
once this is up and running, we will send you the username and password.
E-reserve will be linked from the Handouts page of the course website. The
syllabus, the handouts, our lecture notes, and pointers to relevant sites
will be available on the course website, accessible through http://www.class.uidaho.edu/morourke
. If you miss class, you will need to obtain a copy of the lecture notes and
the handouts you missed off the website.
Few, if any,
elements of human culture are as widespread and universal as music; there is
virtually no human culture anywhere on Earth that does not engage in some
sort of musical practice. In this class, we will examine music using the
method of contemporary philosophers working in the analytic tradition, i.e. conceptual
analysis. The goal of the philosopher of music is to secure reasoned and
defensible answers to questions about what music is,
how it functions, and how we interact with it. These answers should fit
together without contradicting one another, and they should together form a
comprehensive view of the nature of music. Although philosophy of music is
properly a sub-branch of aesthetics, or the philosophy of art and beauty,
music has often been singled out from among the arts for special
philosophical consideration. The connection between music and philosophy goes
all the way back to Pythagoras, Plato, and the ancient Greeks. Unfortunately,
these disciplines did not remain so intimately connected in subsequent eras,
and the philosophy of music spent many centuries as a fallow field. Recently,
however, a number of contemporary philosophers have reinvigorated this corner
of philosophy, sparking lively, interesting, and fruitful debates. These
debates often intersect with other areas in philosophy, allowing philosophers
whose specialties lie outside the musical arena to get a foot in the door. Ontologists might wonder about the nature of a musical
work. Metaphysicians might become interested in questions about identity in
music, or the relationship between differing musical entities, e.g., the
conditions under which a particular performance counts as an instance of some
musical work. Philosophers of emotion might explore the ways in which music
evokes emotional response in an audience. Philosophers of language might ask
to what extent music, as a medium, is capable of supporting meaning. Philosophers
of mind might ask about the relationship between objective acoustical
properties of some piece of music and the subjective experience of hearing it
performed. There is no shortage of interesting philosophical issues and
puzzles related to the nature of music, as we shall see over the course of
the semester. The class will be organized largely as
a structured reading group and seminar. We will begin the semester with a
crash course in basic music theory (for the philosophers) and a brief
introduction to philosophical method (for the musicians in the class). Following
this, we will digest Eduard Hanslick's seminal text
On the Musically Beautiful; this
text, first published in 1854, represents the reawakening of the philosophy
of music, and serves as a historically important work that frames much
subsequent debate in the field. Following this, we will work through Peter Kivy's An
Introduction to a Philosophy of Music. Kivy is
an undisputed leader in philosophy of music today, and this book represents a
unified view of music through the eyes of a single philosopher. Finally,
after Spring Break, we will work through Kathleen Stock's recent collection, Philosophers on Music: Experience, Meaning
and Work. Stock comprises ten recent essays on music by leading analytic
philosophers, organized around a number of philosophical sub-themes:
ontology, expression, meaning, and new issues. Learning Goals: We
have several goals in this course. ·
Wonder about the nature of music. Through
the first half of the semester, we will consider unified, philosophical
examinations of music from the perspective of individual theorists; during
the second, we will consider a several topics of interest to contemporary
philosophers of music. At the conclusion of the semester, students will be
familiar with current issues and views within the philosophy of music, and be
able to adopt and defend reasoned positions of their own with respect to
these issues. ·
Know a bit about the nature of music and the nature
of philosophy. We will begin with a crash course in music theory, and the specific
character of music will be our focus throughout. But you will not be learning
how to be musicians; rather, you
will be learning how to be philosophers,
applying conceptual and logical tools to the investigation and analysis of
notions used to understand music. ·
Do work at the cutting edge of the philosophy of music. While Hanslick is certainly
not new, it has framed much of the contemporary discussion. Kivy is one of the world’s leading experts in the
philosophy of music, and we will study a recent expression of his views.
Finally, the Stock volume presents a number of very recent studies of topics
related the music. ·
Develop critical reading, listening, and writing
skills.
Good philosophers are charitable readers and listeners, and they are also
cogent writers. Philosophical writing is difficult, but clear thinking and
clear writing go hand in hand. You will be given the opportunity to exercise
these skills in this class. ·
Begin developing sustainable views of your own about
the conceptual intricacies of music.
You will have an opportunity to study a number of different topics, and you
will also be writing a research paper on an aspect of the philosophy of
music. Philosophy isn’t about memorizing the positions of others or about
mastering a vernacular. Philosophy isn’t about memorization—it’s about
intellectual growth.
We plan to conduct this primarily as a reading
group/seminar, which is to say that everyone is required to come to each
class prepared and ready to talk. Once we get into the readings, we will
reserve the right to talk first on Tuesdays, but Thursdays are wide open.
There will be structured presentations that feel quite a bit like lectures,
but for the most part we are interested in working out the details of these
works with you, not for you.
Class Participation. You
will be expected to contribute to the discussions. We will take attendance
daily. You will be allowed two unexcused absences, and every unexcused
absence after that will result in the loss of one of your participation
percentage points (see below). Furthermore, you will be expected to turn your
assignments in regularly and on time. The topics we will consider are complex
and challenging—if we hope to acquire understanding of them, we must work
together. Papers. The best way to
learn philosophy is to write, so you will write a bunch in this class. The
most substantial piece of writing will be a research paper on a topic in the
philosophy of music. You will be responsible for selecting the topic. The
paper should be no less than 10 pages and no more than 15 pages in length. It
will be a research paper, and we will require you to use at
least five recent sources (i.e., within the last two years). This will mean
that you will spend time in the library exploring current discussions of your
topic. You will submit two drafts of this essay to us for evaluation.
The first draft is due in class on April 7 and the final draft is due in O’Rourke’s
box in Morrill 407 by 5 pm on Wednesday, May 11. IMPORTANT: the first
paper you submit should not be your first and roughest draft. You should think
“paper topic” from the get go in this class. We are happy to look at and
comment on rough notes, outlines, or early drafts prior to April 7. Late
research papers will be docked a letter grade for each class period they are
late, unless you contact us on or before March 31 and give us a compelling
reason for your late submission. Special
Option:
for this class, because of its topic, we are willing to consider a creative
project in lieu of a research paper; however, the project must be documented
with at least five pages of research-based writing, and it must be submitted
in rough form, revised, and resubmitted in final form. Those who pursue this
will be required to present it in an oral defense during finals week. If you
are interested, you must pitch your idea to us by Spring Break. In addition to the research paper, you
will produce several short essays on the readings over the course of the
semester. These essays will be two double-spaced pages in length, and they
will concern some argument or issue in the assigned reading. We will give you
topic ideas for the first two essays, but then you will need to select the
subject of each essay. (An important part of your philosophical development
is learning how to get puzzled by what you read.) You should devote the first
half of the essay to reconstruction of the argument or issue you focus on and
the second half to your comment. This comment can be critical in nature, but
it need not be. For example, if you focus on an argument that you find
compelling, you could devote the comment to consideration of the argument’s
implications. The first of these is due in class on Thursday, February 3. We
will not accept late reading essays, where “late” means submitted after class
has started on the day the assignment is due. If you know you will have a
conflict, you will need to speak with us in advance and get the paper in before
the class when it is due. The first written assignment for
everyone is due by midnight on Friday, January 21. You will need to compose
an e-mail message on the account you use most frequently and send it to morourke@uidaho.edu and justin.horn@gmail.com . Please put
the course number (404 or 504) in the subject line. In this message, we want
you to tell us how much philosophy you’ve studied, how much music you’ve
studied, and then explain why you took
this class and what your expectations are for it. Also, include a paragraph
in which you supply a definition of ‘music’. This is worth two points that
will be added to your reading essay total. We will reply to each message we
receive; we likely will not reply to messages we do not receive. There will also be some in-class writing that will not
be graded. This writing will be done in advance of some discussions as well
as after some discussions. You learn philosophy by thinking about it, and you
learn to think about it through writing. Discussions. On Thursday of a week with reading assignments,
you will be required to come with three typed discussion questions. You can
use these to influence the discussion. You will submit them at the end of
class when you leave. They will be part of your Class Participation grade. We
will not accept these late. Graduate Students in Phil 504.
If you are enrolled in Phil 504, you will be required to defend your revised
research paper in a 30 to 45 minute oral exam during finals week. There may
also be additional expectations concerning presentation of material as we go
along—stay tuned. Grading: The research paper will be assigned a letter grade. The
reading essays will be evaluated on a scale of 0 to 3, with “0” indicating no
credit, “1” adequacy, “2” high quality, and “3” excellence. At the end of the
semester, we will drop your lowest score and add the points you’ve received
on the remaining essays, and then curve these totals to determine what grade
you will earn for the reading essay component of this course. You should
expect to average a “2” on the reading essays to earn an “A” on that part of
the course. There will be a handout that describes the relevant grading style
available on the web page. The
final grade will be determined as follows for students in 404:
Students in 504 will be graded
according to the following schedule:
We only give incompletes in the event of a documented
emergency. If you believe that your emergency qualifies you for an
incomplete, you will need to discuss it with us, probably at length. Accommodation for the Disabled: If there is anyone who has a disability that might
affect performance or participation in this class, please let us know. We’ll
do everything we can to be of assistance. Academic Honesty: It is the policy of the Department of Philosophy to
refer all instances of suspected academic dishonesty to the Student Judicial
Council. Tentative Schedule: What follows is a tentative and partial schedule for
reading assignments. This list may be augmented by additional readings on
e-reserve—we will update the list on-line. The jargon-laced section titles
will probably do you little good at this point, but you will know what they
mean when we get to them.
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