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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Music, Andrew Kania
Music, Andrew Kania
Philosophy Faculty Research
It is unsurprising that there are chapters on literature, painting and music in this volume - if they're not arts, nothing is. It is almost as predictable that there are chapters devoted to topics such as depiction and metaphor. The issues raised by depiction and metaphor are central to the artistic use of pictures and language, yet these topics do not pertain exclusively to art (there are lots of pictures that are not artworks, such as maps, diagrams and holiday snaps; people use metaphors in all sorts of contexts). Should it be surprising that there is no such counterpart chapter …
Platonism Vs. Nominalism In Contemporary Musical Ontology, Andrew Kania
Platonism Vs. Nominalism In Contemporary Musical Ontology, Andrew Kania
Philosophy Faculty Research
Ontological theories of musical works fall into two broad classes, according to whether or not they take musical works to be abstract objects of some sort. I shall use the terms 'Platonism' and 'nominalism' to refer to these two kinds of theory. In this chapter I first outline contemporary Platonism about musical works—the theory that musical works are abstract objects. I then consider reasons to be suspicious of such a view, motivating a consideration of nominalist theories of musical works. I argue for two conclusions: first, that there are no compelling reasons to be a nominalist about musical works in …