Online research in philosophy

Two assumptions are common in discussions of the paradox of tragedy: (1) that tragic pleasure requires that the work be fictional or, if non-fiction, then non-transparently represented; and (2) that tragic pleasure may be provoked by a wide variety of art forms. In opposition to (1) I argue that certain documentaries could produce tragic pleasure. This is not to say that any sad or painful documentary could do so. In considering which documentaries might be plausible candidates, I further argue, against (2), that the scope of tragic pleasure is limited to works that possess certain thematic and narrative features.

From the works of mathematical properties of songs, we construct the phylomemetic trees of Indonesian ethnic and traditional songs. The memeplexes are then reflected by the used notes and respective durations as they exhibit the Zipf-Mandelbrot law, the gyration coefficient, “spiraling effects”, and the dynamic entropy shown in the structure of the songs. The cladistic techniques yielding phylomemetic tree shows widespread innovations of the songs sampled in the observation. This is however reflects the cultural evolutionary models for the innovations involve generations of people within ethnic groups. The paper ends with open discussions and conjectures for more detailed discussions related to each traditional songs as well as the properties of Indonesian people that are attached to heterogeneous ethnic groups that are continually swarming songs and in general, other aesthetic audible artifacts.

From the works of mathematical properties of songs, we construct the phylomemetic trees of Indonesian ethnic and traditional songs. The memeplexes are then reflected by the used notes and respective durations as they exhibit the Zipf-Mandelbrot law, the gyration coefficient, spiraling effects, and the dynamic entropy shown in the structure of the songs. The cladistic techniques yielding phylomemetic tree shows widespread innovations of the songs sampled in the observation. This is however reflects the cultural evolutionary models for the innovations involve generations of people within ethnic groups. The paper ends with open discussions and conjectures for more detailed discussions related to each traditional songs as well as the properties of Indonesian people that are attached to heterogeneous ethnic groups that are continually swarming songs and in general, other aesthetic audible artifacts.

I have long been interested in the expression of emotion in music and in the response this calls forth from the listener. One such response is a mirroring or echoing one; sad music tends to make (some) listeners feel sad and happy music to make them happy. This mirroring reaction is brought about by what I have called emotional contagion. We tend to resonate with the emotional tenor of the music, much as we catch the emotional ambience emanating from other people. Reflecting on the musical case not only enhances understanding of the listener’s response, it provides a novel objection to the cognitive theory of the emotions favored by many philosophers and invites critical consideration of the models for human-to-human emotional contagion proposed by psychologists. As I try to show, the most common accounts of emotional contagion should be developed and refined in light of analysis of emotional contagion in the musical case, which recommends, for example, that we distinguish attention from non-attentional modes of emotional transmission and, in general, avoid defining the phenomenon reductively in terms of the routes and mechanisms of communication.

Why do people seemingly want to be scared by movies and feel pity for fictional characters when they avoid situations in real life that arouse these same negative emotions? Although the domain of relevant artworks encompasses far more than just tragedy, the general problem is typically called the paradox of tragedy. The paradox boils down to a simple question: If people avoid pain then why do people want to experience art that is painful? I discuss six popular solutions to the paradox: conversion, control, compensatory, meta-response, catharsis, and rich experience theories.

Many of the most popular genres of narrative art are designed to elicit negative emotions: emotions that are experienced as painful or involving some degree of pain, which we generally avoid in our daily lives. Melodramas make us cry. Tragedies bring forth pity and fear. Conspiratorial thrillers arouse feelings of hopelessness and dread, and devotional religious art can make the believer weep in sorrow. Not only do audiences know what these artworks are supposed to do; they seek them out in pursuit of prima facie painful reactions.Traditionally, the question of why people seek out such experiences of painful art has been presented as the paradox of tragedy. Most solutions to the paradox of tragedy assume that the reason we seek out tragedies, horror films, melodramas, and the like is because they afford pleasureful experiences. From there, theorists attempt to account for the source of this pleasure, a pleasure assumed to be had from representations of events from which we do not derive pleasure in real life. The article argues that this assumption is suspect: the motive for seeking out devotional religious art, melodrama, tragedy, and some horror is not clearly to find pleasure.

Providence and the rabbinic tradition -- Mosaic prophecy: Maimonides and Gersonides -- Eschatology and miracles -- Creation, miracles, revelation -- Song of Songs and Gersonides' world -- Maimonides and Gersonides on astronomy and metaphysics -- Gersonides on the Song of Songs and the nature of science -- Politics and perfection: Gersonides vs. Maimonides -- The role of the active intellect in human cognition -- Imitatio dei and the dissemination of scientific knowledge -- Moses ibn Tibbon and Gersonides on Song of Songs -- Misogyny: Gersonides vs. Maimonides -- Gersonides and his cultured despisers: Arama and Abravanel.

We see some complex properties from Indonesian music discography by means of music as perceived by Indonesian people. This covers the folk songs, national anthems, popular songs by Indonesian modern artists and performers and also from western popular and classical music as reference. The self-similarity is drawn by using the model of gyration and the internal dynamics of the pitches and durations used in songs is observed by using the logarithmic spiral model. The employed entropy model is also discussed as well as introduction to the calculated dynamic complexity of melodic structure. Some generalization on the flow of music respect to the dynamic complexity is also shown. We discover that at least there are two phases in the played song: the shorter introductory phase that ends in the peak of complexity of the song and the attenuating phase of complexity in which the multiple equilibria of the song is measured. The paper draws some interesting aspects regarding to those parameters and variables on Indonesian melodic corpora.