Not Music, but Musics: A Case for Conceptual Pluralism in Aesthetics

Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 54 (2):151-174 (2017)
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Abstract

We argue for conceptual pluralism about music. In our view, there is no right answer to the question ‘What is music?’ divorced from some context or interest. Instead, there are several, non-equivalent music concepts suited to different interests – from within some tradition or practice, or by way of some research question or field of inquiry. We argue that unitary definitions of music are problematic, that the role music concepts play in various research questions should motivate conceptual pluralism about music, and that taking music pluralism seriously grounds a fruitful research programme in aesthetics. We suspect that pluralism about music is a good test case for the utility of pluralism in aesthetics more generally, and we present it as such.

Other Versions

reprint Currie, Adrian; Killin, Anton (2020) "Not Music, but Musics: A Case for Conceptual Pluralism in Aesthetics". Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 54(2):151

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Author Profiles

Anton Killin
Bielefeld University
Adrian Currie
Cambridge University

Citations of this work

Intuitions in the Ontology of Musical Works.Elzė Sigutė Mikalonytė - 2022 - Review of Philosophy and Psychology 13 (2):455-474.

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References found in this work

The A Posteriori Armchair.Daniel Nolan - 2015 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 93 (2):211-231.

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