Glenn Gould was Canada's greatest musician. From his home in Toronto, he rose to be a world-famous concert pianist and recording artist of the very top rank. Gould's eccentric attitudes and behaviours were well known, but the musical world was astonished when, in his mid-20s, he announced that he had permanently retired from the concert hall. Instead, Gould focused on the recording studio, on radio and television, and on exploring his fascination with the relation between audience (...) and performer. Through wide and innovative use of electronic technologies, he was able to reach enormous audiences before his untimely death. Glenn Gould: Music & Mind focuses not on the details of Gould's life but on his ideas, offering unique insights into this remarkable Canadian and his life's work. Includes bibliographies and discographies of Gould's work. (shrink)

A provocative account of pianist Glenn Gould's philosophy which argues that music is not only a reflection of social dynamics, but can also be a tool for a betterment of society.

In A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari refer to Glenn Gould as an illustration of the third principle of the rhizome, that of multiplicity: ‘When Glenn Gould speeds up the performance of a piece, he is not just displaying virtuosity, he is transforming the musical points into lines, he is making the whole piece proliferate’ (1987: 8). In an attempt to make sensible their ostensibly modest statement, I proliferate the relationships between Glenn Gould's philosophy (...) of sound recording, Deleuze's theory of passive synthesis, and Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the stutter. I argue, ultimately, that Glenn Gould's radical recording practice stutters and deterritorialises the temporality of the recorded performance. More generally, the Deleuzian perspective broadens the scope of Gould's aesthetic practices that highlights the importance of aesthetic acts in the redistribution of sensory experience. But the study serves a broader purpose than celebrating a pianist/recordist that Deleuze admired. Rather, while his contemporaries began to use the studio as a compositional element in sound recording, Gould bypassed such a step towards the informational logics of recording studios. Thus, it is inappropriate to think of Gould as having immersed himself in ‘technology’ than the broader concept of a complex, one that redistributed the striated listening space of the concert hall. (shrink)

This paper explores the meaning of interpretation in the works of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Glenn Gould, the Canadian pianist and intellectual. As a performing art, music illustrates the cognitive and practical dimensions of interpretation. While emphasizing the pre-interpreted character of musical reception and performance, both authors point to the fact that difference, alterity, and negativity lie at the heart of creative interpretation, cultivation and self-knowledge. The notion of ecstasy, understood as a type of self-forgetfulness that represents a radical (...) form of encounter with alterity, provides the basis for a conception of subjectivity as grounded on linguistic, historical and cultural conditions, albeit not reducible to them. I maintain that the notion of ecstatic subjects is a powerful alternative to both the self-centred notion of subjectivity and its anti-humanistic counterpart in accounting for human agency. (shrink)

En la página 52 de su autobiografía Mi vida en la música Daniel Barenboin afirma no compartir la filosofía de Glenn Gould para quien la grabación es la única manera de producir música en el futuro. Baremboin define a su filosofía de la música un ¿naturalismo¿ para el que la música es sinónimo de vida, y lo que la singulariza es el tiempo, y el tiempo es lo que se pierde y jamás vuelve. El tiempo es lo que (...) se pretende expulsar de una sala de grabación. La música es tiempo y, por lo tanto no repetición, el metrónomo sólo repite la medida. A las notas las sigue el silencio sin el cual no existirían, y la duración del sonido es por eso intermitente, finita, mortal. Este efecto de vacío es también marcado en el mundo del lenguaje. Foucault decía que desde el punto de vista ¿arqueológico¿ los discursos son escasos, que lo que primero debe llamarnos la atención es la rareza de su existencia. Por eso mismo el sentido es también escaso, no constituye una abundancia que los hermeneutas deben interpretar. Así como hay más palabras que sentido, hay menos palabras que cosas, y en este orden de las carencias no olvidemos la primera lección de la economía política que define al ¿bien¿ por su rareza. El sonido es, entonces, una isla en un mar de silencio. Pero no fue sin duda este pequeño parágrafo en el libro de Barenboin lo que me marcó un interrogante llamado Gould. Hubo, además, una mención en la misma página referida a la muerte de Gould que le había impedido comparar las distintas versiones de sus Variaciones de Goldberg. Es posible que una cierta curiosidad por los espíritus trágicos haya detenido mi atención. (shrink)

La réflexion s’appuie dans un premier temps sur une opposition entre deux attitudes de pianistes à l’égard du travail à l’instrument : Gould, qui revendique une séparation d’avec le clavier pour ne privilégier que la lecture; Arrau, dont la technique au contraire vise à « faire corps » avec son piano. L’étude de ces deux démarches d’interprètes conduit à une conclusion croisée : l’abstraction gouldienne n’est rien d’autre qu’un déplacement du jeu vers d’autres instruments (ceux qui servent à la (...) prise de son et au montage de ses enregistrements) ; le « faire-corps » hérité de la culture pianistique romantique est plus dialectique que fusionnel, et en cela implique une capacité de mise à distance. A partir de cette double conclusion, on tâche enfin de repenser la place du jeu à l’instrument dans la mise en œuvre d’une interprétation, en interrogeant le dialogue qui s’instaure entre la partition telle qu’elle s’écrit et le geste tel qu’il se joue. (shrink)

The debate over futility is driven, in part, by physicians' desire to recover some measure of decision-making authority from their patients. The standard approach begins by noting that certain interventions are futile for certain patients and then asserts that doctors have no obligation to provide futile treatment. The concept of futility is a complex one, and many commentators find it useful to distinguish ‘physiological futility’ from ‘qualitative futility’. The assertion that physicians can decide to withhold physiologically futile treatment generates little (...) controversy. The claim that they can withhold qualitatively futile treatment runs afoul of standard objections to medical paternalism. There is reason to believe that the conceptual distinction will not be maintained in clinical practice. This paper contends that the scientific data which would support a physician's unilateral decision to withhold physiologically futile treatment also provide support for an institutional policy restricting access to the treatment. The data the doctor uses to take decision-making power out of the hands of the patient can be used by the administrator to take power out of the hands of the doctor. While this loss of power is unproblematic, there is reason to believe that the ambiguity in the term ‘futility’ will allow a much greater loss of physicians' power. Keywords: futility, physician authority CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

This paper outlines the development and implementation of a new course in Engineering Ethics at the University of Tennessee. This is a three-semester-hour course and is jointly taught by an engineering professor and a philosophy professor. While traditional pedagogical techniques such as case studies, position papers, and classroom discussions are used, additional activities such as developing a code of ethics and student-developed scenarios are employed to encourage critical thinking. Among the topics addressed in the course are engineering as a profession (...) and its role in society; ethical successes and failures; risk, safety, and the environment; professional responsibilities; credit and intellectual property; and international concerns. (shrink)

Expounds on the relationship between theory and practice as applied, adjusted, and inaugurated in health care.

The question of whether faith in God is reasonable is of renewed interest in today’s academy. In light of this interest, as well as the rise of militant religion and terrorism and the emergent reaction by neo-atheism, this volume considers this important question from the views of contemporary scientists, philosophers, and in a more novel fashion, of rhetoricians. It is comprised of a public debate between William Lane Craig, supporting the position that faith in God is reasonable and Alex Rosenberg, (...) arguing against that position. Scholars in the aforementioned fields then respond to the debate, representing both theistic and atheistic positions. The book concludes with rejoinders from Craig and Rosenberg. (shrink)

Many people assume that the topic of this paper -- namely, what the media does to ensure that knowledge is limited in a democracy -- is almost an obsolete topic, because with the internet and the proliferation of multiple other sources, it is really no longer the case that we are forced to rely upon a very small and homogenous set of sources. There's no denying that, theoretically at least, we all now have the ability -- at least those of (...) us with internet access have the ability -- to circumvent the media's control over the information that we receive and to deliberately seek out a much wider range of political perspective. The problem, though, is that the only way that one will do that is if one believes that there is actually a reason to do it. In order to be sufficiently motivated to seek out such information, one must believe that there is certain information that we are either not getting, or are being somehow impeded from accessing; or conversely, that the set of information that we do get from the American media and the dominant corporations that control media discussions provide a basically full and truthful picture of the world. We have a very recent, significant example, where most of us know that, in fact, our political knowledge and political information were extremely limited and distorted and manipulated:the run-up to the Iraq War. It wasn't just that people were mistaken, but rather, that information was controlled -- first by the government and then with the aid of the media. That fact has become a fairly mainstream view, because the control and the manipulation were so blatant that even the most mainstream sources were forced to talk about and confront it and acknowledge it. (shrink)

In this book, Francis Diebold and Glenn Rudebusch propose two extensions of the classic yield curve model of Nelson and Siegel that are both theoretically rigorous and empirically successful.

This paper offers a listing of references to religious ethics in recent Anglo-American philosophical literature, organized in terms of a critical analysis of the main lines of argument to be found there. The principal focus is on metaethics, although references are included to other aspects of religious ethics. The author maintains that the case for a logical and/or a linguistic relation between religion and ethics is much stronger than is generally recognized in the philosophical discussions of these issues.

Tillich holds an ontologically based self-realization theory of ethics. For him ethics is neither logically nor linguistically tied to theology, but is in a certain sense epistemologically dependent. Tillich's material analysis of moral judgments is claimed to be inconsistent with his critique of heteronomous morality. The author concludes that Tillich has not given good reasons for rejecting a heteronomous divine - command theory of morality.

One very common tactic for enforcing political orthodoxies is to malign the character, "style" and even mental health of those who challenge them. The most extreme version of this was an old Soviet favorite: to declare political dissidents mentally ill and put them in hospitals. In the US, those who take even the tiniest steps outside of political convention are instantly decreed "crazy", as happened to the 2002 anti-war version of Howard Dean and the current iteration of Ron Paul (in (...) most cases, what is actually "crazy" are the political orthodoxies this tactic seeks to shield from challenge). (shrink)

Nanotechnology: Considering the Complex Ethical, Legal, and Societal Issues with the Parameters of Human Performance Content Type Journal Article Pages 265-275 DOI 10.1007/s11569-008-0047-6 Authors Linda MacDonald Glenn, Albany Medical College/Center Alden March Bioethics Institute Albany NY 12208 USA Jeanann S. Boyce, Montgomery College Dept. of Computer Science and Business 7600 Takoma Avenue Takoma Park MD 20912 USA Journal NanoEthics Online ISSN 1871-4765 Print ISSN 1871-4757 Journal Volume Volume 2 Journal Issue Volume 2, Number 3.

The constitutional monarchy of present-day Britain hardly seems the same sort of institution as fourteenth-century feudal kingdoms, but Dante’s Monarchia (c. 1313) and Walter Bagehot’s The English Constitution (1872) share fundamental assumptions about what the purpose and strengths of monarchy are. In the Monarchia, Dante lays out the essential attributes of monarchy that endure even today: authority, impartiality, and unity. Dante values and promotes monarchy as final arbiter of conflicts, sole just judge without cupidity, and unifying will. More than 550 (...) years later, Bagehot, despite his distrust concerning the Crown’s actual effectiveness, conceives of monarchy in surprisingly similar terms. The monarch is ‘the regulating wheel of our Constitution’, an authority outside and above partisan politics, and the ‘dignified’, ‘intelligible’, unifying element of government. In both cases, the monarch functions as the government’s source of impartial, unifying authority – whether monarch or Parliament ultimately wields that authority. The broad outlines of monarchy are surprisingly similar for both writers, suggesting a basic continuity in the conceptualization of monarchy from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century (and beyond) and an abiding store of reserve symbolism within the monarchic concept that writers, thinkers, and politicians throughout those centuries are able to tap at will. (shrink)

Degrees of belief; Dempster's rule of combination; Simple and separable support functions; The weights of evidence; Compatible frames of discernment; Support functions; The discernment of evidence; Quasi support functions; Consonance; Statistical evidence; The dual nature of probable reasoning.

: A central component of Bernard Williams' political realism is the articulation of a standard of legitimacy from within politics itself: LEG. This standard is presented as basic, inherent in all political orders and the best way to underwrite fundamental liberal principles particular to the modern state, including basic human rights. It does not require, according to Williams, a wider set of liberal values. In the following, I show that where Williams restricts LEG to generating only minimal political protections, seeking (...) to isolate his account of political legitimacy from a range of liberal principles, this is neither internal to, nor necessarily demanded by, the specifically political account of LEG. Instead, the limitation depends upon his wider ethical thought. (shrink)