EPISTEMIC VALUE OF MUSIC

• Authors: Bakalova Marina
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Assuming that music can be expressive, I try to answer the question whether musical expressiveness has epistemic value. The article has six parts. In the first part, I provide examples of what music can express. I suggest that it can express inner states with phenomenal character. In the second part, I build up an argument in favour of the claim that, granted its expressiveness, music can convey conceptual content which is not verbal, and which cannot be expressed verbally. This conclusion is limited to concepts like lyrical, nostalgic, melancholy, joyful, distressful etc. In the third part, I explain what musical expressive content is, in contrast and by analogy to, propositional content. In the fourth part, I apply Mitchell Green’s multi-space model of artistic expression to music. I argue that Green’s theory of expression provides a powerful explanation of how a musical sequence can express states with phenomenal character. In the fifth part, I use that model to define adequacy conditions for musical expressive ascriptions. In the last part, I attempt to explain musical knowledge by combining Green’s multi-space model with Sosa-style virtue epistemology.

Keywords

EN

CROSS-MODAL CONGRUENCE; KNOWLEDGE; MUSICAL EXPRESSIVENESS; MUSIC; GREEN MITCHELL

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Institute of Philosophy of Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic
• Journal: Organon F. medzinárodný časopis pre analytickú filozofiu
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 303 – 325

Contributors

author

Bakalova Marina

• Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Philosophy and Sociology, 13A Moskovska Str., Sofia 1000, Bulgaria

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2021.28203