Real Art

(A&P) A youthful Michel Petrucciani (this Phlogger's favorite jazz pianist) plays (and offers his aesthetic reflections on) a solo rendition of a great standard.

Hume's Viciousness

(A&P) Let's take a closer look at David Hume's proposed solution to the antinomous depiction of art as open to "critical" (that is, objective) judgments that are irreducibly subjective in origin. Hoping ultimately to reconcile a multiplicity of human "sentiments," he invokes (what he supposes are) instances of universal agreement from which to generate principles of artistic excellence. But on what basis does Hume assume that mere (inter-subjective) agreement is sufficient to generate an objective (that is, trans-subjective) standard? Is he simply claiming that "the best art" always conforms to standards implicit in our best artistic products and processes? If so, Hume is open to the charge of vicious -- or at least ineffectual -- circularity. As T. Gracyk writes:

"Whatever the standard, Hume's essay poses the problem of an apparent circularity in argumentation. A limited number of works are used to identify the best critics (leading, in turn, to the list of the qualities of such critics), but those works attain the status of masterpieces only through the judgment of such critics. So Hume either defines good critics in terms of good art, or good art in terms of good critics. (Is Homer's greatness demonstrated by the fact that true critics say so, or is their status as good critics to be demonstrated by the fact that they agree on Homer's merits?) It may be, as Hume claims, that we face "questions of fact" in asking whether someone possesses the characteristics he attributes to true critics, or whether a specific work has appealed to such critics across cultures and the ages. Either way, how has he shown that "established" beauties provide the "finest" pleasure? Why are they superior to the "vulgar," transitory entertainments Hume dismisses? The features of the true critic are often read as Hume's way out of this trap. But Hume seems to have predetermined that only someone with wealth, education and leisure will ever possess good taste. The only answer, in the end, is the verdict of our common human nature: "the sentiments of all mankind are agreed" that such critics are superior."

Good Terrorists, Bad Terrorists

More slippage in the GWOT.

The Social Construction of Patriotism

Those "power-drunk chimpanzees" (K. Vonnegut) are at it again, treating US soldiers like "toys a rich kid got for Christmas."

Broken Hearts

(E&A) A page of links in defense of hunting. (Scroll down to the "ethics" links.) A sample, from "A Hunter's Heart":

"Why do I hunt? It's a lot to think about, and I think about it a lot. I hunt to acknowledge my evolutionary roots, millennia deep, as a predatory omnivore. To participate actively in the bedrock workings of nature. For the atavistic challenge of doing it well with an absolute minimum of technological assistance. To learn the lessons, about nature and myself, that only hunting can teach. To accept personal responsibility for at least some of the deaths that nourish my life. For the glimpse it offers into a wildness we can hardly imagine. Because it provides the closest thing I've known to a spiritual experience. I hunt because it enriches my life and because I can't help myself... because I was born with a hunter's heart."

David Petersen (ed.) 1996. "A Hunter's Heart: Honest Essays on BloodSport". Henry Holt & Co., New York.

In contrast, read and enjoy J. S. Foer's refreshinging straightforward condemnation of hunting.

Incredulity Toward Meta-Narratives

(A&P) A detailed entry on defining postmodernism from the SEP.

Western Classical Music Heads East

(A&P) Smack in the middle of a GWOT, who's got time for music?

"...classical music executives say that the art form is being increasingly marginalized in a sea of popular culture and new media. Fewer young American listeners find their way to classical music, largely because of the lack of the music education that was widespread in public schools two generations ago. As a result many orchestras and opera houses struggle to fill halls.

China, with an estimated 30 million piano students and 10 million violin students, is on an opposite trajectory. Comprehensive tests to enter the top conservatories now attract nearly 200,000 students a year, compared with a few thousand annually in the 1980s, according to the Chinese Musicians Association."

What's in a GWOT?

How best to describe US foreign policy: GWOT (global war on terror) or GWOT (global war of terror)?