(PM) SAP on POM

A good summary of the issues Davies confronts from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/music/#2

(AP) Hume's Viciousness

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.

State of the Union

Chris Hedges of Truthdig digs up some truth:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090323_america_is_in_need_of_a_moral_bailout/

(AP) Hume on "necessary connection"

Here's a brief sample of David Hume's skeptical approach to causality:

"All events seem entirely loose and separate. One event follows another; but we never can observe any tie between them. They seem conjoined but never connected. And as we can have no idea of anything, which never appears to our outward sense or inward sentiment, the necessary conclusion seems to be, that we have no idea of connexion or power at all, and that these words are absolutely without any meaning, when employed either in philosophical reasoning, or in private life."

(PM/AP) New Research on Bird Song and Mating

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090318-songbird-wives-ruin-songs.html

(JP) Modes

A very intuitive discussion of the modes (scales):

http://mugglinw.ipower.com/chordmaps/part10.htm

(LII) AIG Sideshow

The infamous bonuses represent a mere 1/1000th of taxpayer money thus far handed over to AIG, no real strings attached. I suspect Tim "Wall Street" Geithner's continuing massive transfer of wealth upward (in a desperate attempt to avoid nationalizing major industries) will be Obama's undoing:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/19-13

Update:

Out of fairness and consistency, shouldn't Obama -- in his new-found fondness for divisive, anti-intellectual performance-based schemes in education -- institute "merit pay for CEO's"?

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/20-2

Assessment of Research Outlines Complete

I have reviewed all research outlines and bibliographies and will return them (with comments/suggestions) to students next week. A reminder: the official grade-based penalty (i.e., 2 letter grades off final essay grade) will now be applied to those who have missed this second deadline (as of March 9). There will be no exceptions. Once again, I quote from the original guidelines:

"Outline and tentative bibliography: due March 9, 2009. Students missing this deadline will have two letter grades subtracted from their final grade for the project. (Example, a “B” essay received on the final class from a student who fails to meet deadline #2 will receive a “D”)."

Midterm Blogging Assessment Complete

I have completed the midterm assessment of all course-based blogs, according to the original rubric, viz.:

"I will assess the quality and frequency of blogs twice during the semester: once at midterm, and once during finals week. You will receive a grade of A-F on both occasions. At the time of assessment, blogs that (a) contain the minimum number of entries (# required weeks of blogging x 2); (b) contain the right number of appropriate kinds of entries (that is, # required weeks of blogging x 1 “open” entries and # required weeks of blogging x 1 reply entries); and (c) incorporate an appropriate, yet not outstanding, degree of substance (insight, creativity, depth of analysis, etc.) will receive a “B.” Those blogs that satisfy (a) and (b) above and reflect an exceptional degree of substance will receive an “A.” Those blogs that fail to satisfy conditions (a) and/or (b) will receive a grade of no greater than “C,” regardless of their otherwise substantive natures. The grades of “D” and “F” will be applied to those blogs that both fail to satisfy conditions (a) and/or (b) and, to one degree or another, fail to reflect sufficient substance."

I have not focused on condition (b), since, to my mind, it has served its basic purpose (i.e., to promote interblog communication). I've fallibly assessed condition (c) with a check, check-minus, or check-plus, the latter two designations capable of adjusting grades down or up from the base grade I assign on the basis of condition (a), that is, the number of postings over the review period. The review period encompassed 7.5 weeks. I used the following guidelines for assigning a base grade (you will notice that I deviated slightly though generously from my initial demand that a bare minimum of 15 (7.5 x 2) posts would be required to earn a grade of B or above:

(# of postings/base grade)

12 or greater/B
9-12/C
6-9/D
less than 6/F

Actual grades for blogging will of course depend on my assessment of condition (c). I will inform students of their actual grades during class.

(AP) Definability and Openness

Morris Weitz claims that art is an indefinable-because-open concept. I want tentatively to suggest that he conflates indefinability and openness, overlooking in the process the possibility of a definable-yet-open conception of art.

Furthermore, Weitz -- or perhaps Wartenberg -- apparently assumes that a satisfactory definition of art must be an intensional one (a specification of the necessary and jointly sufficient conditions required of each member of the set under consideration). But Weitz's preferred extensional (in this case, ostensive) definition of art is still, obviously enough, a definition.

Even so, I remain hopeful that we might construct a satisfactory -- however inclusive and broad -- intensional definition of art. See Jeff Strayer's handout for a brief summary of the relations between necessary and sufficient conditions and any attempt to define art.

(AP) The Art of Dewey's Pedagogy

My pedagogical assumptions owe much to the pragmatic philosophy of John Dewey. In the aesthetic/artistic arena, Dewey parses "an experience" as a consequence of wresting from the relatively inchoate and undifferentiated flow of experience a finite temporal span (one with a clear beginning and ending) imbued with a certain degree of significance or meaning (so that the cessation -- the ending -- has the character of a consummation). In like fashion, a successful learning experience is one born of those deliberate efforts to cull an educational experience from conscious life generally.

Consider this summary from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

The roots of aesthetic experience lie, Dewey argues, in commonplace experience, in the consummatory experiences that are ubiquitous in the course of human life. There is no legitimacy to the conceit cherished by some art enthusiasts that aesthetic enjoyment is the privileged endowment of the few. Whenever there is a coalesence into an immediately enjoyed qualitative unity of meanings and values drawn from previous experience and present circumstances, life then takes on an aesthetic quality--what Dewey called having "an experience." Nor is the creative work of the artist, in its broad parameters, unique. The process of intelligent use of materials and the imaginative development of possible solutions to problems issuing in a reconstruction of experience that affords immediate satisfaction, the process found in the creative work of artists, is also to be found in all intelligent and creative human activity. What distinguishes artistic creation is the relative stress laid upon the immediate enjoyment of unified qualitative complexity as the rationalizing aim of the activity itself, and the ability of the artist to achieve this aim by marshalling and refining the massive resources of human life, meanings, and values.

It seems to follow as well that "intelligent and creative human activity" in educational settings can and should include Dewey's aesthetic emphasis on immediate satisfaction. That is, along with its obvious utilitarian virtues, learning can and should be enjoyed for its own sake.

(LII) Whose Table is it Anyway?

Too bad all the best ideas are immediately ruled "off the table" -- slashing the defense budget in half (at least), nationalizing major industries, instituting a cabinet-level secretary of Peace/ Humanities/Arts," etc., impeaching/indicting Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Gonzales, et al, and now, the most obvious and sensible alternative to our morally bankrupt, for-profit, health-care-for-the-lucky-few:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/01

Several essays documenting recent revelations concerning the scope of Bush's dictatorial ambitions:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/04-15

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/04

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/04-9

Reminder to Essay Writers (Honors AP; PM)

A second, very important deadline is fast approaching. From the Handout on Essay Writing:

Deadline #2. Outline and tentative bibliography: due March 9, 2009. Students missing this deadline will have two letter grades subtracted from their final grade for the project. (Example, a “B” essay received on the final class from a student who fails to meet deadline #2 will receive a “D”).

Also, for anyone who finds him/herself not able to fulfill the requirements of the course, I believe the deadline to withdraw from a course is sometime this week.

Snow Cancellation

All of my classes are cancelled today -- buried in the snow.

Art and Philosophy: Dewey's up for Wednesday. Honors section: Bloggers keep blogging; essay-writers keep researching/drafting.

Philosophy of Music: We'll tackle the latest Q&A Wednesday. Keep blogging/writing.

Logic II: Research topics due today.

Piano Lessons: To be rescheduled.

(PM) The World of Ideas

Here's a link back to an older post, along with some interesting comments from readers, on the question of our "radical construction" of reality:

http://critojazz.blogspot.com/2008/01/cr-ideality-vs-reality-introduction.html