Imagination, Music, and the Emotions, livre ebook

Both musicians and laypersons can perceive purely instrumental music without words or an associated story or program as expressing emotions such as happiness and sadness. But how? In this book, Saam Trivedi discusses and critiques the leading philosophical approaches to this question, including formalism, metaphorism, expression theories, arousalism, resemblance theories, and persona theories. Finding these to be inadequate, he advocates an "imaginationist" solution, by which absolute music is not really or literally sad but is only imagined to be so in a variety of ways. In particular, he argues that we as listeners animate the music ourselves, imaginatively projecting life and mental states onto it. Bolstering his argument with empirical data from studies in neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive science, Trivedi also addresses and explores larger philosophical questions such as the nature of emotions, metaphors, and imagination.
Introduction
I. Emotions, Moods, and Feelings
1. Introduction
2. What are Emotions?
3. Emotions, Beliefs, and Moods
4. Other Views: Martha Nussbaum’s Neo-Stoic Cognitivism
5. Paul Griffiths’s Theory
6. Jesse Prinz’s Somatic View
7. A Concluding Concession
II. Expression Theories and Arousalism
1. Introduction
2. Bruce Vermazen’s Expression Theory
3. Jerrold Levinson’s Persona Theory
4. Jenefer Robinson’s Theory
5. Contra Simple Arousalism
6. Aaron Ridley’s Moderate Arousalism
7. Derek Matravers’s Moderate Arousalism
8. Charles Nussbaum’s View
9. Conclusion
III. Metaphors and Metaphorism
1. Introduction
2. Against Metaphorism (Part 1)
3. Metaphorical Meaning and Paraphraseability
4. Against Metaphorism (Part 2)
5. Metaphors, Resemblance, and Imagination
6. Against Metaphorism (Part 3)
7. Conclusion
IV. Resemblance-Based Theories
1. Introduction
2. Resemblance-Based Views
3. Criticisms
4. Objections and Replies
5. Conclusion
V. Imagination
1. Introduction: Different Kinds of Imaginings
2. Imaginative Perceptions and Perceptual Imaginings
3. Children’s Imaginings
4. Gregory Currie’s View
5. Imagination, Music Perception, and Musical Culture
6. Conclusion
VI. Imaginationism
1. Introduction
2. Against Formalism about Music
3. How We Imagine in Relation to Music
4. Why We Imagine in Relation to Music
5. Musical Arousal
6. Objections and Replies
7. Conclusion
Summary and Conclusion
Notes
References
Index