REIFICATION, MUSIC AND PROBLEMS OF CONTEMPORARY

AESTHETICS
Dr Jonathan Lewis, University of Cambridge

Headline
This book examines the possibilities for the rehabilitation of aesthetics
within contemporary philosophy.
Pitch
The principal objective of my study is to re-evaluate the philosophical
significance of aesthetics in the context of contemporary debates on the
nature of philosophy. My main argument is that contemporary conceptions
of meaning and truth have been reified, and that aesthetics is able to
articulate why this is the case, with important consequences for
understanding the horizons and nature of philosophical inquiry.
Key Features and Benefits

Provides a new account of the concept of reification based on

contemporary philosophical debates;
Sets out an innovative case for how pragmatism, phenomenology
and hermeneutics can expand the horizons of contemporary
aesthetics;
Incorporates aesthetic insights in order to extend recent pragmatist
and phenomenological critiques of reductionist accounts of truth
and meaning;
Contributes to the growing body of work that aims to bring analytic
philosophy into dialogue with more European/Continental traditions;
Provides a thorough, yet jargon-free, introduction to the problems
facing theoretical and practical engagements with aesthetic issues.

Keywords
Reification, Music, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Language, Pragmatism,
Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Analytic philosophy, Continental
philosophy,
Heidegger,
Adorno,
Wittgenstein,
Gadamer,
Postmodernism, Musicology, Wagner.
Synopsis
My main argument is that philosophical attempts to demystify the nature
of art have led to the reification of aesthetic meaning and truth. The
reason for this is because philosophical understanding of art depends
upon the prior sense made by our concrete aesthetic experiences, a sense
that is lost when attempts are made to subsume aesthetic practices
beneath a unified philosophical theory. Consequently, I challenge the most
emphatic and problematic conceptions of meaning and truth in both

analytic philosophy and postmodern thought by acknowledging the

ontological and logical primacy of our practical engagements in the world.
This involves thinking about meaning and truth in terms of historicallymediated, social norms as opposed to independent and isolable entities
that are, in a sense, given or present. I show how norm-based
conceptions of aesthetic truth help us to understand the aesthetic realm
as disclosive of the changing constellations of subjective and objective and
the different ways we make sense of the world. This way of thinking about
the aesthetic realm allows us to compare it to other forms of making
sense, including philosophy. That the results of such sense-making cannot
be encapsulated in a definitive philosophical theory is, I argue, precisely
what should lead to the re-evaluation of the philosophical significance of
aesthetics.
Table of Contents
Introduction:
Philosophy, Music and Aesthetics
Chapter One:
Reifying Art
Chapter Two:
Interpreting Wagner
Chapter Three: Beyond Analytic Aesthetics
Chapter Four:
Musical Analyticity and Postmodern Aesthetics
Chapter Five:
Reification and Relativism
Conclusion
Chapter-by-Chapter Synopsis
Introduction: Philosophy, Music and Aesthetics (10,000 words, plus
2,000 words of notes)
The issues outlined in the synopsis will be characterized in a form
accessible to the intended readership, concentrating, in particular, on
the way in which the concept of reification is still central to debates in
contemporary philosophy. By providing a new account of the nature of
reification, I explain how postmodern approaches to aesthetics compare
with those in analytic philosophy. I discuss problems with both forms of
aesthetic reflection and detail how the subsequent chapters will extend
ideas raised in the introduction.
Chapter One: Reifying Art (15,000 words, plus 3,000 words of notes)
In chapter one I develop my account of the relationship between
reification and aesthetics through the work of Martin Heidegger and
Theodor W. Adorno in order to offer a vision for a non-reified engagement
with aesthetic praxis. I show that once we distance ourselves from
theoretical attempts to characterize the object music and start, instead,
to make sense of actual musical practices, then music can be conceived as
an inherently meaningful phenomena that discloses the worlds in which it
is created, performed and received. I conclude by illustrating how a worlddisclosive account of the work of art is crucial to metaphysics.
Chapter Two: Interpreting Wagner (17,500 words, plus 2,500 words of
notes)
The

following

two

chapters

explore

problems

surrounding

the

interpretation of aesthetic practices. By engaging with recent debates on

Wagners music dramas, chapter two illustrates how norm-based accounts
of aesthetic meaning can challenge some of the classic conceptions of
meaning in analytic aesthetics. Drawing on the work of Hans-Georg
Gadamer, as well as what I see to be related ideas in the work of Robert
Brandom, Huw Price, Albrecht Wellmer and Ludwig Wittgenstein, what this
chapter seeks to clarify is the idea that interpretations of aesthetic
experiences matter within a space of historically-mediated, social norms.
By engaging with Wittgensteins account of rule-following, I demonstrate
how our interpretations of aesthetic practices can either articulate norms
or go against them. I conclude that norm-transcending practices can
themselves become normalized through historical changes that they
helped initiate.
Chapter Three: Beyond Analytic Aesthetics (9,500 words, plus 2,000 words
of notes)
Having attempted to make sense of the normative basis of aesthetic
meaning in chapter two, the third chapter considers how traditional
theories of meaning in aesthetics are related to the concept of reification. I
argue that philosophical theorizing about art and artworks both
presupposes and affirms meaning realism. I provide a challenge to such a
way of thinking about aesthetic meaning through engagement with W. V.
O. Quine and Donald Davidsons respective critiques of the dogmas of
empiricism. Turning to recent discussions in analytic philosophy on the
disclosive aspects of language, I conclude by both affirming and
expanding upon the relationship between norms and aesthetic meaning.
Chapter Four: Musical Analyticity and Postmodern Aesthetics (13,500
words, plus 1,000 words of notes)
Having focused on the philosophical problems surrounding the association
between aesthetics and reification, the fourth chapter examines the
relationship in the context of critical musicology. I begin by articulating the
widespread narrative concerning the development of twentieth-century
musicology. This story involves the emergence of the New Musicology
from a disciplinary environment of positivistic research and formalist
analysis. I go on to demonstrate how postmodern musicology can be
viewed, on the one hand, as overcoming the reifying impulses of its
modernist past. On the other hand, I show that postmodern musicologists
have articulated a relativized conception of truth based on a performative
contradiction.
Chapter Five: Reification and Relativism (23,000 words, plus 1,000 words
of note)
This chapter shows how the postmodern turn in aesthetics can be
understood in the wider theoretical context of twentieth-century European
philosophy. By engaging with philosophical critiques of cultural relativism, I
call into question the more emphatic and problematic claims attributed to
postmodern theory. Subsequently, I argue that after reifying and
relativizing approaches to aesthetic truth, what is to be valued about
artistic practices is their ability to create new ways of making sense that

provide an opportunity for critical engagement with aesthetic, social and

philosophical norms.
Conclusion (5,000 words)
The conclusion provides a summary of the relationship between aesthetic
practice and truth. I bring together key issues in the book to show that art
can question what is considered to be aesthetically, philosophically and
socially true. I conclude that art is both world-disclosive and critical.
Category of Book and Readership Level
This is a scholarly monograph that makes a notable contribution to issues
concerning aesthetics, metaphysics, metaphilosophy, philosophical
method and the so-called analytic-Continental divide in contemporary
philosophical practice. It is suitable for undergraduates, postgraduates,
academics and researchers in these fields.
Market and Readership
As demonstrated by recent international conferences organized by the
Royal Musical Association, the American Musicological Society, The British
Society of Aesthetics and The American Philosophical Association, there is
a growing research community in the US, Europe and the UK that is
concerned with exploring the interactions between philosophy and art. This
book arrives at a time when philosophers, musicologists, practitioners,
literary theorists and art historians are debating new aesthetic problems. It
will, therefore, be of interest to those engaging with aesthetic questions
and will serve as an important text for undergraduates and postgraduates
sitting papers in aesthetics and the philosophy of art
Intended to form part of the ever-expanding body of work devoted to
bringing analytic philosophy into dialogue with more European traditions,
this book would also interest academics, graduates and undergraduates in
philosophy who are even minimally concerned with the nature of
philosophy and the problems surrounding the analytic-continental divide.
Furthermore, by articulating the relationship between aesthetics and
certain aspects of European philosophy, this book will be part of a growing
body of work on the nature of aesthetic practice. From a multi-disciplinary
perspective, this book is arriving in an area of rapid expansion of interest
resulting from disciplinary shifts in analytic philosophy, European
philosophy and musicology.
Comparison with Other Work
Albrecht Wellmer has incorporated aesthetic insights into his discussions
of modern philosophy. However, he does not explain how the aesthetic
dimension can impact upon the nature of both philosophical and
musicological inquiry. Similarly, although Robert Brandom, Steven Crowell,
Sean D. Kelly, John McDowell, Robert B. Pippin, Huw Price, Charles Taylor
and Mark Wrathall have brought analytic philosophy into dialogue with
more European traditions, what is lacking in their work is a discussion of
the contribution that art and artworks can make to that dialogue.
Very few analytic aestheticians have attempted to discuss aesthetic
issues in the ways I make clear throughout this study. The exception is
Aaron Ridley, whose Wittgenstein-inspired critique of analytic aesthetics

attempts to locate this specialized branch of analytic philosophy in relation

to nineteenth-century formalist aesthetics. I extend Ridleys critique of
analytic aesthetics by suggesting how recent debates in analytic
philosophy actually help shed light on aesthetic practices without having
to adopt dogmatic and antiquated philosophical methods.
From a musicological point of view, a critique of the disciplines
relationship to postmodernism has been developing through the work of
Kofi Agawu, Karol Berger, Mark Berry, Nicholas Cook, Mark Everist, Paul
Harper-Scott, Bjrn Heile, Giles Hooper and Alastair Williams. By
constructing a dialogue between analytic philosophy and postmodern
thought, my book will provide the theoretical rationale to support and
extend that critique. I also articulate the problems surrounding the truth
and legitimacy of postmodern practices, thereby extending debates on
the nature and horizons of philosophy.
In terms of reification, much of what has been written about the
concept has been confined to philosophically-inspired social criticism
within Marxist traditions. Even Axel Honneth, who begins his work with
Adorno and Heideggers respective accounts of reification, has not
discussed the aesthetic relevance of reification nor its applicability to
certain contemporary forms of philosophical praxis. Consequently, my
study provides a new account of the concept in order to illustrate how it is
central to contemporary debates within philosophy.
Book Length and Diagrams
The book is 95,000 words in length, with an additional 16,000 words of
endnote and bibliographical material. It includes six black and white
extracts of music. At present these are scanned images from various
secondary texts. However, they could be easily recreated with a more
uniform style. The musical scores in relation to Richard Wagner are all part
of the public domain. Permission will need to be sought to reproduce the
score extracts from works by Richard Strauss.
Writing Schedule to Delivery of Complete Typescript
The manuscript is complete and has not been submitted to any other
press.
The Author
Jonathan Lewis is a Supervisor for the Faculty of Philosophy, College
Lecturer and Lecturer for the Institute of Continuing Education at the
University of Cambridge. He previously lectured at the Department of
Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London. He completed his
doctoral dissertation at the University of London having undertaken
degrees at Kings College, London and the University of Cambridge. He
has published on issues in aesthetics, metaphysics and the philosophy of
language, including research on philosophical method, pragmatism, the
nature of truth, and the work of G.W.F. Hegel, Martin Heidegger and
Ludwig Wittgenstein. He is, currently, working on a new project entitled
The Phenomenological and Pragmatic World: Reclaiming Speculative
Metaphysics and Aesthetics.