REIFICATION, MUSIC AND PROBLEMS OF CONTEMPORARY

AESTHETICS
DrJonathan Lewis, University of Cambridge

Headline
This book examines the possibilities for the rehabilitation of aesthetics within
contemporary philosophy.
Pitch
Theprincipal objective of my study is to re-evaluate the philosophical significance
ofaesthetics 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 philosophicalattempts 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 practicesbeneath a unified philosophical theory.Consequently,
Ichallengethe most emphatic andproblematic 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 historically-mediated, 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 truthhelp 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. Thisway
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
postmodernapproaches to aestheticscomparewith those in analytic philosophy. I
discuss problems with both forms of aestheticreflection 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 world-disclosive
account of the work of artis 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
aestheticpractices. By engagingwithrecent 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-GeorgGadamer, 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 thephilosophical 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 storyinvolvesthe
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 thatpostmodern musicologists
havearticulated
a
relativized
conception
of
truth
based
on
a
performativecontradiction.
Chapter Five: Reification and Relativism (23,000 words, plus 1,000 words of note)
This chaptershows 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 problematicclaimsattributed 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
3

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 papersin 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
bookwould 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 andcertain 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 explainhow 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 Wrathallhave broughtanalytic 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 thisstudy. The exception is Aaron Ridley, whose
Wittgenstein-inspired critique of analytic aesthetics attempts to locate this
specialized branch of analytic philosophy in relation tonineteenth-century formalist
aesthetics. I extend Ridleys critique of analytic aesthetics by suggesting how recent
debates in analytic philosophy actuallyhelp 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, BjrnHeile,
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 extendthat critique.I also articulate the problems surrounding the
truth and legitimacy of postmodernpractices, 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, whobegins his work withAdorno andHeideggers 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
beeasily 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.