Reflective Equilibrium in the Aesthetics Classroom

Discusses some of the challenges that arise when teaching philosophy of art to students who do not share intutions about which things are examples of art.

The Aesthetics of Popular Music

Encyclopedia Article

Entry in the The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Does Everyone Have a Musical Identity? Reflections on Musical Identities

Published in Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education

Online review of Raymond MacDonald, David Hargreaves, and Dorothy Miell, MUSICAL IDENTITIES (Oxford University Press 2002)

Hume's Aesthetics

Online Publication: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Overview of David Hume's aesthetic theory, with an extensive bibliography.

Adorno, Jazz, and the Aesthetics of Popular Music

Published in The Musical Quarterly, 76:4 (Winter 1992), pp. 526-42.

Valuing and Evaluating Popular Music

Invited contribution to a Special Issue of The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 57:2 (Spring 1999), pp. 205-20.

Argues that popular music possesses aesthetic value.

Danto, Popular Music, and Indiscernible Counterparts

Contribution to The Online Aesthetics Conference, 2007

While I endorse Arthur Danto's insight that musical works can only be individuated by reference to their historical contexts, examples from popular music can be used to challenge the proposal that this point is completely independent from Danto's claim that individuation requires knowledge of "artworld concepts." In short, ontological contextualism in music is logically independent from the history of music as art.

Allusions and Intentions in Popular Art

in Philosophy and the Interpretation of Pop Culture, William Irwin and Jorge J. E. Gracia, eds. (Lanham, MD: Rowman &  Littlefield: 2007), pp. 65-87.

Argues that allusion is a common technique in popular art, significantly enriching its aesthetic dimension. There is an extended discussion of competing views of the nature of allusion. Examples include the film The Matrix.

Listening to Music: Performances and Recordings

in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 55:2 (Spring 1997), pp. 139-50.

Argues that the experience of listening to recorded music is not obviously an aesthetic loss as compared to hearing the same music in live performance.