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Nelson Goodman's Hockey Seen: a Philosopher's Approach to Performance Curtis Carter Marquette University, Curtis.Carter@Marquette.Edu Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications Philosophy, Department of 5-1-2009 Nelson Goodman's Hockey Seen: A Philosopher's Approach to Performance Curtis Carter Marquette University, [email protected] Published version. "Nelson Goodman's Hockey Seen: A Philosopher's Approach to Performance," in Congress Book 2: Selected Papers: XVIIth International Congress of Aesthetics. Ed. Jale N. Erzen. SANART, 2009: 57-67. Publisher Link. © 2009 SANART Association for Aesthetics and Visual Culture. Used with permission. CONGRESS BOOK II SELECTED PAPERS . XVllth INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF AESTHETICS Curtis L. Carter, Professor of Aesthetics, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA discerning distinctions and connections, perceiving I. Nelson Goodman (1906-1998) more sensitively and fully, gaining new insights." Nelson Goodman is acknowledged as one of the Social betterment and technological progress he most important analytic philosophers of the post­ leaves to others. World War II era. Trained at Harvard University (B.S. 1928, Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude Goodman recognized the need for something more and Ph.D., 1941), Goodman made penetrating than ordinary language to interpret the world and original contributions to applied logic, philosophy establish a reliable philosophy. Yet he believed of science, aesthetics, theory of symbols, that verbal analysis and logical construction are epistemology, and metaphysics. Rather than to complementary rather than incompatible means. engage philosophical predecessors in debates of He applied the newly developed formal techniques historic interest or becoming side tracked by of symbolic logic in his first book, The Structure ideological concerns, Goodman developed his ofAppearance (1951) where he developed a own analytic approach to symbol systems. He number of different calculi. But he insisted that approached each domain of thought as a system logical precision and systematization do not of signs and symbols. He held that reality and depend on the use of any particular technique. For interpretation are inseparable and that multiple instance, the vocabulary in Languages ofArt worlds consisting of such interpretations begins with terms from ordinary language and constitute the frameworks of our knowledge in proceeds systematically to clear away confusion various symbol systems ranging from symbolic by making increasingly fine distinctions and logic and the sciences to the arts. Science and the developing the connections necessary to advance arts alike contribute to understanding. According understanding of the arts and other symbol to Goodman, there are many, even conflicting systems. Precision is achieved through technical right versions of the world as he discussed in applications restricting the use of terms found in Ways of Worldmaking. Yet he vigorously denied ordinary language purged oftheir ambiguities and that anything goes. Goodman also acknowledged vagueness for use in a system where new wrong versions of the world, which he referred to connections can be forged. as versions that are not well-made. A major portion of his work was to differentiate among the Goodman's philosophical theories encompass various types of symbols according to their nominalism, constructivism, and a version of syntactic and semantic features and to sort out radial relativism. As a nominalist, he finds the their respective contributions to knowledge. He notion of non-individuals (classes) unintelligible. approached value questions not to formalize As a constructivist, he employs abstract logical them, but to suggest that the questions of value be symbols to engage in systematic philosophical specified. Value questions require a good deal of mapmaking to organize the qualities and specification as a way of sharpening perception. particulars of experience into knowledge. Relativism supports his view that there are many Goodman's principal aim in philosophy was to coexisting right ways of world making. A advance understanding by "removing confusions, statement in the foreword of his book, Ways of 57 Nelson Goodman's Hockey Seen: A Philosopher's Approach to Performance Worldmaking, (1978) states concisely the radical symbol-making activities constitute worldmaking, nature of his approach to philosophical concerns. and that there is no single fixed or "objective" "Few familiar philosophical labels fit world apart from these versions constructed comfortably, a book that is at odds with through languages, the sciences, the arts, and other rationalism and empiricism alike, with symbol-making processes. "World" in Goodman's • materialism and idealism, with mechanism and terms refers to "right world versions" and at times vitalism, with mysticism and scientism, and with to what is referred to by these world versions. His most other ardent doctrines." He envisioned his key argument is that, apart from symbolic frames work as a part of the mainstream of modern of reference, we have nothing else with which to philosophy; yet he proposed to replace the views compare versions. In taking this position, of major theorists (Immanuel Kant on the Goodman adopts a strong relativist view. Yet he structure of the mind) and Lewis (on the structure does not countenance every version construed as of concepts) with his own theory of symbol being well-made. Goodman insists nevertheless systems. The symbol systems of the sciences, that while a right world version and its referent philosophy, the arts, perception, and everyday differ, no firm line can be established between the discourse thus constitute the "ways of two. Both the constructed versions of the world worldmaking" that comprise understanding. With and the criteria we use to test them, he says, are Quine, he challenged two of the principal dependent on our making. "dogmas of empiricism" namely, an appeal to a distinction of analytic/synthetic propositions, and Languages ofArt approaches aesthetics in the a commitment to a reductionistlfoundationalist context of a more general theory of symbols. His account of knowledge. theory of symbols accommodates the arts but also the sciences, and common workaday symbols The Structure ofAppearance, his first major including language. Through careful individuation book, provides a general theory of the systematic of the different kinds of symbolism represented in logical description of experience and actual painting, music, dance, and the other arts, construction of specific systems. He applies the Goodman offers a fresh structure for addressing part-whole logic previewed in his dissertation to key problems in aesthetics. He predicates his create a phenomenalist system using qualia as theory of symbolism on the view that the use of primitives. In creating a phenomenalist system, he symbols beyond immediate practical needs is for defended Carnap against critics who attacked the the sake of understanding or "cognition in and for. phenomenalist account of experience given in the itself." Understanding draws upon the urge to Autbau. know or delight in discovery, and leads to enlightenment. The uses of symbols for Goodman's second major work, Fact, Fiction, communication and other practical or pleasurable and Forecast (1951) examines three central uses are secondary. His criteria for judging problems in logic concerning confirmable and symbols, whether in the sciences or the arts, non-confirmable statements: the problem of depends on how well a symbol serves its cognitive . counterfactuals, the theory of induction, and purposes: "how it analyzes, sorts, orders, and prospects for a theory of projection. He radically organizes" and how the symbols participate in the altered Hume' s theory that predications making and transformation of knowledge. ("Art concerning future events are grounded solely in and Inquiry," Proceedings of the American observed past regularities in experience. Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, 1968, According to Goodman, regularities can be found pp. 5-19). anywhere, but not all observed regularities result in valid proj ections. His "new riddle of induction" These ideas are applied throughout Languages of states that the very same evidence that supports a Art in an attempt to show how pictures, music or given predication equally supports the very dance performances, literary texts, and buildings opposite prediction. shape our experience as partners with the sciences in the pursuit of understanding. Goodman's In Ways of Worldmaking, Goodman sets forth attempt to analyze the various art forms with what is perhaps his most radical claim: that respect to semantic and syntactic differences 58 Curtis L. Carter becomes the basis for showing greater in general." Excellence in art depends on the discriminations among their symbolic features. extent that a work informs and reorganizes Within this formulation, representational, experiences or offers insight and understanding. expressive, and exemplificational forms of For Goodman, "Excellence of a work is a matter reference govern the features and functions of the of enlightenment." arts. Representation is a form of denotation. Goodman rejects the notion that representation in Gone too are spurious distinctions between the arts is based on natural resemblance. Rather, scientific understanding and the arts. These are but representation is a matter of habit and familiarity. two complementary means for making and Understanding what a picture represents is a understanding our worlds. matter of invoking a ranges
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