1 Musical Works: Category and Identity A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) In the Faculty of Humanities 2013 Philip Letts School of Social Sciences 2 Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 7 Declaration ...................................................................................................................... 8 Copyright Statement ........................................................................................................ 8 Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................... 9 Part 1: Category ............................................................................................................. 10 Chapter 1: The Project ................................................................................................... 10 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 10 2: Answering the Categorial Question .......................................................................... 12 2.1: The Music Internal Problem ................................................................................... 14 2.2: The Central Judgments Concerning Musical Works .............................................. 17 2.3: The External Problem ............................................................................................. 25 3: The Metaphysics Internal Problem............................................................................ 29 4: The Opposition to Falliblist Abduction: Descriptivism ............................................ 30 5: Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 37 Chapter 2: Musical Works Exist.................................................................................... 38 1: Realism about Musical Works .................................................................................. 38 1.1: The Case for Realism ............................................................................................. 38 2: Musical Works and Error Theories ........................................................................... 40 2.1: Andrew Kania’s Error Theory ................................................................................ 41 3: Musical Works and Eliminative Nominalism ........................................................... 43 4: Musical Works and Truthmaker Nihilism ................................................................. 53 5: Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 58 3 Chapter 3: The Universalist Theories ............................................................................ 60 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 60 2: Universals and Nominalist Concerns ........................................................................ 61 2.1: The Mainstream Work for Universals and the Musical Application...................... 63 3: Types and Tokens ...................................................................................................... 69 3.1: Type Existence Conditions ..................................................................................... 73 4: Creatable Types: Jerrold Levinson’s Initiated Type Theory ..................................... 77 4.1: Robert Howell’s Good Proposal............................................................................. 81 4.2: Robert Howell’s Bad Proposal ............................................................................... 85 5: Accepting Eternalism ................................................................................................ 88 6: Musical Works as Properties ..................................................................................... 91 6.1: Resistance to the Property Theory: The Categorial Unsuitability Argument ......... 92 6.2: Resistance to The Property Theory: The Predicate Transmission Argument ........ 94 6.2.1: A Second Predicate Transmission Argument ...................................................... 97 7: The Superiority of the Property Theory .................................................................. 100 8: Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 102 Chapter 4: Musical Works as Particulars .................................................................... 103 1: The Desiderata: Rohrbaugh’s Trio .......................................................................... 103 2: Historical Individuals .............................................................................................. 107 2.1: Objections to the Historical Individuals Theory .................................................. 112 3: Rohrbaugh’s Trio and Universals Reconsidered ..................................................... 115 4: Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 120 Chapter 5: The Performance Theory ........................................................................... 121 4 1: Introducing the Performance Theory ...................................................................... 121 2: Arguing for the Performance Theory: Methodology............................................... 124 2.1 Appreciative Considerations for the Performance Theory .................................... 128 3: Contextualised Product Theory Responses ............................................................. 132 4: Revisionism Objections ........................................................................................... 133 4.1: Davies’s Response to Type 1 Objections ............................................................. 135 4.2: Davies’s Response to Type 2 objections .............................................................. 141 5: Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 145 Part 2: Identity ............................................................................................................. 146 Chapter 6: Identity Criteria, Individuation, and The Rejection of Sonicism ............... 146 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................. 146 2: Identity .................................................................................................................... 147 3: Identity Criteria ....................................................................................................... 149 4: Individuation, Cognitive and Metaphysical ............................................................ 151 5: Sonicism and Aesthetic Empiricism........................................................................ 156 6: Categories of Art ..................................................................................................... 159 6.1: Moderate Empiricism and Moderate Sonicism .................................................... 163 7: Levinson’s Arguments ............................................................................................ 165 7.1: The Sonicist Responses ........................................................................................ 168 8: Musical Quotation ................................................................................................... 173 8.1: The Sonicist-Empiricist Response........................................................................ 174 8.2: Analogous Arguments for Artistic and Representational Attributes .................... 177 8.3: The Direct Argument for Artistic and Representational Properties ..................... 179 5 9: Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 180 Chapter 7: Contextualisim ........................................................................................... 182 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................. 182 1.1: Indicated Structure Theories ................................................................................ 182 2: Levinsonian Contextualism ..................................................................................... 184 2.1: (MW) and (MW+) ................................................................................................ 187 2.2: Counterfactual Problems for Levinson ................................................................. 188 3: Levinson’s Neglected Alternative: (MW’) .............................................................. 192 3.1: The Obscurity of Contexts ................................................................................... 196 4: The Work Relativity of Modal Flexibility .............................................................. 199 4.1: Levinsonian Responses to the Work Relativity of Modal Flexibility .................. 201 5: The Performance Theory and Individuation ........................................................... 202 Chapter 8: An Integrated Account of Category and Identity ......................................