Music and Philosophy

[sbud]

Hello all!

I am writing to ask if any of you either stumbled across an answer in your own research or know of something at your university.

I am looking for a program that would effectively allow me to work (well, aspire to work) in an interdisciplinary philosophy of music space. My interests and abilities are diverse, and that is making me hesitant to apply to either "plain old" philosophy programs, where work in music would likely be very minor -- I only really know of Columbia having much discussion, and even then not much, or musicology programs, in which there is less focus on rigorous philosophical investigations/tends more towards cultural studies.

My interests are fairly parallel to those of Adorno, although I find myself more the deconstructionist than the Marxist in analysis.

If you have any recommendations for programs to investigate or for universities that allow for interdisciplinary work in music and philosophy, I would be very appreciative.

s.

[maxhgns]

A few philosophers at PhD-granting institutions have engaged seriously with music. From the top of my head, Goehr at Columbia, Raffman at Toronto, Kivy at Rutgers (I don't think he's taking new students, though), Davies at McGill, Davies at Auckland, Levinson at Maryland College Park, Predelli at Nottingham, Higgins at UT Austin, and Dodd at Manchester. I have no idea about their musicology departments or interdisciplinary offerings, but you might start looking there.

Note, however, that all of the philosophers mentioned above tackle music from the "analytic" perspective. You won't find much Marxism or deconstructionism there, nor will you find much sympathy for such approaches.

[Glasperlenspieler]

1 hour ago, maxhgns said:

Note, however, that all of the philosophers mentioned above tackle music from the "analytic" perspective. You won't find much Marxism or deconstructionism there, nor will you find much sympathy for such approaches.

Goehr, having written extensively on Adorno, may be the exception to this. And while Higgins is certainly not a Marxist or a Deconstructionist, she is a Nietzsche scholar, so she would perhaps be more open to "non-analytic" approaches.

[maxhgns]

12 hours ago, DerPhilosoph said:

Goehr, having written extensively on Adorno, may be the exception to this. And while Higgins is certainly not a Marxist or a Deconstructionist, she is a Nietzsche scholar, so she would perhaps be more open to "non-analytic" approaches.

True, those are important exceptions. Thanks for catching that. I don't think either of them is much of a fan of post-structuralism, but Goehr definitely knows a lot of "continental" philosophy. I'm not as sure about Higgins but you're right, she probably does as well. (At any rate, they're both knowledgeable about "analytic" philosophy of music!)

[bookofletters]

There is a list online of aesthetics philosiphy graduate programs, and they list whether the program is continental, which is what you'd want. Its from the American Society of Aesthetics. They list faculty and their interests as well.

[maxhgns]

8 hours ago, bookofletters said:

There is a list online of aesthetics philosiphy graduate programs, and they list whether the program is continental, which is what you'd want. Its from the American Society of Aesthetics. They list faculty and their interests as well.

The Guide can be found here. An update is in the works and will be posted in the same place once it's available. It's a good place to start, so long as you realize that it's almost entirely based on self-reporting, and not all of those departments are equally equipped to deal with a PhD student specializing in the philosophy of art/aesthetics. Reported interests aren't quite the same as an active research agenda, community involvement, and mentorship. It also doesn't offer any info about musicology at those schools.

Edited June 15, 2016 by maxhgns