Understanding Music : New Resources

Music bears a unique relation to the emotions, which is just one of a suite of characteristics of music that can be explained with the help of contemporary philosophy of mind. A first question is : how are emotions and other mental states given to us when we hear them in a passage of music ? I propose that we need to recognize a new kind of mode of presentation, which I call an identifier, to be distinguished from demonstratives and other familiar kinds of modes of presentation. Properly deployed, a theory of identifiers can explain legitimate forms of the ineffability of the content of music, and music’s ability to leap over the first-person/third-person barrier in the characterization of others’ mental states. Identifiers also raise questions about the structure and relations of mental representations involved in the perception of music.

More info about the Jean Nicod Lectures and Prize 2024