Jerrold Levinson (born 11 July 1948) is an American philosopher who is emeritus professor of philosophy at the
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...
. He is particularly noted for his work on defining
art
Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...
, the
aesthetics
Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...
of
music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
,
ontology
Ontology is the philosophical study of existence, being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of realit ...
of art, philosophy of
film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
, interpretation, aesthetics experience, and
humour
Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...
.
Education and career
Levinson started his studies in 1965 at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
, where he gained a
B.S. degree in Philosophy and Chemistry in 1969. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy at the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
in 1974, under the supervision of
Jaegwon Kim
Jaegwon Kim (September 12, 1934 – November 27, 2019) was a Korean-American philosopher. At the time of his death, Kim was an emeritus professor of philosophy at Brown University. He also taught at several other leading American universities ...
and
Kendall Walton,
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...
, edited by S. Sadie & J. Tyrell, 2nd ed., London, 2001
/ref> his dissertation covering the topic of "Properties, Qualities, and Categoriality".
During 1974–1975, he was visiting assistant professor at University at Albany, SUNY, SUNY Albany. In 1976, he became assistant professor at the University of Maryland, was promoted to associate professor in 1982, and full professor in 1991. In 2004, he was accorded the title of distinguished university professor. He became professor emeritus in 2018. He has also been visiting professor at other US institutes, including the Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
and Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
. He has also held visiting appointments in other countries, such as England (University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
and University of Kent
The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...
), New Zealand (University of Canterbury
The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...
), France ( Université de Rennes), Belgium (Université Libre de Bruxelles
The (French language, French, ; lit. Free University of Brussels; abbreviated ULB) is a French-speaking research university in Brussels, Belgium. It has three campuses: the ''Solbosch'' campus (in the City of Brussels and Ixelles), the ''Plain ...
), Portugal ( Universidade de Lisboa) and Switzerland ( Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana). During 2010-2011 he held an International Francqui Chair at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries.
In addition to its main camp ...
(Belgium), and in 2011 received the Premio Internazionale of the Società Italiana d'Estetica.
In 2003, Levinson co-directed a National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
Summer Institute, ''Art, Mind, and Cognitive Science'', and during 2001-2003 was President of the American Society for Aesthetics.
Philosophical work
Levinson advocates the position that music has the same relation to thought as does language;
i.e., if language is an expression of thought, so is music. This is particularly revealed in his analysis of Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.
From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...
's ideas on meaning in music:
:"What Wittgenstein is underscoring here about the appreciation of music is this. Music is not understood in a vacuum, as a pure structure of sounds fallen from the stars, one which we receive via some pure faculty of musical perception. Music is rather inextricably embedded in our form of life, a form of life that is, as it happens, essentially linguistic. Thus music is necessarily apprehended, at least in part, in terms of the language and linguistic practices that define us and our world."
This raises interesting points in the debate on absolute music
Absolute music (sometimes abstract music) is music that is not explicitly "about" anything; in contrast to program music, it is non- representational.M. C. Horowitz (ed.), ''New Dictionary of the History of Ideas'', , Vol. 1, p. 5 The idea of ab ...
.
Bibliography
Books[Search ]JSTOR
JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ...
* "Properties and Related Entities", in ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'', 39(1), 1978.
* "The Particularisation of Attributes", in ''Australasian Journal of Philosophy'', 58 (2), 1980
* "What a Musical Work Is", in ''The Journal of Philosophy'', 77(1), 1980.
* "Aesthetic Uniqueness", in ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 38(4), 1980.
* "Autographic and Allographic Art Revisited", in ''Philosophical Studies'', 38(4), 1980
* "Truth in Music", in ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 40(2), 1981.
* "Gewirth on Absolute Rights", in ''The Philosophical Quarterly'', 32(126), 1982.
* "Hybrid Art Forms", in ''Journal of Aesthetic Education'', 18(4), 1984.
* "Titles", in ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 44(1), 1985.
* "Evaluating Musical Performance", in ''Journal of Aesthetic Education'', 21(1), 1987.
* "A Note on Categorical Properties and Contingent Identity", in ''The Journal of Philosophy'', 85(12), 1988.
* "Refining Art Historically", in ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 47(1), 1989.
* "Musical Literacy", in ''Journal of Aesthetic Education'', 24(1) Special Issue: Cultural Literacy and Arts Education, 1990.
* "Philosophy as an Art", in ''Journal of Aesthetic Education'', 24(2), 1990.
* "The Place of Real Emotion in Response to Fictions", in ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 48(1), 1990.
* "Musical Profundity Misplaced", in ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 50(1), 1992.
* "Seeing, Imaginarily, at the Movies", in ''The Philosophical Quarterly'', 43(170), 1993.
* "Extending Art Historically", in ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 51(3), 1993.
* "Being Realistic about Aesthetic Properties", in ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 52(3), 1994.
* "Still Hopeful: Reply to Karl and Robinson", in ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 53(2), 1995.
* "Critical Notice of Malcolm Budd, Values of Art", in ''Mind, New Series'', 105(420), 1996.
* "Wollheim on Pictorial Representation", in ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 56(3), 1998.
* "Who's Afraid of a Paraphrase?", in ''Theoria'', 67, 2001.
* "Hume's Standard of Taste: The Real Problem", in ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 60(3), 2002.
* "The Irreducible Historicality of the Concept of Art", in ''British Journal of Aesthetics'' 42, 2002.
* "The Real Problem Sustained: Reply to Wieand", in ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 61(4), 2003.
* "Intrinsic Value and the Notion of a Life", in ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 62(4), 2004.
* "Music as Narrative and Music as Drama", in ''Mind and Language'', 19, 2004.
* "Erotic Art and Pornographic Pictures", in ''Philosophy and Literature'', 29, 2005.
* "What Are Aesthetic Properties?", in ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Supplement 78, 2005.
* "Concatenationism, Architectonicism, and the Appreciation of Music", in ''Revue Internationale de Philosophie'', 2006.
* "Why There Are No Tropes", in ''Philosophy'', 81, 2006.
* "Musical Expressiveness as Hearability-as-Expression", in ''Contemporary Debates in Aesthetics'', M. Kieran, ed., Blackwell, 2006.
* "Music and Philosophy", in ''Topoi'', 28, 2009
* "The Aesthetic Appreciation of Music", in ''British Journal of Aesthetics'', 49, 2009.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levinson, Jerrold
University of Maryland, College Park faculty
American philosophers of art
Living people
1948 births
University of Michigan alumni
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American philosophers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American philosophers
American male non-fiction writers
21st-century American male writers
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni