Philosophy Research Seminar - Dr Joe Morrison (Queen's University Belfast)
| Dates: | 14 October 2020 |
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| Times: | 15:15 - 16:50 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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This year we are running all of our research seminars online using Zoom. If you would like to attend, and are not included on our events mailing list, please email Dr Stephen Ingram to request the Zoom meeting details.
Seminars will take place on Wednesdays, and will run from 15.15-16.50, with a 5 minute break between the talk and the Q&A. The Zoom meeting will be available to join from 15.00.
Title
- Electronic Dance Music, Imagination and Contentlessness
Abstract
- I think electronic dance music is philosophically interesting in part because a lot of it is created (and enjoyed) with an understanding that it is supposed to be ‘meaningless’, to not be ‘about’ anything in particular at all. But as philosophers of language are keen to point out: there are lots of things that ‘meaningfulness’ and ‘aboutness’ can mean. In this talk, I examine Philippe Schlenker's provocative case for thinking that there can be such a thing as a ‘musical semantics’, specifically a truth-conditional semantics in which passages of music are ‘about’ (and true or false in relation to) the movement of imagined entities. If a case like Schlenker’s is right, then it looks like there can be a sense in which electronic dance music can be ‘about’ things – the motion of imagined entities – after all. But I’m going to suggest some problems with this analysis.
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
This event will run online - contact Stephen Ingram for details on accessing the Zoom meeting.
