After underlining the diversity of the Chinese and pragmatist philosophical traditions (which makes essentialist generalizing problematic), this paper examines the idea that a transcultural dialogue between them could generate a more resourceful new philosophy for our increasingly global culture. Since transcultural dialogue is facilitated by…

During the eighteenth century, amateurs as well as philosophers ventured critical commentary on the arts. Talk concerning taste or beauty or the sublime was so much a part of general discourse that even novelists of that era incorporated such subjects in their work. So it would not be surprising to find that perspectives on aesthetics are…

In this article, the authors address the conversation that, given the recent developments in the philosophy of mind, especially in terms of its cognitive turn, one task for philosophers of music might be to begin to speculate about the properties of music and organized sound that enable them to perform their various moral and cultural roles. The…

This is a critical response to the papers by Shusterman, Sartwell, and Stroud. I claim that Shusterman has missed the inter-human moral aesthetics of Confucianism, that Sartwell has misunderstood Taoism's idea of "receptivity," confusing it with anarchist "passivity," and Stroud has not overcome the "Gita's" injunction to sacrifice the self,…

Examines humorous content of today's television sitcoms in attempt to explain how we got from "Stan and Ollie to Shirley and Laverne" or from exemplary humor to the mundane social commentary of present-day situational comedy. Concludes that the sitcom depends on making comedy out of collision between social change and tradition, exploiting social…

Author proceeded to develop a composite profile of work through twelve different aspects of its polarity with play, prefacing these with the general remark that the antithesis is strongly ambivalent. (Author/RK)

Discusses the meanings of the words culture, bourgeoisie, and ideology as a prelude to analyzing the condition of contemporary society. (RK)

The authors outline a perspective on post-modernism and the counter-culture and question Bell's assessment of their socio-political impact (AA 511 929). They suggest that scientific and technical experts' influence is greater than that of artists, and they compare Bell's earlier work with his current thesis. (Authors/JB)

In this essay, the author describes her view of the concept of the aesthetic in music education as "essentially contested" and subject to reinterpretation. She attempts to expand "traditional" notions of the aesthetic in music education beyond a view of the aesthetic transaction as "passive," focused on audience-listening for traditional…

This essay's thesis is that far from technology being the principal dynamic factor in social change, culture, or what is played out in the artistic imagination, is supreme. Art has made the idea of change accepted and expected, and society now accepts this role for the imagination. (JB)