Nick Zangwill (born 1957) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and honorary research professor at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

and Lincoln University. He is known for his expertise on

moral philosophy Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...

(especially

metaethics In metaphilosophy and ethics, meta-ethics is the study of the nature, scope, and meaning of moral judgment. It is one of the three branches of ethics generally studied by philosophers, the others being normative ethics (questions of how one ought ...

), and

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

(especially the

philosophy of music Philosophy of music is the study of "fundamental questions about the nature of music and our experience of it".Andrew Kania,The Philosophy of Music, ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Spring 2014 edition, edited by Edward N. Zalta. The ph ...

and

visual art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts ...

). He has also written on

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

, the

philosophy of mind Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the ontology and nature of the mind and its relationship with the body. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a number of other issues are addre ...

, and

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

Background

In metaethics, Zangwill has defended non-naturalism, with a special attention to dependence of morality on natural properties. He has defended externalism about moral motivation, developed aspects of

expressivism In meta-ethics, expressivism is a theory about the meaning of moral language. According to expressivism, sentences that employ moral terms – for example, "It is wrong to torture an innocent human being" – are not descriptive or fact-stating ...

, and defended non-consequentialist theory. In aesthetics, Zangwill has defined his position as 'moderate

formalism Formalism may refer to: * Form (disambiguation) * Formal (disambiguation) * Legal formalism, legal positivist view that the substantive justice of a law is a question for the legislature rather than the judiciary * Formalism (linguistics) * Scient ...

' in art as referring to those properties "that are determined solely by sensory or physical properties—so long as the physical properties in question are not relations to other things and other times." The philosopher and architect Branko Mitrovic has defined formalism in art and architecture as "the doctrine that states that the aesthetic qualities of works of visual art derive from the visual and spatial properties."

Philosophical views

On meat eating

Zangwill has criticized

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...

and

vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism may ...

and has stated that "vegetarians and vegans are the natural enemies of domesticated animals that are bred to be eaten". In his 2021 paper ''Our Moral Duty to Eat Meat'' which was published in the ''

Journal of the American Philosophical Association The ''Journal of the American Philosophical Association'', is a peer-reviewed academic journal published quarterly by the American Philosophical Association in partnership with Cambridge University Press. Launched in March 2015, the journal contain ...

'', Zangwill argues that the existence of domesticated animals depends on the practice of eating them, and that meat eating has historically benefitted many millions of animals and given them good lives. Consequently, he claims that eating non-human animal meat is not merely permissible but also good for many millions of animals. However, Zangwill clarifies that this argument does not apply to factory farm animals, as they do not have good lives. Thus, when he speaks of meat eating being justified, he means only meat from animals that overall have a good life. Zangwill has commented that "I think a lot of the domesticated animals lives are a lot better than your average animal lives. They’re waited on by human beings, they don’t have to do much. We get rid of their predators. We provide them food, we provide them even romance."

Philosophy of music

In the 21st century, philosophers such as Zangwill have extended the study of aesthetics in music, as studied in the 20th century by scholars such as

Jerrold Levinson Jerrold Levinson (born 11 July 1948 in Brooklyn) is distinguished university professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is particularly noted for his work on the aesthetics of music, as well as for his search for me ...

and

Peter Kivy Peter Kivy (October 22, 1934 – May 6, 2017James O. Young: In Memoriam Peter Kivy
bi ...

. In his 2015 book on the aesthetics of music titled ''Music and Aesthetic Reality: Formalism and the Limits of Description'', Zangwill introduces his realist position by stating, "By 'realism' about musical experience, I mean a view that foregrounds the ''aesthetic properties'' of music and our experience of these properties: musical experience is an awareness of an array of sounds and of the aesthetic properties that they determine. Our experience is directed onto the sound structure and its aesthetic properties. This is the content of musical experience."Nick Zangwill. ''Music and Aesthetic Reality: Formalism and the Limits of Description''. Page 14. 2015.

Philosophy of mind

Zangwill defends a particular 'weak' version of the idea that the mental is essentially

normative Normative generally means relating to an evaluative standard. Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good, desirable, or permissible, and others as bad, undesirable, or impermissible. A norm in ...

, as well as the anomalism of the mental.

Philosophy of logic

Zangwill defends realism about logic and attacks

inferentialism Inferential role semantics (also conceptual role semantics, functional role semantics, procedural semantics, semantic inferentialism) is an approach to the theory of meaning that identifies the meaning of an expression with its relationship to other ...

Selected publications

* ''The Metaphysics of Beauty'' (Cornell UP, 2001) * ''Aesthetic Creation'' (Oxford UP, 2007) * ''Music and Aesthetic Reality: Formalism and the Limits of Description'' (Routledge, 2015) * ''Scruton's Aesthetics'' (ed., with Andy Hamilton) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)
''Our Moral Duty to Eat Meat''
(''Journal of the American Philosophical Association'', 2021)

References

External links

Prof Nick Zangwill
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zangwill, Nick 1957 births 20th-century British male writers 20th-century British philosophers 20th-century educators 20th-century essayists 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British philosophers 21st-century educators 21st-century essayists Action theorists Alumni of the University of London Analytic philosophers Architectural theoreticians British art critics British art historians British cultural critics British ethicists British literary critics British literary theorists British logicians British male essayists British male non-fiction writers British music theorists Critics of animal rights Critics of veganism Critics of vegetarianism Descartes scholars Epistemologists Hume scholars Kant scholars Literacy and society theorists Living people Mass media theorists Media critics Metaphysicians Moral philosophers Ontologists Philosophers of art Philosophers of culture Philosophers of ethics and morality Philosophers of literature Philosophers of logic Philosophers of mind Philosophers of social science Philosophy academics Philosophers of music Philosophy writers Rationality theorists Social critics Social philosophers Trope theorists