Jerrold Levinson
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Jerrold Levinson (born 11 July 1948 in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
) is
distinguished university professor Professors in the United States commonly occupy any of several positions of teaching and research within a college or university. In the U.S., the word "professor" informally refers collectively to the academic ranks of assistant professor, asso ...
of
philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
at the
University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...
. He is particularly noted for his work on the
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 ...
of
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
, as well as for his search for meaning and
ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...
in
film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
,
art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
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 land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
, where he gained a
BS Degree A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
in Philosophy and Chemistry in 1969. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy at the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
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 Kendall Lewis Walton (born 1939) is an American philosopher, the Emeritus Charles Stevenson Collegiate Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Art and Design at the University of Michigan. His work mainly deals with theoretical questions about ...
. During 1974–1975, he was visiting assistant professor at
SUNY Albany The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...
. 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 has also been visiting professor at other US institutes, including the
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
and
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. 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-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
and
University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...
), New Zealand (
University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...
), France ( Université de Rennes), Belgium ( Université Libre de Bruxelles), Portugal (
Universidade de Lisboa The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, t ...
) and Switzerland ( Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana). During 2010-2011 he held an International Francqui Chair at the
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...
(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's interest in the aesthetics of music led to an examination of musical ontology from a historical-contextual perspective, and of performance with an emphasis on performing means. He has posited theories of evaluating music and has considered the legitimacy of emotional response in musical appreciation. Within his study of performance he has also examined the distinctness of performing and critical interpretation.The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by S. Sadie & J. Tyrell, 2nd ed., London, 2001

/ref> 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 Austrians, Austrian-British people, British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy o ...
's ideas on the 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 abs ...
.


Bibliography

Books: University of Maryland: Department of Philosophy
/ref> * ''Music, Art, and Metaphysics'', Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1990; 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011. * ''The Pleasures of Aesthetics'', Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1996. * ''Music in the Moment'', Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1998. * ''Aesthetics and Ethics'', ed., Cambridge UP, 1998. * ''Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics'', ed., Oxford UP, 2003. * ''Contemplating Art'', Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. * ''Musical Concerns'', Oxford: Oxford UP, 2015. * ''Aesthetic Pursuits'', Oxford: Oxford UP, 2016. Articles/papers:Search
JSTOR JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...
* "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 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