PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH

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PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH
in Music Education and Music Therapy
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I. Doing Philosophy
II. Philosophy in the Context of MEMT
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Two Propositions

• ALL research is the doing of philosophy
• Research seeks to find out Why?
• All research methodologies have their origins
  in philosophy.

II. Philosophic inquiry is a mode of research in
its own right.
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are vehicles we think with.
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Like mental lenses they contribute to how we
perceive phenomena and thus to what we may see.
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Researchers owe much to ideas and the lenses they
provide.
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a process of systematic inquiry by which data
are gathered, analyzed, and interpreted in ways
that contribute to the development of knowledge.
.an unusually stubborn, persistent effort to
think straight by intelligently gathering and
analyzing data
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often reflects a dialectic between
provisional ideas (hypotheses)
exegetic ideas (theories)
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may also be mediated by
schemata
learned, highly organized, networked conceptual
patterns
that actively create expectations as they
encounter new data
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Explanatory Constructs
larger configurations of cognition, such as
schemata and theories
theories are more passive mental data
intentionally manipulated by thought
schemata are more actively a part of a
researchers own cognitive processing procedures,
evaluating incoming data, both sensory and
mental, for quality of fit
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Neurobiologist Arthur Damasio (2003) uses a story
by G.K. Chesterton to illustrate this point A
much foretold murder was committed inside a house
while four people stood guard and closely watched
who was coming and going from the house. That
this fully expected murder came to pass was not a
puzzle. The puzzle was that the victim was alone
and the four observers were adamant No one had
gone in or out of the house. But this was quite
false The postman had gone into the house, done
the deed, and left the house in plain view. He
had even left unhurried footprints in the snow.
Of course, everyone had looked at the postman,
and yet all claimed not to have seen him. He
simply did not fit the theory they had formulated
for the identity of the possible murderer. They
were looking but not seeing (pp. 190-191).
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We are tempted to assume that we see the world
directly and immediately.
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But our insight is always mediated by ideas,
concepts and explanatory constructs... many of
which we take for granted and rarely question.
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Whats this picture about?
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Most of us would likely respond something like
life on a farm or barnyard. We see the
picture and our previously accepted ideas about
barns and farms are automatically activated.
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By relying solely on those stored frameworks,
however, we may jump to a conclusion or cognitive
commitment that precludes us from entertaining
other thoughts or ideas.
such as Why is this electric mixer in the
barnyard?
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Researchers owe much to ideas.
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But its sometimes difficult to think about ideas
themselves..
...that is, to think about how we think.
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Philosophy is thinking about how we think.
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filosofia
pursuit of wisdom
loving wisdom
Doing Philosophy
thinking about thinking
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Philosophizing today occurs at the intersection of
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And
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Doing Philosophy
Philosophy is different from
opinion
point of view
preference
ideology
belief
advocacy
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The motivation of philosophy derives from an
uneasiness with the status quo.
Doing Philosophy
The opinion of a thousand jackasses is just
that the opinion of a thousand jackasses.
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A basic pre-requisite for doing philosophy
Doing Philosophy
An open mind uncluttered in so far as possible by
pre-conceived or pre-determined parameters
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Basic tools of philosophical research
critical reason/logic
Doing Philosophy
language
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Three basic procedures in philosophic research
Analysisclarification of thoughts, concepts, and
the meaning of language
Doing Philosophy
Criticism...evaluate basic alternative modes of
life and thought and formulate choices
Speculationconstruct ideal futures or
projections of desirable experiences
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Basic way of doing philosophy
argument
Doing Philosophy
An argument is a connected series of statements
intended to establish a definite
proposition. --Monty Python
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vy05EmK66Gskmodere
latedsearch
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Arguments and Non-Arguments

Every scene of this movie was filled with
excitement for me. I particularly liked the
action scenes on the river.
Doing Philosophy
expression of support/enthusiasm, not an argument
I spent five hundred dollars to take this course
and the professor appeared in blue jeans and tee
shirt, which I consider bad taste. He may have
known what he was talking about, but I couldnt
get past the clothes.
a complaint/grip, not an argument
The sincerest satisfaction in life comes in doing
ones duty and in being a dependable person.
a statement of point of view, not an argument
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He that hath wife and children hath given
hostages to fortune for they are impediments to
great enterprise, either of virtue or mischief.
-Francis Bacon
Doing Philosophy
Women have great strengths, but they are
strengths to help the man. A womans primary
purpose in life and marriage is to help her
husband succeed. -James Robinson
Elaborated, but unsupported statements of
opinion, not arguments.
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Basic ingredients of an argument
Proposition (statement or assertion that is
either true or false)
Doing Philosophy
A proposition can be either a premise, or a
conclusion.
A first step toward understanding arguments is
learning to identify premises and conclusions.
Unfortunately, they are not always explicit.
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GIGO
Doing Philosophy
In a basic deductive argument if a premise is
false, so is everything else
Garbage in.
Garbage out.
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Validity and Soundness of Arguments

An argument is valid if its conclusions follow
necessarily from its premises.
A sound argument has true premises and true
conclusions.
All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Socrates
is mortal.
Doing Philosophy
premises are true, inference is valid this
argument is both valid and sound
All cats are animals. All pigs are animals. All
pigs are cats.
premises are true, but improper inference not a
sound argument
All movie stars live in Hollywood. Robert Redford
is a movie star. Therefore Robert Redford lives
in Hollywood.
false premise, but valid reasoning
a valid argument, but not a sound argument
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Primary ways to examine/take issue with deductive
arguments 1. Is there indeed an
argument? 2. Does conclusion necessarily
follow from premises? Is this the only logical
conclusion possible from these premises? 3. Are
the premises indeed true?
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Inductive Arguments 1. Reason from the
particular to the general 2. Evaluated in
terms of inductive force or probability rather
than soundness per se. 3. p lt.05 4. Much
quantitative research grounded in probability,
that is inductive argument.
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Philosophy pervades all research.
The purpose of this study is...
Doing Philosophy
To that end, the following research questions
were designed for this study
Sometimes said that only numbers (quantitative
research) delivers objectivity.
Yet, such numbers relate to a premise. Statistics
test premises, they do not generate them.
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Philosophy is both a body of knowledge (history
of ideas) and an ongoing, systematic method of
inquiry
Doing Philosophy
Engagement with both relies essentially upon
argument.
By means of analyses based on arguments,
philosophers can do experiments thought
experiments, where variables are manipulated in
imagination rather than in laboratories or in
field work.
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Scientific method was born from philosophy
Positivism
Doing Philosophy
Post-positivism critiques
feminists
deconstructionists
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a process of systematic inquiry by which data
are gathered, analyzed, and interpreted in ways
that contribute to the development of knowledge.
the data for philosophical research are ideas,
concepts, and explanatory constructsphilosophers
inspect the architecture of such cognitive units,
asking How do we know what we know? and Why?
philosophers are all about construct validity.
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In MEMT, philosophers may
challenge... the validity of extant ideas and
practices. They systematically ask whether these
ideas and practices are well grounded. They
bypass the peripheral and trivial issues, going
to the core of why things are as they seem to be
and where they seem to be going. As such, they
address central questions relating to music
education and challenge its very reason for
beingby clarifying terms, exposing and
evaluating assumptions, and developing systematic
bodies of thought that connect with other ideas
in respect to a wide range of issues touching on
music education. --Estelle Jorgensen
Philosophy and MEMT
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Please take out your music.
Philosophy and MEMT
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Music

Philosophy and MEMT
For music, despite the saw about its being an
international language, is many things to many
people, places, and times.
--James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, Sunday,
January 22, 2001, p 30 Arts Leisure (on why the
1980 edition of Groves decided not to have an
entry on music).
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Music

Philosophy and MEMT
We could find no one person who could have
written on music and the changing significance
of the term through the ages.
--Stanley Sadie, Editor of The New Groves
Dictionary of Music and Musicians
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Education

• the deliberate, systematic, and sustained
  effort to transmit or evoke knowledge, attitudes,
  values, skills and sensibilities
• --Lawrence A. Cremin

Philosophy and MEMT
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Education

• Involves configurations of education, e.g.
  family, church, school, community
• Can involve shifting configurations figurations
  over time, and the impact of one pedagogy upon
  another
• The philosophy of education is not simply a
  philosophy of institutional schooling

Philosophy and MEMT
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Education

• Relation to Training, Enculturation,
  Socialization, Schooling, Therapy

Philosophy and MEMT
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Education
Music
Therapy
Music
GENUS
Philosophy and MEMT
Species
Education through music
Education in music
Music Education
Therapy through music
Music as therapy
Music Therapy
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Music Education

Philosophy and MEMT
Should music education be part of the School of
Education or the School of Fine Arts?
History of Ideas
Music as science (quadrivium)
Music as art (trivium)
Music as fine art (aesthetics)
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All research in MEMT is grounded in philosophy,
be it explicit or implicit
Philosophy and MEMT
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An Example Explicit Group Teaching and
Associated Choral Sound Assumptions
Approaches to choral pedagogy based on
characteristics of the individual voice tend
simply to transfer those particular
characteristics to the group as a whole. A
conductor works with an ensemble much like a
voice teacher works with a single student in a
studio.
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The fundamental assumption here is that the whole
(in this case the Choir and its sound) is simply
the sum of its constituent parts (i.e., the
individual human voices that comprise the
Choir).
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Choir
Yet, empirical research demonstrates that solo
singing and choral singing are two distinct modes
of phonation, i.e., people phonate differently in
choirs than they do as soloists and that
acoustic properties of choral sound are different
than those of individual sound.
Canons of logic call this kind of faulty
reasoning the . . .
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Fallacy of Composition

• Trying to apply what is true of an individual to
  the group as a whole
• Assuming that characteristics of the parts
  transfer to the characteristics of the whole made
  up of those parts
• The whole is simply the sum of its parts.
  Example Each part of this machine is light
  therefore, this must be a very light machine.

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Suggestions for Reading
Introduction to Philosophy
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Suggestions for Reading
Introduction to Philosophy of Music
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Suggestions for Reading
Introduction to Philosophy of Music Education
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Philosophy and MEMT