PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH
in Music Education and Music Therapy
I. Doing Philosophy
II. Philosophy in the Context of MEMT
Two Propositions
I.
II.
ALL research is the doing of philosophy
Research seeks to find out “Why”?
All research methodologies have their origins in
philosophy.
Philosophic inquiry is a mode of research in its
own right.
are vehicles we think with.
Like mental lenses they
contribute to how we perceive
phenomena and thus to what we
may see.
Researchers owe much to ideas
and the lenses they provide.
…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
…often reflects a dialectic between:
provisional ideas (hypotheses)
exegetic ideas (theories)
…may also be mediated by
schemata
learned, highly organized, networked
conceptual patterns
that actively create expectations as
they encounter new data
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 researcher’s own cognitive
processing procedures, evaluating
incoming data, both sensory and
mental, for “quality of fit”
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).
We are tempted to assume that we see the world
directly and immediately.
But our insight is always mediated by ideas, concepts
and explanatory constructs... many of which we take for
granted and rarely question.
What’s this picture about?
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.
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?”
Researchers owe much to ideas….
But it’s sometimes difficult to think about ideas
themselves…..
...that is, to think about how we think.
Philosophy is thinking about
how we think.
filosofia
pursuit of wisdom
Doing
Philosophy
loving wisdom
thinking about thinking
Philosophizing today occurs at the intersection of
And:
Doing
Philosophy
Philosophy is different from:
opinion
point of view
preference
ideology
belief
advocacy
Doing
Philosophy
The motivation of philosophy derives
from an uneasiness with the status
quo.
“The opinion of a thousand jackasses is
just that: the opinion of a thousand
jackasses.”
A basic pre-requisite for doing
philosophy:
Doing
Philosophy
An open mind uncluttered in so far as
possible by pre-conceived or predetermined parameters
Basic tools of philosophical research:
Doing
Philosophy
critical reason/logic
language
Three basic procedures in philosophic research:
Doing
Philosophy
Analysis…clarification of thoughts,
concepts, and the meaning of language
Criticism...evaluate basic alternative
modes of life and thought and
formulate choices
Speculation…construct ideal futures
or projections of desirable
experiences
Basic way of doing philosophy:
Doing
Philosophy
argument
“An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a
definite proposition.”
--Monty Python
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y05EmK66Gsk&mode=related&search=
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 couldn’t get past the
clothes.
a complaint/grip, not an argument
The sincerest satisfaction in life comes in doing one’s duty and in being a
dependable person.
a statement of point of view, not an argument
“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 woman’s primary purpose in life and marriage is
to help her husband succeed.” -James Robinson
Elaborated, but unsupported statements of opinion, not
arguments.
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.
GIGO
Doing
Philosophy
In a basic deductive argument if a
premise is false, so is everything else
“Garbage in….
…Garbage out.”
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
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?
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 <.05
4. Much quantitative research grounded in
probability, that is: inductive argument.
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.
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.
Scientific method was born from philosophy
Positivism
Doing
Philosophy
Post-positivism critiques:
feminists
deconstructionists
…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 constructs…philosophers inspect the
architecture of such cognitive units, asking “How do we
know what we know?” and “Why?”
philosophers are all about construct validity.
In MEMT, philosophers may
Philosophy
and MEMT
“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 being…by
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
Please take out your music.
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 Grove’s decided not to have an entry on music).
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 Grove’s Dictionary of
Music and Musicians
Education
Philosophy
and MEMT
• “…the deliberate, systematic, and sustained
effort to transmit or evoke knowledge, attitudes,
values, skills and sensibilities”
--Lawrence A. Cremin
Education
Philosophy
and MEMT
• 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
Education
Philosophy
and MEMT
• Relation to: Training, Enculturation,
Socialization, Schooling, Therapy
Music
Education
Music
Therapy
GENUS
Philosophy
and MEMT
Species
Education through music
Education in music
Music
Education
Therapy through music
Music as therapy
Music
Therapy
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)
Philosophy
and MEMT
All research in MEMT is grounded in
philosophy, be it explicit or implicit
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.
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 . . .
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.”
Suggestions for Reading:
Introduction to Philosophy
Suggestions for Reading:
Introduction to Philosophy of Music
Suggestions for Reading:
Introduction to Philosophy of Music Education
Philosophy
and MEMT