Music, Essential Metaphor, And Private Language by Nick Zangwill, American Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 48, Number 1, January 2011.
Abstract:
Music is elusive. describing it is problematic. In particular its aesthetic properties cannot be captured in literal description. Beyond very simple terms, they cannot be literally described. In this sense, the aesthetic description of music is essentially nonliteral. An adequate aesthetic description of music must have resort to metaphor or other nonliteral devices. I maintain that this is because of the nature of the aesthetic properties being described. I defend this view against an apparently simple objection put by Malcolm Budd. dealing with this objection will take us into some surprising terrain. We are led to consider issues concerning privacy and the language for describing sensations. In the light of these considerations, I develop the essentially nonliteralist thesis and explore some of its consequences. (emphasis in original)
Zangwill’s article is a good reminder that there are very large areas of human experience that are not amenable to the “Just the facts, Ma’am” type approach. Music being one. Would you believe medicine is another? Zangwill says:
It might seem strange to hold that there is part of reality that cannot be literally described. Is that not an obscure and mystical view? If aesthetic properties are there in the world, surely we should be able to describe them in literal terms, at least in principle. But the idea of a literally indescribable reality is not unfamiliar. If we want to describe tastes, smells, and inner sensations, we will, beyond very simple descriptions, be forced to describe them nonliterally. Indeed, part of the training of doctors is to elicit and interpret metaphorical descriptions of pain, with a view to diagnosis. Nonliteral description is inescapable and irreplaceable in such cases. The same is true in the description of music.
I would add physical sensations, relationships with others, our experiencing of events, etc.
The interesting bits of our lives aren’t describable other than by metaphor.
If you think about it, literal descriptions offer an impoverished view on the world.
One that excludes what is unique to us, our metaphors.
PS: You may also enjoy other papers at Nick Zangwill’s homepage, particularly the one on Negative Properties.
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