Imagination Music and the Emotions: A Philosophical Study

Both musicians and laypersons can perceive purely instrumental music without words or an associated story or program as expressing emotions such as happiness and sadness. But how? In this book, Saam Trivedi discusses and critiques the leading philosophical approaches to this question, including formalism, metaphorism, expression theories, arousalism, resemblance theories, and persona theories. Finding these to be inadequate, he advocates an”imaginationist”� solution, by which absolute music is not really or literally sad but is only imagined to be so in a variety of ways. In particular, he argues that we as listeners animate the music ourselves, imaginatively projecting life and mental states onto it. Bolstering his argument with empirical data from studies in neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive science, Trivedi also addresses and explores larger philosophical questions such as the nature of emotions, metaphors, and imagination. Additional ISBNs1438467176, 1438467168, 9781438467177, 9781438467160Imagination, Music, and the Emotions: A Philosophical Study is written by Saam Trivedi and published by Suny Press. ISBNs for Imagination, Music, and the Emotions are 9781438467184, 1438467184 and the print ISBNs are 9781438467177, 1438467176. Additional ISBNs include 1438467176, 1438467168, 9781438467177, 9781438467160.