Philosophy of music has flourished in the last thirty years, with great advances made in the understanding of the nature of music and its aesthetics. Peter Kivy has been at the center of this flourishing, and now offers his personal introduction to philosophy of music, a clear and lively explanation of how he sees the most important and interesting philosophical issues relating to music. Anyone interested in music will find this a stimulating introduction to some fascinating questions and ideas.

Peter Kivy is Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, at Rutgers University. He is the author of numerous books and articles on aesthetics and philosophy of art, including De Gustibus: Arguing About Taste and Why We Do It (OUP, 2015), Music Alone: Philosophical Reflections on the Purely Musical Experience (Cornell UP, 2009), The Blackwell Guide to Aesthetics (2004) and Antithetical Arts: On the Ancient Quarrel Between Literature and Music (OUP, 2009). Several of his books have been translated into Chinese, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. He is a former Guggenheim Fellow and a past President of the American Society for Aesthetics.

• Preface


• 1: Philosophy of...


• 2: A Little History


• 3: Emotions in the Music


• 4: A Little More History


• 5: Formalism


• 6: Enhanced Formalism


• 7: The Emotions in You


• 8: Foes of Formalism


• 9: First the Words: Then the Music


• 10: Words without Songs


• 11: The Work


• 12: And the Performace Thereof


• 13: Why Should you Listen?


• Readings and References, Index