Arnold Cusmariu - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Arnold Cusmariu
Symposion, 2016
An epistemology of art has seemed problematic mainly because of arguments claiming that an essent... more An epistemology of art has seemed problematic mainly because of arguments claiming that an essential element of a theory of knowledge, truth, has no place in aesthetic contexts. For, if it is objectively true that something is beautiful, it seems to follow that the predicate "is beautiful" expresses a property-a view asserted by Plato but denied by Hume and Kant. But then, if the belief that something is beautiful is not objectively true, we cannot be said to know that something is beautiful and the path to an epistemology of art is effectively blocked. The article places the existence aesthetic properties in the proper context; presents a logically correct argument for the existence of such properties; identifies strategies for responding to this argument; explains why objections by Hume, Kant, and several other philosophers fail; and sketches a realization account of beauty influenced by Hogarth.
Symposion, 2021
The Cogito formulation in Discourse on Method attributes properties to one conceptual category th... more The Cogito formulation in Discourse on Method attributes properties to one conceptual category that belong to another. Correcting the error ends up defeating Descartes' response to skepticism. His own creation, the Evil Genius, is to blame.
Academia Letters, 2021
Serious logic problems beset Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy i... more Serious logic problems beset Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. I suggest solutions to some of the problems I found.
Logos & Episteme, 2016
Definitions I presented in a previous article as part of a semantic approach in epistemology assu... more Definitions I presented in a previous article as part of a semantic approach in epistemology assumed that the concept of derivability from standard logic held across all mathematical and scientific disciplines. The present article argues that this assumption is not true for quantum mechanics (QM) by showing that concepts of validity applicable to proofs in mathematics and in classical mechanics are inapplicable to proofs in QM. Because semantic epistemology must include this important theory, revision is necessary. The one I propose also extends semantic epistemology beyond the 'hard' sciences. The article ends by presenting and then refuting some responses QM theorists might make to my arguments.
Academia Letters, 2021
How Innovative Was Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon? 1 Background Completed in 1907 when Picasso w... more How Innovative Was Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon? 1 Background Completed in 1907 when Picasso was 26, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (LDA) 2 was exhibited publicly for the first time in 1916 at Galerie Barbazanges. Jacques Doucet purchased it from Picasso in 1924 for his Neuilly home. Future Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) director Alfred H. Barr, Jr., saw it there in 1935 and persuaded MOMA founder and director A. Conger Goodyear to acquire it, who did so in December 1937 from Germain Seligmann, who got it from the Doucet estate. LDA went on display at the MOMA in 1939 and has been there ever since as one of the museum's star attractions. Off to a Rocky Start Picasso contemporaries Matisse, Braque and Derain had harsh words for LDA, as did art critics Frank Gelett Burgess and Félix Fénéon. Gertrude Stein's brother Leo unloaded decades later. One of my goals is to explain why they and others overreacted.
Academia Letters, 2021
Statistics attributing mortality to the COVID-19 virus as a cause or causally contributing factor... more Statistics attributing mortality to the COVID-19 virus as a cause or causally contributing factor presuppose adequate answers to the following questions: 1. What causality concepts were used to generate COVID-19 mortality statistics and what do those concepts mean? 2. Were COVID-19 mortality statistics compiled using equivalent applicable meanings of "cause" or "causally contributing factor"? 3. How is it to be determined whether COVID-19 mortality statistics were compiled using equivalent applicable meanings of "cause" or "causally contributing factor"? 4. If the answer to question 2 is "no," "not entirely" or "not sure," what should be inferred about the validity of COVID-19 mortality statistics? 5. If there is no practical way of answering question 3, what should be inferred about the validity of COVID-19 mortality statistics? This article provides a measure of clarity from a philosophical point of view regarding question 1, the generalized version of which, "what is causality?" has been with us since Aristotle. Conceptual clarity-one of the goals of analytic philosophy-is especially critical now because statistical data have been used to estimate the seriousness of COVID-19 as a threat to public health, project the virus' likely course and impact, and implement measures intended to cope with it such as lockdowns, social distancing, masking and vaccination. Question 2 raises an issue of methodology that comes up routinely any time data sets from a variety of sources are aggregated to provide an overview of a situation, across countries or
Academia Letters, 2021
Launched in 2009 by state governors and commissioners of education, Common Core State Standards w... more Launched in 2009 by state governors and commissioners of education, Common Core State Standards were intended to "… provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy." This article will focus on concepts related to logic in Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CM) and ask: • Does the CM document provide mathematics students "a consistent, clear understanding" of basic concepts of logic? • Does the CM document provide logic-related "knowledge and skills" mathematics students will need "for success in college and careers"?
Academia Letters, 2021
People who don't listen to classical music might still know, or think they know, that Beethoven's... more People who don't listen to classical music might still know, or think they know, that Beethoven's Fifth Symphony starts with "dum-dum-dum-duuum." Right? Well, as the gorgeous Brooke Burns exclaims on The Chase when "The Beast" messes up, "That is wrong!" Have a look at the score, available online. Aha! This famous music starts with … silence, a quarter-note pause. There is a reason the Fifth starts that way. In Beethoven, there is a reason for everything, which has kept musicologists, critics, and music teachers busy for some 200 years. In my view, the Fifth starts with silence because Beethoven sought to express a divine act in musical terms: creation ex nihilo. Try that one on for size, Chuck Berry (Paul McCartney, Elton John, Mick Jagger …) The Fifth Symphony is by no means the only work in which Beethoven creates music seemingly out of nothing. Two other famous examples are the opening of the second movement of the String Quartet Opus 59 #1, whose first three bars are a monotonous rhythm in the cello, acting as a foil for what happens later; and the opening of the Ninth Symphony, which are hushed tones, barely audible, coming not from the orchestra on stage but somewhere far away. Bruckner began his symphonies the same way. There's absolutely nothing Beethoven couldn't express in musical terms-just as there's nothing Shakespeare couldn't express in words. There's no emotion that hasn't found its way somewhere in Beethoven's music. Often, movements of the same work express utterly different, even contradictory emotions. Within a single movement, emotive content shifts in rapid succession. The listener must work to keep up. "Ah, but Arnold" a friend asked once, "could Beethoven have written rock music?" I answered, "of course," on the argument that, as far as musical ability is concerned, there is nothing the Bonn master couldn't do. He had composed nine symphonies, sixteen string quar
Symposion, 2017
Degas, Manet, Picasso, Dali and Lipchitz produced works of art exemplifying a seeming impossibili... more Degas, Manet, Picasso, Dali and Lipchitz produced works of art exemplifying a seeming impossibility: Not only combining incompatible attributes but doing so consistently with aesthetic strictures Horace formulated in Ars Poetica. The article explains how these artists were able to do this, achieving what some critics have called 'a new art,' 'a miracle,' and 'a new metaphor.' The article also argues that the author achieved the same result in sculpture by means of philosophical analysis-probably a first in the history of art.
Symposion, 2017
Following up on its predecessor in this Journal, the article defends philosophy as a guide to mak... more Following up on its predecessor in this Journal, the article defends philosophy as a guide to making and analyzing art; identifies Cubist solutions to the Prometheus Challenge, including a novel analysis of Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon; defines a new concept of aesthetic attitude; proves the compatibility of Prometheus Challenge artworks with logic; and explains why Plato would have welcomed such artworks in his ideal state.
Film International, 2015
Explores themes in Carole Bouquet's cinematic output that raise philosophical issues at the inter... more Explores themes in Carole Bouquet's cinematic output that raise philosophical issues at the intersection of ethics, culture, and society.
Definitions I presented in a previous article as part of a semantic approach in epistemology assu... more Definitions I presented in a previous article as part of a semantic approach in epistemology assumed that the concept of derivability from standard logic held across all mathematical and scientific disciplines. The present article argues that this assumption is not true for quantum mechanics (QM) by showing that concepts of validity applicable to proofs in mathematics and in classical mechanics are inapplicable to proofs in QM. Because semantic epistemology must include this important theory, revision is necessary. The one I propose also extends semantic epistemology beyond the 'hard' sciences. The article ends by presenting and then refuting some responses QM theorists might make to my arguments.
Mathematics textbooks teach logical reasoning by example, a practice started by Euclid; while log... more Mathematics textbooks teach logical reasoning by example, a practice started by Euclid; while logic textbooks treat logic as a subject in its own right without practical application to mathematics. Stuck in the middle are students seeking mathematical proficiency and educators seeking to provide it. To assist them, the article explains in practical detail how to teach logic-based skills such as: making mathematical reasoning fully explicit; moving from step to step in a mathematical proof in logically correct ways; and checking to make sure inferences are logically correct. The methodology can easily be extended beyond the four examples analyzed.
Professor Malcolm's definition of factual memory is that S remembers that p from time tiff S know... more Professor Malcolm's definition of factual memory is that S remembers that p from time tiff S knows that p now, S knew that p at t, and if S hadn't known that p at t, he wouldn't know that p now: To the objection that this defmi-tion is too narrow, since it rules out such cases as remembering that I saw a cardinal last week though I learned only later how to identify cardinals, he replies that these are cases of impure memory in which factual memory is mixed with later knowledge or inference, hence were not meant to fall under the definition) He suggests that the analysis of such cases follows this pattern: a (1) S remembers impurely that he saw a cardinal iffS remembers that he saw this bird (or: bird of this kind) and now he knows it was a cardinal. Eric Stiffler objects that tiffs analysis misconstrues both the logical form of impure memory and the nature of one of its main ingredients: The correct analysis, he claims, reveals that such memory is not a conjunction but an exis-tential generalization, and involves not factual memory but memory (and knowledge) de re. His analysis is: s (2) S remembers impurely that he saw a cardinal iff (3x)(x is a bird & S remembers that he saw x & now S knows that x was a cardinal .) This must be the correct analysis, he argues, because we need to preserve the proper link between later knowledge and earlier memory: later knowledge must be applied to earlier memory to yield impure memory, a requirement Malcolm's analysis can satisfy, it seems, only by quantifying into a proposi-tional attitude context: However, once the problem of application here is correctly understood, Malcolm can solve it easily within the confines of his original conjunctive, de
Symposion, 2016
An epistemology of art has seemed problematic mainly because of arguments claiming that an essent... more An epistemology of art has seemed problematic mainly because of arguments claiming that an essential element of a theory of knowledge, truth, has no place in aesthetic contexts. For, if it is objectively true that something is beautiful, it seems to follow that the predicate "is beautiful" expresses a property-a view asserted by Plato but denied by Hume and Kant. But then, if the belief that something is beautiful is not objectively true, we cannot be said to know that something is beautiful and the path to an epistemology of art is effectively blocked. The article places the existence aesthetic properties in the proper context; presents a logically correct argument for the existence of such properties; identifies strategies for responding to this argument; explains why objections by Hume, Kant, and several other philosophers fail; and sketches a realization account of beauty influenced by Hogarth.
Symposion, 2021
The Cogito formulation in Discourse on Method attributes properties to one conceptual category th... more The Cogito formulation in Discourse on Method attributes properties to one conceptual category that belong to another. Correcting the error ends up defeating Descartes' response to skepticism. His own creation, the Evil Genius, is to blame.
Academia Letters, 2021
Serious logic problems beset Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy i... more Serious logic problems beset Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. I suggest solutions to some of the problems I found.
Logos & Episteme, 2016
Definitions I presented in a previous article as part of a semantic approach in epistemology assu... more Definitions I presented in a previous article as part of a semantic approach in epistemology assumed that the concept of derivability from standard logic held across all mathematical and scientific disciplines. The present article argues that this assumption is not true for quantum mechanics (QM) by showing that concepts of validity applicable to proofs in mathematics and in classical mechanics are inapplicable to proofs in QM. Because semantic epistemology must include this important theory, revision is necessary. The one I propose also extends semantic epistemology beyond the 'hard' sciences. The article ends by presenting and then refuting some responses QM theorists might make to my arguments.
Academia Letters, 2021
How Innovative Was Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon? 1 Background Completed in 1907 when Picasso w... more How Innovative Was Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon? 1 Background Completed in 1907 when Picasso was 26, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (LDA) 2 was exhibited publicly for the first time in 1916 at Galerie Barbazanges. Jacques Doucet purchased it from Picasso in 1924 for his Neuilly home. Future Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) director Alfred H. Barr, Jr., saw it there in 1935 and persuaded MOMA founder and director A. Conger Goodyear to acquire it, who did so in December 1937 from Germain Seligmann, who got it from the Doucet estate. LDA went on display at the MOMA in 1939 and has been there ever since as one of the museum's star attractions. Off to a Rocky Start Picasso contemporaries Matisse, Braque and Derain had harsh words for LDA, as did art critics Frank Gelett Burgess and Félix Fénéon. Gertrude Stein's brother Leo unloaded decades later. One of my goals is to explain why they and others overreacted.
Academia Letters, 2021
Statistics attributing mortality to the COVID-19 virus as a cause or causally contributing factor... more Statistics attributing mortality to the COVID-19 virus as a cause or causally contributing factor presuppose adequate answers to the following questions: 1. What causality concepts were used to generate COVID-19 mortality statistics and what do those concepts mean? 2. Were COVID-19 mortality statistics compiled using equivalent applicable meanings of "cause" or "causally contributing factor"? 3. How is it to be determined whether COVID-19 mortality statistics were compiled using equivalent applicable meanings of "cause" or "causally contributing factor"? 4. If the answer to question 2 is "no," "not entirely" or "not sure," what should be inferred about the validity of COVID-19 mortality statistics? 5. If there is no practical way of answering question 3, what should be inferred about the validity of COVID-19 mortality statistics? This article provides a measure of clarity from a philosophical point of view regarding question 1, the generalized version of which, "what is causality?" has been with us since Aristotle. Conceptual clarity-one of the goals of analytic philosophy-is especially critical now because statistical data have been used to estimate the seriousness of COVID-19 as a threat to public health, project the virus' likely course and impact, and implement measures intended to cope with it such as lockdowns, social distancing, masking and vaccination. Question 2 raises an issue of methodology that comes up routinely any time data sets from a variety of sources are aggregated to provide an overview of a situation, across countries or
Academia Letters, 2021
Launched in 2009 by state governors and commissioners of education, Common Core State Standards w... more Launched in 2009 by state governors and commissioners of education, Common Core State Standards were intended to "… provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy." This article will focus on concepts related to logic in Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CM) and ask: • Does the CM document provide mathematics students "a consistent, clear understanding" of basic concepts of logic? • Does the CM document provide logic-related "knowledge and skills" mathematics students will need "for success in college and careers"?
Academia Letters, 2021
People who don't listen to classical music might still know, or think they know, that Beethoven's... more People who don't listen to classical music might still know, or think they know, that Beethoven's Fifth Symphony starts with "dum-dum-dum-duuum." Right? Well, as the gorgeous Brooke Burns exclaims on The Chase when "The Beast" messes up, "That is wrong!" Have a look at the score, available online. Aha! This famous music starts with … silence, a quarter-note pause. There is a reason the Fifth starts that way. In Beethoven, there is a reason for everything, which has kept musicologists, critics, and music teachers busy for some 200 years. In my view, the Fifth starts with silence because Beethoven sought to express a divine act in musical terms: creation ex nihilo. Try that one on for size, Chuck Berry (Paul McCartney, Elton John, Mick Jagger …) The Fifth Symphony is by no means the only work in which Beethoven creates music seemingly out of nothing. Two other famous examples are the opening of the second movement of the String Quartet Opus 59 #1, whose first three bars are a monotonous rhythm in the cello, acting as a foil for what happens later; and the opening of the Ninth Symphony, which are hushed tones, barely audible, coming not from the orchestra on stage but somewhere far away. Bruckner began his symphonies the same way. There's absolutely nothing Beethoven couldn't express in musical terms-just as there's nothing Shakespeare couldn't express in words. There's no emotion that hasn't found its way somewhere in Beethoven's music. Often, movements of the same work express utterly different, even contradictory emotions. Within a single movement, emotive content shifts in rapid succession. The listener must work to keep up. "Ah, but Arnold" a friend asked once, "could Beethoven have written rock music?" I answered, "of course," on the argument that, as far as musical ability is concerned, there is nothing the Bonn master couldn't do. He had composed nine symphonies, sixteen string quar
Symposion, 2017
Degas, Manet, Picasso, Dali and Lipchitz produced works of art exemplifying a seeming impossibili... more Degas, Manet, Picasso, Dali and Lipchitz produced works of art exemplifying a seeming impossibility: Not only combining incompatible attributes but doing so consistently with aesthetic strictures Horace formulated in Ars Poetica. The article explains how these artists were able to do this, achieving what some critics have called 'a new art,' 'a miracle,' and 'a new metaphor.' The article also argues that the author achieved the same result in sculpture by means of philosophical analysis-probably a first in the history of art.
Symposion, 2017
Following up on its predecessor in this Journal, the article defends philosophy as a guide to mak... more Following up on its predecessor in this Journal, the article defends philosophy as a guide to making and analyzing art; identifies Cubist solutions to the Prometheus Challenge, including a novel analysis of Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon; defines a new concept of aesthetic attitude; proves the compatibility of Prometheus Challenge artworks with logic; and explains why Plato would have welcomed such artworks in his ideal state.
Film International, 2015
Explores themes in Carole Bouquet's cinematic output that raise philosophical issues at the inter... more Explores themes in Carole Bouquet's cinematic output that raise philosophical issues at the intersection of ethics, culture, and society.
Definitions I presented in a previous article as part of a semantic approach in epistemology assu... more Definitions I presented in a previous article as part of a semantic approach in epistemology assumed that the concept of derivability from standard logic held across all mathematical and scientific disciplines. The present article argues that this assumption is not true for quantum mechanics (QM) by showing that concepts of validity applicable to proofs in mathematics and in classical mechanics are inapplicable to proofs in QM. Because semantic epistemology must include this important theory, revision is necessary. The one I propose also extends semantic epistemology beyond the 'hard' sciences. The article ends by presenting and then refuting some responses QM theorists might make to my arguments.
Mathematics textbooks teach logical reasoning by example, a practice started by Euclid; while log... more Mathematics textbooks teach logical reasoning by example, a practice started by Euclid; while logic textbooks treat logic as a subject in its own right without practical application to mathematics. Stuck in the middle are students seeking mathematical proficiency and educators seeking to provide it. To assist them, the article explains in practical detail how to teach logic-based skills such as: making mathematical reasoning fully explicit; moving from step to step in a mathematical proof in logically correct ways; and checking to make sure inferences are logically correct. The methodology can easily be extended beyond the four examples analyzed.
Professor Malcolm's definition of factual memory is that S remembers that p from time tiff S know... more Professor Malcolm's definition of factual memory is that S remembers that p from time tiff S knows that p now, S knew that p at t, and if S hadn't known that p at t, he wouldn't know that p now: To the objection that this defmi-tion is too narrow, since it rules out such cases as remembering that I saw a cardinal last week though I learned only later how to identify cardinals, he replies that these are cases of impure memory in which factual memory is mixed with later knowledge or inference, hence were not meant to fall under the definition) He suggests that the analysis of such cases follows this pattern: a (1) S remembers impurely that he saw a cardinal iffS remembers that he saw this bird (or: bird of this kind) and now he knows it was a cardinal. Eric Stiffler objects that tiffs analysis misconstrues both the logical form of impure memory and the nature of one of its main ingredients: The correct analysis, he claims, reveals that such memory is not a conjunction but an exis-tential generalization, and involves not factual memory but memory (and knowledge) de re. His analysis is: s (2) S remembers impurely that he saw a cardinal iff (3x)(x is a bird & S remembers that he saw x & now S knows that x was a cardinal .) This must be the correct analysis, he argues, because we need to preserve the proper link between later knowledge and earlier memory: later knowledge must be applied to earlier memory to yield impure memory, a requirement Malcolm's analysis can satisfy, it seems, only by quantifying into a proposi-tional attitude context: However, once the problem of application here is correctly understood, Malcolm can solve it easily within the confines of his original conjunctive, de