Filozofia Muzyki Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

In his article ‘Against Emotion: Hanslick Was Right About Music’ (British Journal of Aesthetics, 2004), Nick Zangwill claims that ‘Music, in itself, has nothing to do with emotion’, ascribing this claim also to Eduard Hanslick. Zangwill thereby adheres to the standard view of Hanslick as a representative of extreme formalism.
In my paper I will try to show that, although formulating radical and extreme theses, Zangwill seems to be challenging views that hardly anyone holds, since he immediately declares: ‘My targets here are restricted to what I call “literalist” theories, which invoke the existence of genuine emotion.’ However, the literalist theories postulating that it is essential to music that it express or represent the genuine emotions of the artist or arouse genuine emotions in the listener are widely considered – not without good reason – to be naive and unsound. Consequently, Zangwill seems to be arguing against a straw man. It is less important, therefore, that at least some of his arguments seem also to be con-fused and defective, as I will try to demonstrate.
Finally, one may ask whether any justification for Zangwill’s radical thesis – which he himself fails to provide – can be found in Hanslick, whom Zangwill invokes. In the conclusion of my paper, I will show that the widespread interpretation of Hanslick as an extreme formalist (shared by Malcolm Budd, Peter Kivy, Stephen Davies and many others) is wrong. Not only does Zangwill’s thesis find no support in Hanslick, but in fact the latter sees the emotional content of music as a relatively important element of it, contrary to what Zangwill believes.
Keywords: philosophy of music, emotions, formalism, Nick Zangwill, Eduard Hanslick, expression