Single Idea 12166

[catalogued under 21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 5. Art as Language]

Full Idea

If a passage carries a reference to love, we are not told what it says about love. And to speak of language with 'reference' but no predication is simply to misuse the word. We leave the realm of representation and enter that of expression.

Gist of Idea

If music refers to love, it contains no predication, so it is expression, not language

Source

Roger Scruton (Representation in Music [1976], p.63-4)

Book Reference

Scruton,Roger: 'The Aesthetic Understanding' [Methuen 1983], p.63


A Reaction

This is a beautifully simple objection to the idea (associated with Nelson Goodman) that art is a language. Though what an 'expression' of something amounts to I am not quite sure.