PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH

1. PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH in Choral Pedagogy

2. I. Doing Philosophy II. Philosophy in the Context of Choral Music

3. are vehicles we think with.

4. Like mental lenses they contribute to how we perceive phenomena and thus to what we may see.

5. Researchers owe much to ideas and the lenses they provide.

6. …a process of systematic inquiry by which data are gathered, analyzed, and interpreted in ways that contribute to the development of knowledge.

7. …often reflects a dialectic between: provisional ideas (hypotheses) exegetic ideas (theories)

8. …may also be mediated by schemata learned, highly organized, networked conceptual patterns that actively create expectations as they encounter new data

9. Explanatory Constructs: larger configurations of cognition, such as schemata and theories theories are more passive mental data intentionally manipulated by thought schemata are more actively a part of a researcher’s own cognitive processing procedures, evaluating incoming data, both sensory and mental, for “quality of fit”

10. We are tempted to assume that we see the world directly and immediately.

11. But our insight is always mediated by ideas, concepts and explanatory constructs... many of which we take for granted and rarely question.

15. Researchers owe much to ideas….

16. But it’s sometimes difficult to think about ideas themselves….. ...that is, to think about how we think.

17. Philosophy is thinking about how we think.

18. filosofia pursuit of wisdom loving wisdom Doing Philosophy thinking about thinking

19. Doing Philosophy Philosophy is different from: opinion point of view preference ideology belief

20. The motivation of philosophy derives from an uneasiness with the status quo. Doing Philosophy “The opinion of a thousand jackasses is just that: the opinion of a thousand jackasses.”

21. A basic pre-requisite for doing philosophy: Doing Philosophy An open mind uncluttered in so far as possible by pre-conceived or pre-determined parameters

22. Basic tools of philosophical research: critical reason/logic Doing Philosophy language

23. Three basic procedures in philosophic research: Analysis…clarification of thoughts, concepts, and the meaning of language Doing Philosophy Criticism...evaluate basic alternative modes of life and thought and formulate choices Speculation…construct ideal futures or projections of desirable experiences

24. Basic way of doing philosophy: argument Doing Philosophy “An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a definite proposition.” --Monty Python

25. Arguments and Non-Arguments Every scene of this movie was filled with excitement for me. I particularly liked the action scenes on the river. Doing Philosophy expression of support/enthusiasm, not an argument I spent five hundred dollars to take this course and the professor appeared in blue jeans and tee shirt, which I consider bad taste. He may have known what he was talking about, but I couldn’t get past the clothes. a complaint/grip, not an argument The sincerest satisfaction in life comes in doing one’s duty and in being a dependable person. a statement of point of view, not an argument

26. “He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprise, either of virtue or mischief.” -Francis Bacon Doing Philosophy “Women have great strengths, but they are strengths to help the man. A woman’s primary purpose in life and marriage is to help her husband succeed.” -James Robinson Elaborated, but unsupported statements of opinion, not arguments.

27. Basic ingredients of an argument: Proposition (statement or assertion that is either true or false) Doing Philosophy A proposition can be either: a premise, or a conclusion. A first step toward understanding arguments is learning to identify premises and conclusions. Unfortunately, they are not always explicit.

28. GIGO Doing Philosophy In a basic deductive argument if a premise is false, so is everything else “Garbage in…. …Garbage out.”

29. Validity and Soundness of Arguments All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Socrates is mortal. Doing Philosophy premises are true, inference is valid All cats are animals. All pigs are animals. All pigs are cats. premises are true, but improper inference All movie stars live in Hollywood. Robert Redford is a movie star. Therefore Robert Redford lives in Hollywood. false premise, but valid reasoning a valid argument, but not a sound argument

30. Philosophy pervades all research. The purpose of this study is…... Doing Philosophy To that end, the following research questions were designed for this study: Sometimes said that only numbers (quantitative research) delivers objectivity…. Yet, such numbers relate to a premise. Statistics test premises, they do not generate them.

31. Philosophy is both a body of knowledge (history of ideas) and an ongoing, systematic method of inquiry Doing Philosophy Engagement with both relies essentially upon argument. By means of analyses based on arguments, philosophers can do experiments: thought experiments, where variables are manipulated in imagination rather than in laboratories or in field work.

32. Scientific method was born from philosophy Positivism Doing Philosophy Post-positivism critiques: feminists deconstructionists

33. …a process of systematic inquiry by which data are gathered, analyzed, and interpreted in ways that contribute to the development of knowledge. the data for philosophical research are ideas, concepts, and explanatory constructs…philosophers inspect the architecture of such cognitive units, asking “How do we know what we know?” and “Why?” philosophers are all about construct validity.

35. In the context of choral pedagogy, philosophers may “challenge... the validity of extant ideas and practices. They systematically ask whether these ideas and practices are well grounded. They bypass the peripheral and trivial issues, going to the core of why things are as they seem to be and where they seem to be going. As such, they address central questions relating to (choral pedagogy) and challenge its very reason for being…by clarifying terms, exposing and evaluating assumptions, and developing systematic bodies of thought that connect with other ideas in respect to a wide range of issues touching on (choral pedagogy)”. --Estelle Jorgensen Philosophy and Choral Pedagogy

36. What is this? Philosophy and Choral Pedagogy

37. Music Philosophy and Choral Pedagogy “For music, despite the saw about its being an international language, is many things to many people, places, and times.” --James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, Sunday, January 22, 2001, p 30 Arts & Leisure (on why the 1980 edition of Grove’s decided not to have an entry on music).

38. Music Philosophy and Choral Pedagogy We “could find no one person who could have written on ‘music’ and the changing significance of the term through the ages.” --Stanley Sadie, Editor of TheNew Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians

39. Choral Pedagogy • “…the deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to transmit or evoke knowledge, attitudes, values, skills and sensibilities” --Lawrence A. Cremin (definition of education) In what ways does the context of choral music making impact and/or modify this definition? Philosophy and Choral Pedagogy

40. Why choral music? • “art for art’s sake” • socialization, enculturation, ethos, teamwork, family, discipline, travel • learn how to develop and use your voice • makes you smarter • get to dress in formal clothes • ? Philosophy and Choral Pedagogy

41. PEDAGOGY MUSIC Music Pedagogy GENUS Philosophy and Choral Pedagogy Species Pedagogy through music Pedagogy in music Music Pedagogy

42. PEDAGOGY MUSIC Music Pedagogy GENUS Philosophy and Choral Pedagogy Species PEDAGOGY CHORAL MUSIC Pedagogy Choral Music The introduction of “Choral” adds interesting wrinkles, because choral music (1) has text and (2) is done in groups.

43. 1. Choral music has text constructs associated with absolute music or “music alone” can be problematic, unless one postulates that text can be ignored Philosophy and Choral Pedagogy Historically, for example: Choruses have functioned better in the context of general education than the “fine arts” as a whole, perhaps because of their relationship with text. For example: The Greek Chorus, Church Choir, etc. are as much about ethos as music. Vocal/choral music, not instrumental music, was first admitted as a curricular subject in US public schools St. John’s College still requires every student to take chorus.

44. 1. Chorusing is a group activity constructs derived from solo singing can be problematic acoustically and pedagogically Philosophy and Choral Pedagogy singing is not just singing; it has contexts, ensemble singing being one such context this factor may have ramifications for many facets of choral musicking: auditions, warm-ups, formation/placement, choir size, etc.

45. An Example: Explicit Group Teaching and Associated Choral Sound Assumptions Approaches to choral pedagogy based on characteristics of the individual voice tend simply to transfer those particular characteristics to the group as a whole. A conductor works with an ensemble much like a voice teacher works with a single student in a studio.

46. The fundamental assumption here is that the whole (in this case the Choir and its sound) is simply the sum of its constituent parts (i.e., the individual human voices that comprise the Choir).

47. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + = Choir Yet, empirical research demonstrates that solo singing and choral singing are two distinct modes of phonation, i.e., people phonate differently in choirs than they do as soloists; and that acoustic properties of choral sound are different than those of individual sound. Canons of logic call this kind of faulty reasoning the . . .

48. Fallacy of Composition • Trying to apply what is true of an individual to the group as a whole… • Assuming that characteristics of the parts transfer to the characteristics of the whole made up of those parts… • The whole is simply the sum of its parts. • Example: “Each part of this machine is light; therefore, this must be a very light machine.”

49. …and it’s sister, the Fallacy of Division • Individual parts are like and equal divisions of the whole… Both research and the canons of logic demonstrate that all sopranos or all basses, for instance, are not created equally. Even within the same choir, subject to the same training, they vary according to vocal output.

50. Fallacy of Division • Individual parts are NOT necessarily like and equal divisions of the whole… Still, choral procedures persist in fallacious thinking: