The overlapping of pragmatic philosophy and the Aristotelian concept of praxis is explored with application to music and music education. John Dewey's philosophy of "Art as Experience" is contrasted with tacit aesthetic assumptions about music that music teachers often hold as a result of the aesthetic meme inherited from their…

Music is a human action (praxis), guided by intentionality, that embodies sociality. The many significant "social" values of music, however, get lost in high-minded but faulty claims that music's essential value is to promote aesthetic experience. A survey of some basic aesthetic premises demonstrates that claims for "proper"…

Aesthetic doctrine hypothesizes a for-its-own-sake, "disinterested" autonomy of music from life and assumes, then, that "good" music exists only to be contemplated, and that proper "appreciation" depends on informed "understanding." This distantiation of music from life creates a gap between aesthetes who have (unfortunately) sacralized classical…

The "music appreciation as contemplation" paradigm of traditional aesthetics and music education assumes that music exists to be contemplated for itself. The resulting distantiation of music and music education from life creates a legitimation crisis for music education. Failing to make a noteworthy musical difference for society, a politics of…

Music study should be construed primarily as an experience of its feeling content. Taught so, it can reach for the inner core of the early adolescent, to pierce that sometimes hard outer surface that protects the vulnerable inner life. Attempts to intellectualize music with young teens are doomed. (Author/SJL)