Abstract
I borrow the phrase “redemptive truth” from Rorty (2001), who argues that its adherents (wrongly and naively) “think that there is a natural terminus to inquiry, a way things really are, and that understanding what that way is will tell us what to do with ourselves.” Redemptive truth thus designates a set of beliefs “which would end, once and for all, the process of reflection,” fulfilling the kind of need that religion has traditionally attempted to satisfy. To believe in redemptive truth, Rorty asserts, is to believe in “one true description” of what is “really” going on in the world, and thereby the possibility of a definitive answer to perennial questions about how best to live one’s life—or in the case at hand, how best to educate musically. Music education’s passion for positivistic research is part and parcel of the quest for redemptive truth, but that is a topic for deliberation under another MayDay group ideal. Lest I be misunderstood: I do not share Rorty’s enthusiasm for a literary turn. My position is more Deweyan than Rortyan.
The business of reflection in determining the true good cannot be done once for all … It needs to be done over and over again, in terms of the conditions of concrete situations as they arise.
In a moving world solidification is always dangerous.
—John Dewey
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Biesta, Gert & Nicholas Burbules. 2003. Pragmatism and educational research. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group.
Bowman, Wayne. 2000a. Discernment, respons/ability, and the goods of philosophical praxis, Finnish Journal of Music Education, 5(1–2): 96–119. Also available in Action, Criticism, Theory for Music Education. http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Bowman1_1a.pdf/.
Bowman, Wayne. 2000b. Music education and postsecondary music studies in Canada. In Music Studies in the New Millennium: Perspectives From Canada, special edition of Canadian University Music Review 21(1) (2001): 76–90. Reprinted in Arts Education Policy Review 103(2) (November/December 2000b): 9–17.
Bowman, Wayne. 2002. Educating musically. In Richard Colwell and Carol Richardson eds. The new handbook of research on music teaching and learning. New York: Oxford University Press: 63–84.
Bowman, Wayne. 2004. Cognition and the body: Perspectives from music education. In Liora Bresler, ed. Knowing bodies, moving minds: Toward embodied teaching and learning. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Press: 29–50.
Bowman, Wayne. 2005/February. Music education in nihilistic times. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 37(1): 29–46.
Dewey, John. 1925a. The development of American pragmatism. In Jo Ann Boydston, ed. John Dewey: The later works (1925–1953), Volume 2. Carbondale IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
Dewey, John. 1925b. Experience and nature. In Jo Ann Boydston, ed. John Dewey: The later works (1925–1953), Volume 1. Carbondale IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
Dewey, John. 1938. Logic: The theory of inquiry. In Jo Ann Boydston, ed. John Dewey: The later works (1925–1953), Volume 12. Carbondale IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
Dunne, Joseph. 1997. Back to the rough ground: Practical judgment and the lure of technique. Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Elliott, David. 1995. Music matters. New York: Oxford University Press.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1962. The phenomenology of perception (trans: Colin Smith). New York: Routledge & K. Paul.
Regelski, Thomas. 1998. The Aristotelian bases of music and music education. The Philosophy of Music Education Review, 6(1): 22–59.
Regelski, Thomas. 2002. On “methodolatry” and music teaching as critical and reflective praxis. Philosophy of Music Education Review 10(2): 102–124.
Regelski, Thomas. 2004. Teaching general music in grades 4–8: A musicianship approach. New York: Oxford University Press.
Roberts, Brian. 2004. Who’s in the mirror? Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 3(2). http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Roberts3_2.pdf.
Rorty, Richard. 2001. The decline of redemptive truth and the rise of a literary culture: The way the western intellectuals went. Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai—Studia Europaea 2001(1): 19–36. Also retrieved from the World Wide Web (May 20, 2008): http://files.meetup.com/328570/THE%20DECLINE%20OF%20REDEMPTIVE%20TRUTH%20AND%20THE%20RISE%20OF%20LITERARY%20CULTURE.pdf.
Schatski, Theodore, ed. 2001. The practice turn in contemporary theory. New York: Routledge.
Small, Christopher. 1998. Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. Middletown CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Stubley, Eleanor. 1998. Being in the body, being in the sound: A tale of modulating identities. Journal of Aesthetic Education 32(4): 93–105.
Thurman, Leon. 2004. Health and music: an introduction. Available from the World Wide Web: (http://www.maydaygroup.org/php/ecolumns/musicandhealth-views.php)
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1963. Philosophical investigations (trans: Anscombe, G.E.M.). Oxford: Blackwell.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bowman, W.D. (2009). No One True Way: Music Education Without Redemptive Truth* . In: Regelski, T., Gates, J. (eds) Music Education for Changing Times. Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2700-9_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2700-9_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-2699-6
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-2700-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)