Contre le pragmatisme en ontologie de la musique

Abstract

Pragmatism in the philosophy of music claims that “musical work” does not mean a kind of things in the world. For the Pragmatist, the title of a musical work does not designate a single entity in the world. Therefore, the possibility of identifying a musical work and to understand its essential characteristics is related to a social practice, largely conventional. But the Pragmatist is wrong. Artworks are ontologically dependant on what we believe, our practices; but is does not imply that artworks do not exist as such in the inventory of the world. It is precisely their (quasi-) nature to depend on us. But to have a depending-existence, it is nonetheless really to exist.