Peter Kivy Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy Contact Information Office: Davison Hall 41 Email: Phone: (732) 932-9861 x159

Education

Ph.D., Columbia

Speciality

Aesthetics, Early Modern Phil.

Research

My field of specialization is aesthetics and the philosophy of art. My early work in this area was centered on eighteenth-century British aesthetics, and, particularly (but not exclusively) Francis Hutcheson, on whom I wrote a book; and I still maintain an interest in it. In the early seventies, I worked in the general area of what might be called Anglo-American Analytic Aesthetics, doing a good deal of writing (including a monograph) on the problems surrounding the late Frank Sibley's seminal paper, "Aesthetic Concepts." In the late seventies, I turned my hand, as a kind of interlude between projects, to the philosophical problem of the emotions in music. The philosophy of music became, from that time onwards, my principal interest, although I still work in the eighteenth century, and in contemporary Analytic Aesthetics as well. The musical project, however, has possessed me, and resulted in the publication of five books, dealing respectively with musical expression, musical representation, opera, pure instrumental music, and musical performance. In my most recent book, Philosophies of Arts (1997), I have departed somewhat from the musical problems, and tried to deal with issues centering on how the various arts differ. This has led me to become deeply interested in the philosophy of literature, which is currently occupying about half of my research time. The other half is being devoted to the writing of a book called The Posessor and the Possessed: Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and the Idea of Musical Genius. The book is about two thirds done.

Publications