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Debugging the case for creationism

  • Patrick Grafton-CardwellEmail author
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Abstract

Repeatable artworks like musical works have presented theorists in the ontology of art with a puzzle. They seem in some respects like eternal, immutable objects and in others like created, historical objects. Creationists have embraced the latter appearances and attempted to compel Platonists to follow them. I examine in detail each argument in a cumulative case for Creationism, showing how the Platonist can respond. The conclusion is that the debate between Platonists and Creationists is a stalemate. In order for progress to be made in the first-order debate, second-order progress on the metaontology of art needs to come first.

Keywords

Metaphysics Music Platonism Creationism Metaontology 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Timothy Juvshik, David Friedell, Phillip Bricker, Amie Thomasson, Ned Markosian and to two anonymous reviewers from this journal for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

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© Springer Nature B.V. 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.University of Massachusetts AmherstAmherstUSA

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