Richard Kimberly Heck

Published: Does Davidson Argue For Compositionality?

2026-09-10T16:44:23.977-04:00

Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 16 (2026), no. 3, pp. 1-24.

Get it here: https://jhaponline.org/article/view/6884

ABSTRACT

Donald Davidson is generally supposed to have offered an argument for the principle of compositionality in “Theories of Meaning and Learnable Languages”. Peter Pagin, however, has argued that Davidson offers no such argument. Indeed, Pagin claims that Davidson explicitly rejects any demand that compositionality should be justiﬁed and, moreover, claims that the argument in question is unsound. I argue here that the ﬁrst claim is mistaken and that the latter, though it offers a helpful corrective to the usual interpretation, does not apply to the argument Davidson actually gives. But there is a deep tension in Davidson’s work here, to which Pagin may well be responding, and it is a tension that Davidson himself cannot resolve.

I now wish I had said something in the abstract about what happens toward the end of the paper: I make some suggestions about the intellectual climate in which Davidson was writing; more precisely, who his opponents were. Quine, it turns out, had made some suggestions of his own about how our 'infinite aptitude' for language arises. Davidson must have known of these, although he does not mention Quine by name.

Edge Banding Technique

2026-08-24T00:07:15.664-04:00

When using plywood to build things, one problem you (almost) always have is: What to do about the edges? Unlike with solid wood, when the edges look like, uh, wood, with plywood the edges look like, uh, plies of wood stacked on top of each other. Not usually the look you want. So the usual thing to do is apply 'edge banding'. The easiest way to do this is to buy iron-on edge banding, for example, from Veneer Supplies (which is where I get all my cool veneers). This works great, but it comes in a limited variety of woods, and you do still end up with the edge of the edge banding being visible, which isn't too bad, in most cases, but isn't ideal.

So another way to proceed is to make your own. I.e., cut thin (say 1/8") strips of wood, and then glue them onto the edges of the plywood. It is not too difficult to cut the strips, if you have a table saw. (And it helps to have a pair of these guides.) And, in many cases, it isn't too hard to glue them to the plywood. The problem is to get sufficient pressure across the whole strip, so it will glue down evenly. I've managed that with lots of clamps, and long pieces of wood used as cauls.

But there is one time this doesn't work: when trying to apply edge banding to the edges of shelving, when the shelves are already in place, and the back is already on whatever the shelves fit into. (Why put the back on first? For stability, usually.) The problem then is that you simply can't clamps across the shelves: The back is in the way.

There are commercially available clamps for edge banding. And there are some simple DIY versions. But none of those look to me like they really apply enough pressure.

I finally figured out a method that works for me, and only uses things I have lying around the shop anyway. The pictures below show how it works. Basically, I've got C-clamps in front of the edge banding (though I should also have used a caul), and then shims between the C-clamps and the banding. Banging them in good gives quite a bit of pressure on the edge banding. The pipe clamps on the sides are holding the edges down.

John Coltrane, Jazz Piano Solos v. 24

2025-12-21T22:00:00.004-05:00

Yet another book of solo piano arrangements, this time of tunes either written by or recorded by John Coltrane. The ones he wrote (most of them, at least) cannot be 'played', as of this writing, presumably due to the need to pay royalties for such 'playing'.

The arrangements in this book are by Brent Edstrom.

Acknowledgement
All Or Nothing At All
Bessie's Blues
Blue Train
Central Park West
Countdown
Cousin Mary
Crescent
Equinox
Giant Steps
Greensleeves
Impressions
Lazy Bird
Lonnie's Lament
Lush Life
Mr P.C

That's Paul Chambers

Moment's Notice
My Favorite Things

Not a Coltrane composition, of course (it's by Rodgers and Hammerstein), but a song he very much made his own, specifically on the Atlantic album of the same name

Naima

Written for Coltrane's first wife

Syeeda's Song Flute

Written for her daughter (and his step-daughter)

Are "Facials" Misogynistic?

2025-12-21T19:19:00.004-05:00

This paper has been on my website for a while (here). It has now been accepted for publication at Porn Studies, which is a peer-reviewed journal published by Taylor & Francis. I've been wanting for some time now to publish something in a non-philosophy, gender-and-sexuality-studies sort of journal, so it looks like that will finally happen.

UPDATE: Now published online, but not yet in the journal.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23268743.2026.2620635

Abstract:

So-called ‘facial’ cumshots, when a man ejaculates onto a woman’s face, are very common in pornography. While they are frequently said to be degrading and misogynistic, the fact that women are usually shown as enjoying this act should make us think again. Facials may instead be rooted in male insecurity: of a fear that an aspect of how men orgasm—semen—is disgusting to women. By contrast, the fantasy, which pornography makes vivid, is that women might not just tolerate but celebrate and eroticize both ejaculation and its product. The way mainstream pornography presents facials may often be misogynistic, but it does not have to be, and it is not always.

Melanie Spanswick: Women Composers, Book 2

2025-12-21T19:15:00.003-05:00

A collection of works by women composers, from baroque to modern, for intermediate to early advanced, edited by Melanie Spanswick. See here for more information.

Complete YouTube Playlist here.

Intermediate

Elizabeth Turner, Giga from Six Lessons for the Harpsichord, No. 6 (MuseScore, IMSLP)
Louise Farrenc, Étude, Op. 50, No. 15 (MuseScore, IMSLP)
Luise Adolpha Le Beau, Prelude in Fm, Op. 12, No. 7 (IMSLP)
Cécile Chaminade, Gavotte, Op. 123, No. 5 (MuseScore, IMSLP)
Mon Schjeldrup, Song Without Words, Op. 13, No. 2 (IMSLP)
Dora Pejačević, Waltz-Caprice, Op. 28 No. 8 (IMSLP)
Jenni Pinnock, Astralis (YouTube)

Late Intermediate

Maria Teresa Agnesi, Sonata for Harpsichord in F Major, 1. Allegro Moderato (MuseScore, IMSLP)
Hélène de Mongeroult, Étude (HELP!)
Helene Liebmann, Andante Expressivo, from Grand Sonata Op. 3 (IMSLP)
Helen Hopekirk, Sarabande, from Suite For Piano (MuseScore, IMSLP)
Anna Severine Lindeman, Allegretto, from Character Pieces, No. 6 (IMSLP)
Melanie Spanswick, Kaleidoscope

Early Advanced

Maria Hester Park, Allegro, from Sonata Op. 4, No. 1 (IMSLP)
Cecilia Maria Barthélemon, Adagio, from Sonata for Pianoforte or Harpsichord, Op. 3 (IMSLP)
Maria Görres, Children's Song, from Bunte Reihen kurzer Klavierstücke, Op. 6, No. 11 (IMSLP)
Theodora Dutton, On a Southern Balcony, from The Southland Sketches, No. 4 (IMSLP)
Julia Hülsmann, Jazz Piece, from Piano Songs: 15 Pieces for Piano, No. 2
Jessica Cho, Capricious

New Paper: Does Davidson Argue For Compositionality?

2025-09-12T22:21:00.002-04:00

Abstract

Donald Davidson is generally supposed to have offered an argument for the principle of compositionality in “Theories of Meaning and Learnable Languages”. Peter Pagin, however, has argued that Davidson offers no such argument. Indeed, Pagin claims that Davidson explicitly rejects any demand that compositionality should be justified and, moreover, that the argument in question is invalid. I argue here that the first claim is mistaken and that the latter, though it offers a helpful corrective, does not undermine the interest of the argument Davidson gives. But there is a deep tension in Davidson's work here, to which Pagin may well be responding, and that tension is not resolvable.

Get it here.

This paper has now been accepted for publication at the Journal for the History of Analytic Philosophy.

Truth, Reflection, and Implicit Commitment

2025-06-23T19:47:00.006-04:00

New paper, forthcoming in a volume on the foundations of mathematics. Abstract:

The 'Implicit Commitment Thesis' (ICT) states that, if you accept a mathematical theory, then you are 'implicitly committed' to its consistency, and perhaps also to various sorts of reflection principles. This is meant to have various consequences, such as that consistency proofs can never be cogent: give us reason to believe that a theory is consisetent. I here consider a sampling of arguments for ICT and argue that they are all wanting. At the end, I suggest that we should, anyway, think of soundness proofs, in particular, not as attempts to justify reflection principles but as attempts to explain why they are true.

Get it here.

This is the paper for which the two short notes posted earlier, "A Note on the Strength of Disentangled Truth-Theories" and "Some Remarks on 'Logical' Reflection", are essentially appendices.

Frege Arithmetic and the Epistemology of 'Everyday' Arithmetic

2025-06-12T00:57:00.003-04:00

For the conference in honor of Crispin Wright held in St Andrews recently, I gave a talk that continued a discussion several of us had been having at the UConn conference a couple years ago, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Frege's Conception of Numbers as Objects. The subject of that discussion was whether there's any plausibility to the claim that Frege's Theorem might throw light on the epistemology of ordinary arithmetical knowledge, that is, the arithmetical knowledge of the legendary queer on the Clapham omnibus. I argued in the talk that there might well be such a case to be made.

I don't know if I'll ever write up this material, so I'm making the slides available on my website.

A Note on the Strength of Disentangled Truth-Theories

2025-01-24T13:57:00.002-05:00

Abstract

So-called `disentangled' truth-theories are supposed to prevent assumptions about the truth of statements in the object-language from inadvertently strengthening the background syntax. In earlier work, I proved some limitative results in an attempt to show that the strategy works, but those results leave several questions unanswered. We address some of them here. We also discuss a subtlety that has so far been overlooked in discussions of these theories.

Find it here: https://philpapers.org/rec/HECANO-6

This is another short paper that is a kind of appendix to an in-progress paper on the question whether there are or could be epistemically potent proofs of consistency. It may be submitted to a journal like Thought or Analysis at some point.

Some Remarks on 'Logical' Reflection

2025-01-23T13:47:00.005-05:00

Abstract:

Cezary Cieśliński has proved a result shows that highlights `logical reflection': The principle that every logically provable sentence is true. He suggests further that this result has a good deal of philosophical significance, specifically for the so-called `conservativeness argument' against deflationism. This note discusses the question to what extent Cieśliński's result generalizes, and just how strong `logical reflection' is, and suggests that the answers to these questions call the philosophical (though not the technical) significance of Cieśliński's result into doubt.

On my website: http://rkheck.frege.org/pdf/unpublished/CieslinskiNote.pdf

On PhilPapers: https://philpapers.org/rec/HECSRO

This is a short paper, under 4000 words, which I will probably submit to Thought or Analysis. But mostly it's a kind of appendix to an in-progress paper on the question whether there can be a 'cogent' consistency proof. That one will be posted before long.

Pat Metheny (Jazz Piano Solos, v. 57)

2024-12-01T22:18:00.000-05:00

Another volume of solo piano arrangements, this time of tunes by Pat Metheny (and in some cases Lyle Mays).

Quite a few people of my generation seem to know of Metheny only from the Pat Metheny Group recordings. I happen to think those are amazing, but I know they do not always appeal to jazz purists. But it would be a huge mistake to think Metheny is defined by those recordings. Check out albums like 80/81, Question and Answer, Day Trip, and the recent solo acoustic recordings, such as Moon Dial. Metheny does straight jazz, too. And he writes incredible ballads!

Set here.

Duke Ellington (Jazz Piano Solos, v. 9)

2024-12-01T01:06:00.007-05:00

I am a HUGE Duke Ellington fan. He wrote so much great music, and his band, at its peak, was just incredibly powerful. The great classic is Ellington at Newport, from 1956, which relaunched his career and contains one of the greatest sax solos ever. And there are Jazz Party in Stereo and the great suite Black, Brown and Beige. Not to mention the Concert of Sacred Music, which still blows me away.

I was reading a book about jazz music theory a little while ago. Repeatedly, it would say things like: Jazz musicians didn't relaly start using suspended chords until the 1960s. Except Duke, who was using them in the 30s. He was so far ahead of everyone else that it is ridiculous.

And if you don't know albums like Money Jungle (with Charles Mingus and Max Roach), then you are in for a real treat: Duke could play 'outside', too. And don't forget the amazing album he made with Coltrane in the early 60s.

This book contains arrangements of some of Duke's music. The links below are to 'official' scores on Musescore, meaning you can't download them without paying, but the complete sheet music is there, and you could play them off a tablet or something. Most helpfully, you can listen to at least some of them (played via MIDI), which is great for getting the rhythms right.

As of this writing, that one cannot be 'played', so here's one on YouTube, and another one

In a Sentimental Mood

Same: YouTube, and another one

It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
Just Squeeze Me (But Don't Tease Me)
Love You Madly

Cannot be played, cannot find it on YouTube

YouTube, as well

Satin Doll
Solitude

YouTube, and another one

Full set here.

Miles Davis (Jazz Piano Solos, v. 1)

2024-11-29T22:38:00.002-05:00

Another post of links to Musescore versions of arrangements of jazz standards. This one is of Miles Davis tunes---mostly ones he wrote, and others he recorded. The difficulty ranges from things I can play (intermediate level) to things it'll be a while until I can play.

These are 'official' scores, meaning you can't download these 'official' scores without paying (and I've already paid for the books, thank you), but the complete sheet music is there, and you could play them off a tablet or something. Most helpfully, you can listen to them (played via MIDI), which is great for getting the rhythms right.

All Blues

You Tube Video

Jazz Fusion (Jazz Piano Solos, v. 54)

2024-11-29T15:14:00.001-05:00

These do not come with recordings, even online. Fortunately, they have started putting them on MuseScore. Not all the songs are there, presumably due to issues around who owns the copyright. You can't download these 'official' scores without paying (and I've already paid for the books, thank you), but the complete sheet music is there, and you could play them off a tablet or something. Most helpfully, you can listen to them (played via MIDI), which is great for getting the rhythms right.

I've created a 'set' of Musescore. Individual links are below.

I'm not entirely sure I'd classify all these as 'fusion', but whatever.

Jazz Ballads (Jazz Piano Solos, v. 10)

2024-11-26T17:59:00.009-05:00

Most of these are on MuseScore, as 'official' scores. That means they cannot be printed or downloaded without paying. But the full sheet music is there, so you could play them off a tablet or something. And many of them, at least, can be listened to. It's nice to be able to hear them when trying to learn the arrangement (and before deciding whether to bother).

I have created a 'set' on MuseScore that contains all of the ones that are there. Links for individual songs are below.

(You Tube Video)

Cannot be played, but here it is on YouTube, and again

Burgmüller, 25 Easy and Progressive Studies, Op. 100

2024-11-25T22:03:00.003-05:00

These are nice pieces for someone at my level: They get more difficult as they go, and they're not boring. You can download the music from IMSLP. There are lots of YouTube videos about these, too.

The links below are to Musescore.com that various people have uploaded into it, including a lot of the 'classics'. You can download these or play them (in your browser, via MIDI) directly from the site.

Candor, No. 1
L'Arabesque, No. 2
Pastorale, No. 3
The Little Reunion, No 4
Innocence, No. 5
Progress, No. 6
The Limpid Stream, No. 7
Grace, No. 8
The Chase, No. 9
Tender Blossom, No. 10
The Wagtail, No. 11
The Farewell, No. 12
Consolation, No. 13
La Styrienne, No. 14
Ballade, No. 15
Tender Grieving, No. 16
The Chatterbox, No. 17
Inquiétude, No. 18
Ave Maria, No. 19
Tarantella, No. 20
Harmony of Angels, No. 21
Barcarolle, No. 22
The Return, No. 23
The Swallow, No. 24
Spirit of Chivalry, No. 25

Schirmer's Giant Book of Intermediate Classical Piano Music

2024-11-25T21:59:00.005-05:00

This book contains 269 pieces by 3 composers, covering early intermediate and, I guess, just 'intermediate'. (There is a separate book of 'upper' intermediate pieces.) Some of these are also in the Early Intermediate book.

The links below are to scores on MuseScore.com, which you can both download and play, in most cases, so you can hear the piece while trying to learn it. The 'official scores' cannot be downloaded or printed, without payment, and cannot always be listened to, at this time, though my sense is that more and more of them can be. I've also included links, in some cases, to IMSLP.org, the Petrucci Music Library.

From the Notebooks for Anna Magdalena Bach

Minuet in G Major, BWV Appendix 116
Polonaise in G minor, BWV Appendix 119
Minuet in C Minor, BWV Appendix 121
Musette in D Major, BWV Appendix 126
Minuet in D minor, BWV Appendix 132

Bach, C.P.E

March in D Major, BWV Appendix 122
March in G Major, BWV Appendix 124

Bach, J.S.

Invention No 1 in C Major, BWV 772
Invention No 2 in C Minor, BWV 773
Invention No 4 in D Minor, BWV 775
Invention No 8 in F Major, BWV 779
Invention No 10 in G Major, BWV 781
Invention No 13 in A Minor, BWV 784
Invention No 14 in B-flat Major, BWV 785
Prelude in C Major, from The Well Tempered Clavier, Book I, VWV 846
Prelude in C Major, BWV 924
Prelude in D Minor, BWV 926
Prelude in F Major , BWV 927
Prelude in C Minor, BWV 934
Prelude in C Major, BWV 939
Bouree from Lute Suite No 1 in E Minor, BWV 996

This is the official score, which can be played but not downloaded. It would seem to be an arrangement of another piece.

Prelude in C Minor, BWV 999

Bartok

Bagatelle No 4, from 14 Bagatelles (Op. 6, No. 4)

Op. 6 on IMSLP

From Ten Easy Pieces (IMSLP)

Beethoven

Twelve German Dances, WoO 13 (IMSLP)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Six Variations on a Swiss Song, WoO 64
Waltz in D Major (WoO 85)
Écossaise in E♭ Major (WoO 86)
Sonatina in G Major (Ahn 5, No 1)

Burgmüller

From 25 Easy and Progressive Studies, Op. 100 (IMSLP)

Candor, No. 1
L'Arabesque, No. 2
Pastorale, No. 3
The Little Reunion, No 4
Innocence, No. 5
Progress, No. 6
The Limpid Stream, No. 7
Grace, No. 8
The Chase, No. 9
Tender Blossom, No. 10
The Wagtail, No. 11
The Farewell, No. 12
Consolation, No. 13
La Styrienne, No. 14
Ballade, No. 15
Tender Grieving, No. 16
The Chatterbox, No. 17
Inquiétude, No. 18
Ave Maria, No. 19
Tarantella, No. 20
Harmony of Angels, No. 21
Barcarolle, No. 22
The Return, No. 23
The Swallow, No. 24
Spirit of Chivalry, No. 25

Study in E Major, Op. 105, No. 9

From 18 Characteristic Studies, Op. 109 (IMSLP, MuseScore)

Chopin

Prelude in E minor, Op. 28, No. 4
Prelude in B minor, Op. 28, No. 6
Prelude in A Major, Op. 28, No.7
Opus 28 on IMSLP

Clementi

Sonatina in C Major, Op. 36, No. 1
Sonatina in F Major, Op. 36, No. 4

Official Version

Opus 36 on IMSLP

Diabelli, Sonatina in C Major, Op. 168, No. 3

Dussek, Sonatina in G Major, Op. 20, No. 1

Duvernoy, Study in A Major, Op. 176, No. 15
Ellmenreich, Spinning Song, Op. 14, No. 4
Grieg

Opus 12, Lyric Pieces (IMSLP)

Arietta, No. 1
Waltz, No. 2
Watchman's Song, No. 3
Elves' Dance, No. 4
Album Leaf, No. 7

Little Bird, Op. 43, No. 4

Official Version

Bell Ringing, Op. 54, No. 6

Official Version

Opus 68 (IMSLP)

Sailor's Song, No.1
National Song, No. 8

Puck, Op. 71, No. 3

Gurlitt

From Op. 101, Albumleaves for the Young (IMSLP)
Morning Prayer, No. 2 (Official Score)
By the Spring, No. 5 (Official Score)
The Fair, No. 8 (Official Score)
Song Without Words, No. 10 (Official Score)
Waltz, No. 11 (Official Score)
*The Little Wanderer, No. 12
*Grandfather's Birthday, No 13
Valse Noble, No. 14 (Official Score)
Free Fancies, No. 17 (Official Score)
*Sunday, No. 18 (Official Score)
Hunting Song, No. 19

Handel

Air con variazioni, from Suite in B-flat Major, HWV 434

Allegro, from Suite in D Minor, HWV 432
Sarabande, from Suite in D Minor, HWV 437

Heller

From 25 Melodious Etudes, Op. 45 (IMSLP)

From 25 Studies, Op. 47 (IMSLP)

Scampering, No. 1
Autumn Song, No. 3
In Venice, No. 14
Lullaby, No. 19

Köhler, 12 Easy Studies, Op. 157 (Official Score, IMSLP)
Kuhlau, Sonatina in C Major, Op. 55, No. 1
Kullak,

The Clock, Op. 62, No. 2 (Official Score)
*On the Playground, Op. 62, No. 4
Grandmother Tells a Ghost Story, Op. 81, No. 3 (Official Score)

Le Couppey, The Alphabet, Op. 17 (IMSLP)
Lichner

Sonatina in C Major, Op. 4, No. 1 (IMSLP)

Liszt

McDowell, To a Wild Rose, Op. 51, No. 1
Mendelssohn

Song Without Words, Op. 19, No. 4 (Full Op. 19)
Song Without Words, Op. 30, No. 3 (Full Op. 30)
*Song Without Words, Op. 102, No. 3 (IMSLP)

Petzold

Minuet in G, BWV Appendix 114

Minuet in Gm, BWV Appendix 115

Purcell

Suite No. 1 in G Major
Suite No. 6 in D Major
Suite No. 8 in F Major

Reinhold, From Miniatures, Op. 39 (IMSLP)

March, No. 1
Hungarian Dance, No. 9
*Gypsy Song, No. 13

Reinecke, From Six Sonatinas, Op. 136 (IMSLP)

*Sonatina in C Major, No. 1

You Tube

*Sonatina in G Major, No. 2

You Tube: Allegro, Menuetto, Rondino

Schubert

Scherzo in B-flat Major, D. 593

Schumann

About Strange Lands and Peoples, Op. 15, No. 1 (Full Op. 15)
From Album for the Young, Op. 68 (IMSLP)

Melodie, No. 1
Soldatenmarsch (Soldiers' March), No.2
Trälerleiedchen (Humming Song), No. 3
Chorale, No. 4
Stückchen (Little Piece), No. 5
Jägerliedchen (Hunting Song), No.7
Wilder Reiter (The Wild Horseman), No. 8
Fröhlicher Landman (The Happy Farmer), No. 10
Sicilanisch, No. 11
Knecht Ruprecht, No. 12
Kleine Studie (Little Study), No. 14
Erster Verlust (First Loss) No. 16
Kleiner Morgenwanderer (Roaming in the Morning), No. 17
Schnitterliedchen (Reaper's Song), No. 18
Kleinze Romanze (Little Romance), No. 19
*Lento Espressivo, No. 21
Reiterstücke (The Horseman), No. 23 (Official Version)
Nacklänge aus dem Theater (Echoes from the Theater), No. 25
*Fremder Mann (Strange Man), No. 29
Winterzeit I (Wintertime I), No. 38 (Official Version)

Little Lullaby, Op. 124, No. 6 (Official Version)

Streabbog

12 Very Easy and Melodious Studies, Op. 63 (IMSLP)

A Pleasant Morning, No. 1
Soldier's March, No. 2
On the Green, No. 3
In the Swing, No. 4
In a Hurry, No. 5
Distant Bells, No. 6
By the Seaside, No. 7
Hop Skotch Polka, No. 8
The Stubborn Rocking Horse, No. 9
A Sad Story, No. 10 (Official Version)
*Chasing Butterflies, No. 11
Vacation Time, No. 12

12 Easy and Melodious Studies, Op. 64 (IMSLP)

*Leap-Frog, No. 1
*Bees in the Clover, No. 2
*Jack Frost, No. 3
*The Orphan, No. 4
*Rope-Skipping, No. 5
*Swaying Boughs, No. 6
*Wild Flowers, No. 7
*The Woodpecker, No. 8
*The Whirlwind, No. 9
*The Rope Dancer, No. 10
*The Cadets, No. 11
*Up and Down, No. 12

Tchaikovsky,

Album for the Young, Op. 39 (IMSLP)

* Not yet on MuseScore. Apparently, I'm going to have to do it myself...

George Gershwin (Jazz Piano Solos v. 26)

2024-10-17T21:32:00.009-04:00

Hal Leonard publishes some really great collections of piano solo arrangements of jazz standards. The difficulty ranges from things I can play (intermediate level) to things it'll be a while until I can play. But these do not come with recordings, even online. Fortunately, they have started putting them on MuseScore. You can't download them without paying (I've already paid for the books!), but you can listen to them (played via MIDI), which can be very helpful, especially for getting the rhythms right.

I've created a 'set' on MuseScore with all of the songs from the Gershwin book in it. Links for the individual songs are below.

YouTube, and again

Not playable, but on YouTube

YouTube

Summertime

YouTube

On YouTube, and again, and again

New Paper: Are 'Facials' Misogynistic?

2024-06-20T17:21:00.003-04:00

Find it here.

Abstract:

So-called ‘facial’ cumshots, when a man ejaculates onto a woman’s face, are very common in pornography. While they are frequently said to be degrading and misogynistic, the fact that women are usually shown as enjoying this act should make us think again. Facials are instead rooted in male insecurity: of a fear that an aspect of how men orgasm—semen—is disgusting to women. By contrast, the fantasy, which pornography makes vivid, is that women might not just tolerate but celebrate and eroticize both ejaculation and its product. The way mainstream pornography presents facials may often be misogynistic, but it does not have to be, and it is not always.

NOTE: This may not be a philosophy paper. My intention is to submit it to a sexuality studies journal.

Published: "Does Pornography Presuppose Rape Myths?"

2024-03-06T13:11:00.004-05:00

Abstract:

Rae Langton and Caroline West argue that pornography silences women by presupposing misogynistic attitudes, such as that women enjoy being raped. More precisely, they claim that a somewhat infamous pictorial, ‘Dirty Pool’, makes such presuppositions, and that it is typical in this respect. I argue for four claims. (1) There are empirical reasons to doubt that women are silenced in the way that Langton and West claim they are. (2) There is no evidence that very much pornography makes the sorts of presuppositions that Langton and West's explanation of silencing requires it to make. (3) Even ‘Dirty Pool’, for all its other problems, does not make such presuppositions. (4) Langton and West misread ‘Dirty Pool’ because they do not take proper account of the fact that pornography often traffics in sexual fantasy. The broader lesson is that we need to read pornography more sensitively if we are to understand its capacity to shape socio-sexual norms (for good or for ill).

Find it here.

Porn Reviews Site

2024-01-03T22:41:00.002-05:00

Whenever I go somewhere to talk about my work on pornography, I have at least a few people ask me whether there really is decent porn out there. Well, there is, if you know where to look. Even then, though, it may hard to find the really good stuff. So I've started a new blog, "Sexually Explicit Visual Media", where I'm going to post short reviews of that sort of thing. I'll be watching quite a few such films in the next few months, since I'll be teaching my course on pornography this spring.

At the moment, the only things there are a mission statement and an annotated list of links to websites that have 'better' porn. But I'm intending to post the first review within a day or two. I'll link to those reviews from this blog.

"Coming To Terms With My Rape Fantasies After Being Assaulted", by KS Woodmansee

2023-12-10T19:14:00.005-05:00

This piece was originally posted at The Establishment, on 16 November 2016, but it has since disappeared from the web (with that whole site), and does not seem to be archived at the Wayback Machine. I have found it worth reading myself, so I'm reproducing it here.

Coming To Terms With My Rape Fantasies After Being Assaulted

KS Woodmansee

I first learned about rape fantasies when I was a naive 17-year-old who had never even masturbated, much less considered power dynamics in sexual relationships. A friend told me that a girl he was interested in wanted someone to sneak into her bedroom and “force” her to have sex. I was intrigued, but quickly dismissed my interest in the topic. I saw it as aberrant, and the last thing I wanted was to be seen as weirder than I already was.

My parents came of age right in between the social conservatism of the ’50s and the leading edge of liberal hippies. Sexual expression or explorations were not things we discussed, aside from offhand remarks about perverts. The contradictions abounded: Sex should be open and free, but BDSM would be thrown on the “perverted” stack alongside pedophilia. As a result, when I finally did start exploring sex, my idea of what was good or right was very narrow: man, woman, bed, and birth control. If I wanted to get really crazy, maybe some lube.

By the time I was in my early 20s I started to recognize that I liked being directed in the bedroom, and I secretly enjoyed the idea of playing the victim. But I could barely admit, even to myself, that I found rape fantasies sexually exciting. At the time, it was difficult for me to understand the difference between playing out a fantasy and literally wanting to be raped, and I worried that my fascination amounted to excusing or even glorifying a deplorable act. I was worried that ultimately this made me deviant—only sick people would want to pretend to be raped. I didn’t want to see myself as a deviant; I wanted to be normal, and strong, and a “good feminist”, which to me meant not allowing myself to take any kind of submissive role, much less allowing myself to be forced. So I repressed those desires and continued to have sex without violence or role play.

In my late twenties, I started reading some fan fiction and erotica featuring BDSM, and because I’m a researcher at heart, I started looking into the real-world BDSM and kink communities. I spent a lot of time reconciling what I liked with what I felt was right, in the context of wanting to serve and transfer control and power to someone else. I learned that far from being anti-feminist, being a submissive actually can give a person a great sense of control, and that giving up power to someone else is just as valid a choice as any other in terms of sexual freedom. But I still wasn’t comfortable with the idea of a rape fantasy and I continued to harbor a deep-down feeling that it was wrong to want to be “raped” even in a scene. I was still conflating rape and rape fantasy, and I believed I couldn’t handle the emotions that kind of scene might produce.

I was living in a small mountain town, and while it was easy to access information about kink, it was far more difficult to put it into practice. For a long time, a lot of my exploration of BDSM—including my shame and guilt about rape fantasies—took place in my head. Eventually, though, I found someone to play with in real life, and he brought me out of my shell a bit and allowed me to admit some of the things I found the most disturbing. I found my power in making the choice to submit. I found I really enjoyed following directions, giving up my control over a scene. I loved playing out scenes where I was coerced or forced—all the while knowing I could make it stop at any time with a safe-word, because I trusted the person I was with and we’d discussed everything beforehand. I was consenting not only to playing out a rape fantasy, but consenting to allowing myself to enjoy it; I was able to give up the guilt I felt in harboring these fantasies. Finally I had found a way to express vulnerability in a safe space.

I had just turned 31 when I was drugged and raped, and it was nothing like playing or fantasy. I don’t remember everything, but I do remember telling him to stop and trying to push him off me. Unlike in a scene, though, I didn’t have any power to make it stop, I didn’t have a safe-word, and I didn’t have any say in how it would go. All of my trust was broken.

Rape is physically and mentally painful; it can have long-term effects on your ability to feel safe or at home in your body. In some ways, I feel lucky that I don’t remember everything; on the other hand, I still don’t know everything he did to me, and what I do remember is painful. I couldn’t even trust my brain, which is the one thing I always feel like I can rely upon. I spent a week with an ice-pack between my legs and years battling with myself on what I could have done differently, whether it really was a rape, whether I should report, telling myself I shouldn’t have gotten so drunk and that I somehow deserved it. I was sad, angry, scared, alone, and quiet.

That’s true for a lot of survivors, though everyone reacts differently. But for me, my assault also took away something else: my ability to engage in a scene of non-consent or reluctance. I still wanted to play, but I was scared to try again. I didn’t feel like I had control over my own mind or body.

After the rape I was hesitant to put myself in any kind of situation that would trigger me, including a consensual non-consent scene. What’s more, I found myself falling back into my old judgements of my own sexual desires. I judged myself for ever wanting to play out a rape fantasy; how could I, now that I knew what it was like to really be violated? I found myself drawn back to rape fantasies in porn and erotica, which didn’t trigger me, and I spent a lot of time trying to justify that—maybe it was okay to read it but not to act it out. But I still felt guilty for finding rape scenes erotic. If I could enjoy reading about rape, did it mean that what happened to me wasn’t a violation?

Eventually I ventured back to BDSM, setting some very stern limits but exploring things I hadn’t explored before. One of those new things was open and honest communication about my past. I started to tell my story to potential partners, making sure they knew what had happened and what might rekindle my trauma, so they could be respectful of my boundaries. I only moved on to having sex with people I trusted. As a result, I finally felt safe enough to get back to playing out rape scenes. I’ll never be okay with playing out exactly what happened to me, but as long as I trust my partner, and know that he’ll stop if I use my safe-word, there’s no reason I shouldn’t play out a consensual scene of non-consent. Through these scenes, once again, I could let go of the guilt I felt for wanting to play. I found, and still find, that it’s cathartic to allow myself to be vulnerable with someone in a safe and moderated way.

I’ve found that playing out rape scenes helps me regain some of the power my rapist took from me. Every time I share my story or I play out a rape scene I regain a little of my autonomy. In a scene I don’t always know exactly what will happen, but I can trust that it won’t cross the lines I’ve set in concrete. The uncertainty I felt after I was raped is indescribable; it made me question something as fundamental as control of my own body. In playing out a rape scene, I willingly give up control knowing that I can make it stop at any time and regain that control. There is no uncertainty there.

In coming to terms with my sexual proclivities, I’ve struggled with what I perceive as morally right or wrong. For years now I’ve said that when it comes to sex it’s fine to do just about anything you want as long as it doesn’t do permanent harm or break major laws and everyone involved consents, but I haven’t been practicing what I preach. Now that I’ve reconciled my desires with my fears, I’ve found that playing out a rape scene has become a way to explore an aspect of sexuality that isn’t acceptable outside of a fantasy, but is something I still find exciting within a safe space. In the past I held myself back based on judgements I picked up from outside sources. From now on, I’m basing my choices on what feels right for me.

New Paper: Sexual Fantasy and the Eroticization of Evil

2023-12-04T00:13:00.001-05:00

Abstract

Many people have sexual fantasies about being forced to have sex, or forcing someone to have sex. Several authors have argued that it is wrong to enjoy such fantasies: They lead to harm, or reinforce oppressive social structures, are liable to corrupt our character, or, mostly interestingly, are wrong in themselves, because they involve the eroticization of things that are wrong. I argue here that all such arguments fail properly to distinguish between fantasy and desire (despite authors' acknowledgement of that distinction), and between objects of desire and sources of arousal. The broader significance of this point is also discussed.

This paper is intended, in part, as a defense of claims about sexual fantasy made at the end of "Does Pornography Presuppose Rape Myths?".

Download it here.

Schirmer's Early Intermediate Level Masterpieces

2023-11-28T16:58:00.016-05:00

During the pandemic, I started teaching myself piano. Recently, I've been working my way through a book of 'selected piano masterpieces' from Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics: Early Intermediate Level. Of course, this is all public domain, and you can get the music online, but it's nice to have it in a book.

That said, it's also nice to be able to hear the pieces, and for that I've been using MuseScore, which is open source music notation software that will also 'play' whatever you enter into it. There's also a huge library of music that various people have uploaded into it, including a lot of the 'classics'.

So here's a list of links to versions of the pieces in the mentioned book. Note that you can download these or play them directly from the site. Please let me know if any of the links should break.

The first five are sometimes attributed to JS Bach, but are now not thought to have been written by him. The first is usually attributed to Christian Petzold, for example.

From the Notebooks for Anna Magdalena Bach

Minuet in G Major, BWV Appendix 116
Polonaise in G minor, BWV Appendix 119
Musette in D Major, BWV Appendix 126
Minuet in D minor, BWV Appendix 132
March in D Major, BWV Appendix 122

Bach, "Little" Prelude in C Major, BWV 939
Bartok, Slovak Youth Dance (from Ten Easy Pieces)
Beethoven, Sonatina in G Major (Ahn 5, No 1)
Beethoven, Écossaise in E♭ Major (WoO 86)
Beethoven, Waltz in D Major (WoO 85)
Burgmüller, From 25 Easy and Progressive Studies, Op. 100

La Candeur, No. 1
L'Arabesque, No. 2
La Pastorale, No. 3
Innocence, No. 5
Ballade, No. 15
Inquiétude, No. 18
Note: These are all available in another book from Schirmer, just of the Burgmüller studies

Clementi, Sonatina in C Major, Op. 36, No. 1
Ellmenreich, Spinning Song, Op. 14, No. 4
Grieg, Watchman's Song, Op. 12, No. 3
Grieg, Sailor's Song, Op. 68, No. 3
Grieg, National Song, Op. 68, No. 8
Gurlitt, Morning Prayer, Op. 101, No. 2

Official Score

*Gurlitt, Song Without Words, Op. 101, No. 10
*Gurlitt, Grandfather's Birthday, Op. 101, No 13
Kullak, The Clock, Op. 62, No. 2

Official Score

Handel, Sarabande, from Suite in Dm, HWV 437

Official Score

*Heller, Scampering, from 25 Studies, Op. 47, No 1
*Heller, Lullaby, from 25 Studies, Op. 47, No 19
Petzold, Minuet in G, BWV Appendix 114

Official Score

Petzold, Minuet in Gm, BWV Appendix 115

Official Score

Reinecke, Sonatina in G, Op. 136, No. 2

You Tube: Allegro, Menuetto, Rondino

Schumann, Album for the Young, Op. 68

Melodie, No. 1
Soldatenmarsch, Op. 68, No.2
Jägerliedchen (Hunting Song), No.7
Wilder Reiter (The Wild Horseman), No. 8
Fröhlicher Landman (The Happy Farmer), No. 10
Sicilanisch, No. 11

Official Score

Schnitterliedchen (Reaper's Song), No. 18

Official Score

First Loss, No. 16

Official Score

Streabbog, 12 Easy and Melodious Studies, Op. 64

*Leap-Frog, No. 1
*Jack Frost, No. 3
*The Woodpecker, No. 8

Tchaikovsky, Album for the Young, Op. 39

Morning Prayer, No. 1

Official Score

The Sick Doll, No. 6

Official Score

The Doll's Burial, No. 7
In Church, No. 24

* Not yet on MuseScore. Apparently, I'm going to have to do it myself...
Official Scores cannot be downloaded but may be more accurate.

Comparing PDFs, Round 2

2023-11-19T13:37:00.001-05:00

I've found an even better application for the idea mentioned in my last post. It can be very hard to see all the copy editor's corrections. Well, PDF comparison to the rescue! This script is slightly more complex, since I have a number of different files from them, one for each chapter. But not a problem. First, explode the PDFs into images using pdftocairo, as before. Now:

#!/bin/bash

#DEBUG=echo;
# basename of the images for this
# chapter from copy editor
TYP=$1;
# basename for 'original' pages
BASE=SenseBook-19-IX-2023-Revised
# first page number of 'original' pages
XPAGE=$2;

for PG in $TYP*tif; do
   NEXT=$XPAGE;
   if (($XPAGE < 10)); then NEXT=0$NEXT; fi
   if (($XPAGE < 100)); then NEXT=0$NEXT; fi
   $DEBUG compare $PG $BASE-$NEXT.tif Comp-$NEXT.tif;
   XPAGE=$(($XPAGE + 1));
done

When that's done, it gives me the comparison images for that chapter. So now just:

convert Comp*tif Edited-ChN.pdf

And now it's easy to see where the corrections are: