Subjectivity and the Arts: how could be Hepburn an objectivist

Hepburn argues that all education, and so Arts Education, educates a person's subjectivity, his or her Lebenswelt; though the sciences take the ‘objectifying way’ they too educate our subjectivity. I show why there can be no decision procedures, involving the use of logical operators for interpreting a work of art, but argue that Hepburn's view that music etc. can furnish ‘authoritative imaginative realisations’, nevertheless presupposes a ‘soft’ objectivist position. Whilst Hepburn is right in thinking that the subjective provides the context for objectifying procedures in education (and more generally), it cannot be the case, as he implies, that aesthetic criteria could have a role in the selection of preferred scientific explanations and theories. It is, however, argued that the aesthetic can be generative of objectifying ways, or theoryenabling.     

A Pedagogy of Things

Although we pretend that only humans, or perhaps animals, can call to us, this essay takes seriously those familiar moments, spells of time, when we lose ourselves staring out into the ocean or down into campfires. In those moments, we are drawn by the flames, by the waves, into reveries. It is not just humans or animals or plants: we are drawn by things, and things have something to teach us, something with countless aspects. If we give the lead to things, we will discover that things matter—beyond measure.