Embattlement, Schism, and Redemption in the Doing of Philosophy of Music Education

In this self-oral historical account, I sketch interconnected pictures of embattlement and schism to suggest two important ways in which philosophy of music education has been undertaken and described over the past half-century in the United States. Less noticed is an alternative picture of redemption that has been operative in my own work and participation in an international community of music education philosophers. Embattlement conjures a philosophical struggle between contestants as a battle of ideas, the striving by philosophers for the supremacy of their ideas, and philosophy’s use as a weapon of power. Schism often develops out of embattlement to connote a tendency over time for disciples to mine philosophies in ways that blunt and even destroy their original power and become ideological and doctrinaire. This process can create fissures, breaks, and silos of likeminded people who separate themselves from different others and exacerbate the divisions between them. Redemption construed humanely and used in its ancient sense of bringing freedom expresses liberatory and conversational approaches to doing philosophy peacefully and respectfully, individually and communally. These pictures are sketched, the advantages and disadvantages of each approach are considered, and implications for doing philosophy of music education in the future are discussed.