# Music, Emotions and the Influence of the Cognitive Sciences Tom Cochrane **Abstract:** This article reviews some of the ways in which philosophical problems concerning music can be informed by approaches from the cognitive sciences (principally psychology and neuroscience). Focusing on the issues of musical expressiveness and the arousal of emotions by music, the key philosophical problems and their alternative solutions are outlined. There is room for optimism that while current experimental data does not always unambiguously satisfy philosophical scrutiny, it can potentially support one theory over another, and in some cases allow us to synthesize or reject traditional philosophical differences. The potential for the cognitive sciences to inform long-standing philosophical debates has not gone unnoticed by many philosophers working on the aesthetics of music. This is symptomatic of a growing tendency for aestheticians to pay attention to experimental data; partly motivated by a desire to justify armchair theorizing and partly because the sheer amount of relevant research being conducted by psychologists and neuroscientists demands our attention.1 Moreover, some philosophers may regard our aesthetic activities as particularly illuminating examples of the way our minds work. Appealing to cognitive data is a natural way to connect aesthetic cases to more general theories of cognition. Yet there may be some concern that the interests of philosophers and cognitive scientists in music do not properly coincide. The cognitive science of music is typically focused on **Authors:** [[Tom Cochrane*]]