WHEELING, WV, April 7, 2011 — Academics are important to students like Edward Peters, a junior at Wheeling Jesuit University. Peters, a philosophy major/history minor was informed recently that he's invited to present his philosophy paper at Washington and Jefferson University's April 16 Undergraduate Philosophy Conference.
"This is such an honor for Eddie as well as our entire philosophy department," said Dr. Beverly Whelton, Wheeling Jesuit associate professor of philosophy and Peters' instructor in the Philosophy of Art class.
The intriguing title of his paper is, "The Composer as Elicitor: Why Musical Works are not Created by Humans." He based his argument on the premise that composers indicate abstract structures of sound that already exist. Peters is from Moundsville, W.Va. and is the son of Edward and Lois Peters.
"We received a large number of submissions this year, and this one ranked among the very best," said Dr. Michael Wolf, associate professor of philosophy at Washington and Jefferson.
Papers in all subfields of philosophy are accepted in the conference, which attracts undergraduates and is coordinated by the Pennsylvania Zeta Chapter of Phi Sigma Tau, the national philosophy honor society and Washington and Jefferson's Philosophy Club. The conference is now in its fifth year.
"We were struck by the sophistication of Peters' paper. The title of his paper is apt to confuse someone at first glance. If musical pieces aren't created by humans you might ask, then by whom? Whole cultures? Angels? Martians? But Edward's view is not that someone else created them. They are not created but rather discovered. So the chords and melodies for 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' or 'Stella by Starlight' or 'Beethoven's Fifth' were somehow there all along, and the composer is just the person who managed to find them. You might ask what sorts of things they are if they could be there, waiting, all along, and what a composer does in those moments where a melody or song "comes" to her. We selected this paper because we thought he had especially interesting ways of approaching these questions," Dr. Wolf added.
"I am very excited for the invitation to present at this conference and I thank my professors and fellow students for their excellent critiques and support," Peters said.
Peters was inducted into Phi Sigma Tau at Wheeling Jesuit this spring and was acknowledged at the annual Spring Honors Convocation.
Wheeling Jesuit University is one of 28 Jesuit colleges or universities in the United States and stresses student research as part of its campus culture, providing hands-on and mentored research to assist its students into graduate school and post-graduation careers. With over 30 undergraduate programs to choose from, students chart their path to successful lives.
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