That there exists a careful statement of the claim that captures the majority of the reach of the claim while avoiding the overreach of the claim.
It seems to me that one can find Bach’s best music better than anything from the last few decades without making “venerable” the standard of better.
So, this could quickly descend into reference class tennis. If we ask the question whether the best “music” was made in the last 30 years or before, now Bach fares more poorly than if we narrow our attention to “western art music.” If we exclude “influence” as a measure of quality, because of the inherently time-based nature of influence, now Bach fares more poorly than if we include “influence.” If we observe that musical taste is strongly tied to class-based markers, and that many of the groups that have liking classical music as a badge of group membership also have a preference for the venerable, and thus exclude “group affiliation” as a measure of quality, now Bach fares more poorly than if we include group affiliation.
There are, of course, other preferences that one could exclude that make Bach fare better. If we rule out, say, my preference for western art music that was made for video games because my positive affect for those games has bled into my positive affect for the music, then Bach has a better chance against Soule.
That there exists a careful statement of the claim that captures the majority of the reach of the claim while avoiding the overreach of the claim.
So, this could quickly descend into reference class tennis. If we ask the question whether the best “music” was made in the last 30 years or before, now Bach fares more poorly than if we narrow our attention to “western art music.” If we exclude “influence” as a measure of quality, because of the inherently time-based nature of influence, now Bach fares more poorly than if we include “influence.” If we observe that musical taste is strongly tied to class-based markers, and that many of the groups that have liking classical music as a badge of group membership also have a preference for the venerable, and thus exclude “group affiliation” as a measure of quality, now Bach fares more poorly than if we include group affiliation.
There are, of course, other preferences that one could exclude that make Bach fare better. If we rule out, say, my preference for western art music that was made for video games because my positive affect for those games has bled into my positive affect for the music, then Bach has a better chance against Soule.