The example I have in mind is drawn from the well-known work of the American music theorist and composer, John Cage. Cage writes, When . . . Sound and silence differ, of course. But they differ not as ultimate categories but, more simply and less ultimately, as merely the intended and the not intended differ. So the new conception of sound redoes the lay theoretical conception in a novel way.
Silence takes a rightful place as a form of sound alongside other forms of sound.
There are two moves in Cage's treatment that reflect conceptual ingenuity and also suggest implications for art and for ordinary experience. Here are some notes about the power of Cage's ingenuity. My thought is that this accompanying ethics is part of the radical conceptualization of the elements of experience in question, and my further thought is that the fact that the conceptualization extends into this ethical terrain is important to an understanding of how art can contribute to people being positioned to self-realize. We may notice that the first effect of the nondiscrimination is to increase what counts as sound. The next effect is to get us to take seriously the project of treating sounds in ways that are independent of what anyone intends with or of them.