15/11/2012

HCJ - Lecture 4

Apologies in advance as these notes are slightly jumbled and may not make complete sense. I do intend to go back over these notes, adding more detail and putting them in a much better order!

Modernism - Nietzsche
1872 - The birth of tragedy in the spirit of music. This relates to the philosophical significance of music.
Nietzsche - was the professor of philosophy in 1869 at Basel University, at the young age of 24.

Musical instruments were banned by the church until the enlightenment as folk music could be related to peasants and this was seen as bad and the 'devil' by the church. Both Nietzsche and Schopenhauer were philosophers of music.

Aesthetic relates to the emotional response to beauty - Plato and Kant
Plato believed that in another form, there is the most beautiful music, even more beautiful than what we believe is beautiful. We, in this life, have come close to the most beautiful music, however there is always better.
The most powerful aesthetic response you will ever have is to music according to Nietzsche.
The empiricists and idealists are now coming together as they are getting similar ideas and outcomes relating to science.

French revolution - napoleon tried to create an empire, and continued to try and take over India and Egypt.

Timeline
Kant 1790 - French Revolution
Napoleon in India and Egypt - 1800
Hegel - The phenomenology of mind 1809
Schopenhauer - The world as will and representation 1818
The reaction 1820/30 - Religious revival/romanticism
Marx 1848 - Revolution and reaction
Darwin 1859 - Origin of the species

The Will - Schopenhauer - if you strip away everything, space and time etc, the world is simply a thing in itself. The will is like Kantian noumana. The will to be/will to survive - the will is just everywhere.
When you see something you want it to exist. Ultimately, Schopenhauer is Utilitarian in some ways.

Nobody knows if God exists, which is an agnostic belief (Kant).

Bramah - the will of the universe (knows that the world is a dream)
Mira - the importance of what we perceive
Both of the above are a Buddhist/Hindu view

Relating to the points above, the chant you often relate to doing things such a yoga and meditating 'hmmmmmmmm' many describe this as the sound of the universe as a thing in itself.

Apollo (in control, advises) and Dyonisis (irrational, emotional) - Greek tragedy
Buddha - existence is pain
Schopenhauer - you must always overcome desire (when you experience this desire, it is 'the will')
He states that music is a healthy way to overcome this desire.
Nietzsche - God is dead

Music is mathematical. When you open a piano, the strings are all different lengths and sizes, ultimately the mathematical calculations done to determine the sound that comes out of the piano, relates completely to mathematics. People in the enlightenment worked out the connection between music and mathematics.



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