Sunday, October 13, 2013
Essay topic
As I've already done some research on this topic in the past, I want to expand on my thesis that musciality (the ability to appreciate or create music) is of an evolutionary origin. I think by looking into this further, some of the harder questions regarding the philosophy of music can be answered. Musical response certainly has a function beyond the general aesthetic. Music based therapies demonstrate a very practical application of these benefits, yet mainstream acceptance is still budding. Any questions or comments would be greatly appreciated.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
"Musical response certainly has a function beyond the general aesthetic."
ReplyDeleteI think I see what you mean here, but could you possibly elaborate?
I find this topic particularly interesting because it can be linked to the age-old debate over whether music or language emerged first: and, intuitively, I've got to say that it's music which came first, and was certainly at least aided by the processes of evolution.
You are likely to find some discussion of this in Steven Pinker, or one of the other popular evolutionary psychologists. Fascinating as such speculations can be, watch out for the "just-so story" quality of many such arguments -- sometimes we just tell a plausible-sounding (but untestable) story based on thinly evidenced assumptions about life on the African savannah, and then leap to the false claim that we have demonstrated something about our nature.
ReplyDelete