Materiality – Physics – Metaphysics

The talk will first provide a brief overview of philosophical strategies that attempt to explain the enormous significance of music for humanity, as well as the challenges posed by its transient and non-verbal nature. It will then briefly present the latest attempt by analytic philosophy in the Anglo-American world to discuss the meaning of music in terms of its 'profundity' – an approach, however, that leads to a logical impasse or trilemma. The talk will then propose a 'Copernican turn' back to the materiality of music. It will examine the physics and physiology behind hearing musical tones, notes, and sounds, as well as the interaction between music's temporal and 'spatial' dimensions, thereby also offering a brief excursion to cathedrals and dance temples. Against this backdrop, some of Arthur Schopenhauer's more outrageous claims regarding music's unique status — namely, that unlike other art forms, it does not represent the empirical world (Vorstellung), but rather 'the will', the world's hidden essence — might acquire some at least preliminary plausibility. Taken together, these components will create an experiential-discursive field, designed to facilitate a comprehension and discussion of music's profound place in human culture and nature. – As a presentation talking about physics and physiology inevitably contains some ‘naturalistic’ elements, it will also clearly address some frequently raised misunderstandings about allegedly implied ‘aisthetic’ ideals regarding musical material.