Filozofska istraživanja, Vol. 36 No. 2, 2016.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21464/fi36202
Why Did Plato Claim that Philosophy Was the Greatest Music?
Slobodan Stamatović
orcid.org/0000-0002-2928-1788
; Sveučilište u Splitu, Filozofski fakultet
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to establish a fundamental reason for Plato’s claim that philosophy is the greatest music. Holding that the main reason for its supposed unclearness is in fact a discrepancy in understanding of music and philosophy in Plato in respect to modern meaning, author firstly elaborates on the original Greek notion on music and compares it with the contemporary one. In the second part of the paper, author explored Plato’s relationship with music, examining what role did he give to the music in his philosophy. It turns out that the traditional view of Plato’s negative attitude towards music is false. Author provides a reader with a more complex analysis of the problem and offers a positive view on music in respect to Plato, which he then links to Plato’s political preference of Phrygian mode, pointing towards rarely observed Dionysian aspect in Plato’s thought. Only a proper cultural contextualization of Greek philosophy can get us closer to understanding why, for Plato, philosophy was greatest kind of music.
Keywords
Plato’s philosophy; music; paideia; ethos; Phrygian mode; Muse; Mnemosina; feast
Hrčak ID:
173351
URI
Publication date:
27.9.2016.
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