MHST 620B Selected Readings in the Philosophy of Music
This course is focused on careful and critical readings of seminal philosophical writings on music selected from various periods of the history of philosophy. Readings are taken from Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Boethius, Confucius, Augustine, Rumi, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Schoenberg, Adorno, Barthes, Dahlhaus, Kivy and Goehr. On the basis of these readings, students will investigate concepts such as: beauty, taste, judgment, the sublime in art, ethics, the musical work, music and emotion, and enjoyment. The class is in a seminar format, with weekly reading and discussion assignments. The students work includes individual presentations and short reading reports and analyses of studied texts.