Activity

  • Profile picture of DownunderET

    DownunderET posted an update 7 years, 4 months ago

    G’Day Folks, I am currently reading a book entitled “Schopenhauer” by Julian Young
    Yesterday while reading, a few sentences leapt off the page at me and I thought I’d share them with you guys here, so here goes.
    Quote:
    So is music non-representational? Is this what makes it unique?
    This certainly was the opinion of Leibniz who, Schopenhauer reports, described music as ‘An unconscious exercise in arithmetic in which the mind does not know it is counting’

    Now let that sink in, and Joseph, jump in here any time you like.

    • Profile picture of Freefall
      Freefall replied 7 years, 4 months ago

      WOW!! .. that’s BIG stuff ET .. Thanks for sharing ..

    • Profile picture of Scarmoge
      Scarmoge replied 7 years, 4 months ago

      The important point here for Downunder ET’s question may be that for Schopenhauer the meaning of “representation” is what he calls “will”. In connection with this I think it safe to say that Schopenhauer had a peculiarly idiosyncratic set of presuppositions (e.g. his idea of the role of the sufferings of humanity) from which he worked.
      What do we mean when we say of something (in this case music) that it either is or is not “representational”?