8/17/2019 Schopenhauer on the Power of Music – Brain Pickings

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Schopenhauer on the Power of Music

“ Music is at once the most wonderful, the

most alive of all the arts,”  Susan Sontag

wrote, “and the most sensual.”  A century

earlier, Friedrich Nietzsche put it even

more bluntly: “Without music life would bea mistake.”  The question of why music

holds such unparalleled power over the

human spirit is an abiding one and, like all

abiding existential inquiries, it holds

particular appeal to philosophers.

Another century earlier,Arthur

Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788–

September 21, 1860), a compatriot of

Nietzsche’s and a major influence on him,

contemplated this very question in the first

volume of his masterwork The World as

Will and Representation (public library )

— one of Oliver Sacks’s favorite books,

cited in his magnificent Musicophilia.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/09/11/oliver-sacks-musicophilia/https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/02/11/oliver-sacks-reading-list/http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20http://www.worldcat.org/title/world-as-will-and-representation/oclc/276339&referer=brief_resultshttps://www.brainpickings.org/2014/10/15/nietzsche-on-difficulty/https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/10/15/nietzsche-on-difficulty/http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/09/11/oliver-sacks-musicophilia/https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/02/11/oliver-sacks-reading-list/http://www.worldcat.org/title/world-as-will-and-representation/oclc/276339&referer=brief_resultshttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/10/15/nietzsche-on-difficulty/https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/09/18/nietzsche-on-music/https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/03/15/writers-on-music/

8/17/2019 Schopenhauer on the Power of Music – Brain Pickings

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Schopenhauer writes:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20

8/17/2019 Schopenhauer on the Power of Music – Brain Pickings

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At this intersection of world and self is the will and, Schopenhauer argues, music’s unique

power lies in its ability to capture precisely that:

8/17/2019 Schopenhauer on the Power of Music – Brain Pickings

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Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois

Long before contemporary psychologists came to study the psychology of repetition and

how it enchants the brain, Schopenhauer adds:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/18/on-repeat-margulis/https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/04/08/cloth-lullaby-louise-bourgeois/

8/17/2019 Schopenhauer on the Power of Music – Brain Pickings

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Schopenhauer summarizes the singular power of music:

Complement this particular portion of the wholly invigorating The World as Will and 

Representation with other great thinkers on the power of music, Wendy Lesser on how

music helps us grieve, and Aldous Huxley on why music sings to our souls, then revisit

Schopenhauer on style and the significance of boredom.

https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/16/boredom/https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/03/20/schopenhauer-on-style/https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/04/05/aldous-huxley-music-at-night/https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/04/14/wendy-lesser-room-for-doubt-music-grief/https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/03/15/writers-on-music/http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486217612/braipick-20