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Single Idea 20404

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 4. Emotion in Art ]

Full Idea

The 'arousal' theory says music is sad because it moves the hearer to sadness, ...but this seems to get things back to front, because we normally think it is because the music is sad that it moves the listener to sadness.

Gist of Idea

Music isn't just sad because it makes the listener feel sad

Source

Stephen Davies (The Philosophy of Art (2nd ed) [2016], 6.4)

Book Ref

Davies,Stephen: 'The Philosophy of Art (2nd ed)' [Wiley Blackwell 2016], p.144

A Reaction

The objection is right. If Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' always makes me feel sad (because it is so hopelessly optimistic), then that makes the music sad. Is the theory saying that there are no feelings in the music?

Related Ideas

Idea 20403 It seems unlikely that sad music expresses a composer's sadness; it takes ages to write [Davies,S]

Idea 20405 Music may be expressive by being 'associated' with other emotional words or events [Davies,S]

The 24 ideas from 'The Philosophy of Art (2nd ed)'

20387 Aesthetic experience involves perception, but also imagination and understanding [Davies,S]
20385 The faculty of 'taste' was posited to explain why only some people had aesthetic appreciation [Davies,S]
20386 The sublime is negative in awareness of insignificance, and positive in showing understanding [Davies,S]
20384 The idea that art forms are linked into a single concept began in the 1740s [Davies,S]
20388 'Necessary' conditions are requirements, and 'sufficient' conditions are guarantees [Davies,S]
20389 A definition of a thing gives all the requirements which add up to a guarantee of it [Davies,S]
20391 Feminists warn that ideologies use timeless objective definitions as a tool of repression [Davies,S]
20390 Defining art as representation or expression or form were all undermined by the avant-garde [Davies,S]
20392 'Aesthetic functionalism' says art is what is intended to create aesthetic experiences [Davies,S]
20393 The 'institutional' theory says art is just something appropriately placed in the 'artworld' [Davies,S]
20395 The title of a painting can be vital, and the artist decrees who the portrait represents [Davies,S]
20396 We must know what the work is meant to be, to evaluate the artist's achievement [Davies,S]
20397 If we could perfectly clone the Mona Lisa, the original would still be special [Davies,S]
20398 Art that is multiply instanced may require at least one instance [Davies,S]
20399 Intentionalism says either meaning just is intention, or ('moderate') meaning is successful intention [Davies,S]
20401 The meaning is given by the audience's best guess at the author's intentions [Davies,S]
20402 Music is too definite to be put into words (not too indefinite!) [Davies,S]
20405 Music may be expressive by being 'associated' with other emotional words or events [Davies,S]
20403 It seems unlikely that sad music expresses a composer's sadness; it takes ages to write [Davies,S]
20404 Music isn't just sad because it makes the listener feel sad [Davies,S]
22704 Immorality may or may not be an artistic defect [Davies,S]
22705 If the depiction of evil is glorified, that is an artistic flaw [Davies,S]
22707 It is an artistic defect if excessive moral outrage distorts the story, and narrows our sympathies [Davies,S]
22706 A work which seeks approval for immorality, but alienates the audience, is a failure [Davies,S]