Initial Post
The purpose of this blog is for me to capture my thoughts as it relates to my research interests and/or papers. Additionally, this is an outlet for me to exercise my writing skills as I prepare for my dissertation... something which looms in the distant future at this point. I'll just mention a quick disclaimer that I wouldn't recommend using any of the content I post on this site as the basis for serious theoretical research, as most of what I will post are my own "rantings and ravings", and so are not necessarily publishable in quality (although I would like to think that eventually the content on this site will reach that level of quality).
Of course, other topics of interest (not necessarily related to technology) may appear here over time. For example, I've recently been musing over the concept of the morality of music. Is music itself really a moral entity, or does it rather possess an "affective morality" in which the music through its intrinsinc properties (as designed by the composer/author) conveys on the listener a particular emotional and/or physical response that "causes" the listener to make specific moral choices? So far, I'm not entirely convinced either way, and perhaps there is even a third, more logical choice of which I am not aware. I do think that we need to use caution when claiming that anything is the "cause" for something else, as there is a definite difference between causality and correlation. In other words, we might find shoe size is highly correlated with intelligence. Logically, a person with a larger shoe size is more than likely older than a person with a smaller shoe size, and thus has more experience and a higher level of intelligence. Was it the shoe size that "caused" the increase in intelligence? No, of course not. So the question is whether or not it is music that "causes" our reaction. Or, is music merely correlated with our ethical response? Are there other intervening factors which may share some commonality with music? These are interesting questions to which I would like to someday find a satisfactory answer, but with which I am still perplexed.
Of course, other topics of interest (not necessarily related to technology) may appear here over time. For example, I've recently been musing over the concept of the morality of music. Is music itself really a moral entity, or does it rather possess an "affective morality" in which the music through its intrinsinc properties (as designed by the composer/author) conveys on the listener a particular emotional and/or physical response that "causes" the listener to make specific moral choices? So far, I'm not entirely convinced either way, and perhaps there is even a third, more logical choice of which I am not aware. I do think that we need to use caution when claiming that anything is the "cause" for something else, as there is a definite difference between causality and correlation. In other words, we might find shoe size is highly correlated with intelligence. Logically, a person with a larger shoe size is more than likely older than a person with a smaller shoe size, and thus has more experience and a higher level of intelligence. Was it the shoe size that "caused" the increase in intelligence? No, of course not. So the question is whether or not it is music that "causes" our reaction. Or, is music merely correlated with our ethical response? Are there other intervening factors which may share some commonality with music? These are interesting questions to which I would like to someday find a satisfactory answer, but with which I am still perplexed.
posted by John at
11:03 PM
2 Comments:
Wow! I liked the shoe size analogy. Technology and music are the topics? Sounds like polar opposites. Most interrrrrrrresssting. :-)
By
Shanti, at 11:24 AM
Oh my, you are a deep thinker aren't you? Hmmmmm....
I got the link to your blog from Shanti's. I know her through Sas. It's a small world after all...
OK, I'm going to go ahead and weigh in on this...I think music itself is morally neutral and essentially "dead" on paper. For example, I could try and play a Bach piece, but how I play it could convey different things. I could stylize and make it say what I want. This basic principle applies to lots of different things... No matter the intention of the author/composer, the piece can be perverted or vindicated by one who interprets it. I'm pretty sure this is what you were getting at in your post, but I thought I'd toss my two cents in anyway.
By
Snowflake, at 8:57 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home