released 2/3/2019

Political philosopher Carson Holloway has studied how and why premodern political philosophers took music very seriously. They believed that “music can foster in the soul an inclination to take pleasure in, and thus to seek out, the rationally discernible order of nature.” The right kind of music could thus form the souls of citizens to encourage their pursuit of a well-ordered society. In this interview from 2001, Holloway discusses his book All Shook Up: Music, Passion, and Politics, which summarizes the dramatic chasm between the classical and modern views of political ends and of musical means.

45 minutes

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