Philosophy as Music

2 February 2023

Philosophy as Music

“Here Cebes interrupted and said, ‘By Zeus, Socrates, I am glad you reminded me.  Several others have asked about the poems you have composed, the metrical versions of Aesop’s fables and the hymn to Apollo, and Evenus asked me the day before yesterday why you who never wrote any poetry before, composed these verses after you came to prison.  Now, if you care that I should be able to answer Evenus when he asks me again – and I know he will ask me – tell me what to say.’

“’Then tell him, Cebes,’ said he [Socrates], ‘the truth, that I composed these verses not because I wished to rival him or his poems, for I knew that would not be easy, but because I wished to test the meaning of certain dreams, and to make sure that I was neglecting no duty in case their repeated commands meant that I must cultivate the Muses in this way.  They were something like this.  The same dream came to me often in my past life, sometimes in one form and sometimes in another, but always saying the same thing: “Socrates,” it said, “make music and work at it.”  And I formerly thought it was urging and encouraging me to do what I was doing already and that just as people encourage runners by cheering, so that dream was encouraging me to do what I was doing, that is, to make music, because philosophy was the greatest kind of music [my highlighting] and I was working at that.  But now, after the trial and while the festival of the god delayed my execution, I thought, in case the repeated dream really meant to tell me to make this which is ordinarily called music, I ought to do so and not to disobey.  For I thought it was safer not to go hence before making sure that I had done what I ought, by obeying the dream and composing verses.  So first I composed a hymn to the god whose festival it was; and after the god, considering that a poet, if he is really to be a poet, must compose myths and not speeches, since I was not a maker of myths, I took the myths of Aesop, which I had at hand and knew, and turned into verse the first I came upon.  So tell Evenus that, Cebes, and bid him farewell, and tell him, if he is wise, to come after me as quickly as he can.  I, it seems, am going today; for that is the order of the Athenians.’”

(Plato, Phaedo, Plato I: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus, translated by Harold North Fowler, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1914, 60D-61B, pages 211-213, ISBN: 0674990404)

 

 

“Upon this Cebes said, ‘I am very glad indeed, Socrates, that you mentioned the name of Aesop.  For that reminds me of a question which has been asked by others, and was asked of my only the day before yesterday by Evenus the poet, and as he will be sure to ask again, you may as well tell me what I should say to him, if you would like him to have an answer.  He wanted to know why you who never before wrote a line of poetry, now that you are in prison are putting Aesop into verse, and also composing that hymn in honor of Apollo.’

‘Tell him, Cebes,’ he replied, ‘that I had no idea of rivalling him or his poems; which is the truth, for I knew that I could not do that.  But I wanted to see whether I could purge away a scruple which I felt about certain dreams.  In the course of my life I have often had intimations in dreams “that I should make music.”  The same dream came to me sometimes in one form, and sometimes in another, but always saying the same or nearly the same words: Make and cultivate music, said the dream.  And hitherto I had imagined that this was only intended to exhort and encourage me in the study of philosophy, which has always been the pursuit of my life, and is the noblest and best of music.  The dream was bidding me to do what I was already doing, in the same way that the competitor in a race is bidden by the spectators to run when he is already running.  But I was not certain of this, as the dream might have meant music in the popular sense of the word, and being under sentence of death, and the festival giving me a respite, I thought that I should be safer if I satisfied the scruple, and, in obedience to the dream, composed a few verses before I departed.  And first I made a hymn in honor of the god of the festival, and then considering that a poet, if he is really to be a poet or maker, should not only put words together but make stories, and as I have no invention, I took some fables of Aesop, which I had ready at hand and knew, and turned them into verse.  Tell Evenus this, and bid him be of good cheer; say that I would have him come after me if he be a wise man, and not tarry; an that today I am likely to be going, for the Athenians say that I must.’”

(Plato, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, translated by Benjamin Jowett, Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York, 1988, pages 72 & 73, ISBN: 0879754966)

 

1.  In the last days of the life of Socrates, Socrates decides to take time to write some poetry based on Aesop’s Fables.  Word has gotten out and Cebes inquires about this on behalf of his friend Evenus, who was evidently a poet.

2.  The answer Socrates gives has a number of dimensions.  For example, the answer tells us how seriously Socrates takes his dream experiences.  Socrates is worried that he might have misinterpreted this repeated dream and if Socrates did misinterpret it Socrates wants to correct that by working on some music; first by writing a hymn to the god, and second by versifying Aesop.

3.  The repeated dream Socrates had consisted of some voice saying “Socrates, make music and work at it.”  Socrates tells Cebes that he interpreted the dream to mean that Socrates should keep at his philosophical work and advocacy “because philosophy was the greatest kind of music.”

But now that Socrates is in prison, Socrates wonders if the dream meant that he should actually compose music/poetry, and so Socrates spends time on this activity. 

4.  I infer that Socrates, after his attempts at hymnody and versifying, was satisfied with his first interpretation of the dream; though the dialogue does not actually tell us that.  I infer this because of the philosophical interaction with his students that immediately follows in the dialogue and the way Socrates ends the discussion of this topic after briefly touching on it, instead of spending time unpacking its implications as Socrates does when he has an interest in the topic.

5.  Notice how the term ‘music’ here also includes poetry and hymnody.  My own view of the relationship between what we call music and what we call poetry, is that the relationship is very intimate.  I like to say that a poem is a song waiting to be sung, and a song is a poem waiting to be spoken.

6.  I am particularly intrigued by the phrase that “philosophy is the greatest kind of music.”  What struck me first is that Socrates does not say that philosophy is the greatest kind of mathematics, or the greatest kind of agriculture, or the greatest type of gymnastics, or the greatest type of astrology/astronomy, etc.  Socrates connects philosophy to music, saying it is the best kind of music.

7.  From what I have read music was omnipresent in ancient Greek culture.  Music accompanied festivals, funerals, was used in parades, and was in general highly appreciated.  It is worth noting that Plato wrote a lot about music in his dialogues and seems to have been keen on the idea that music had a powerful effect on human character. 

8.  I am not sure if ancient Greek music included instrumental music; meaning music without a vocal component.  It seems from Socrates’s remarks he was thinking of vocal music, such as hymns, and poetic expression, as in his arrangements of Aesop.  The connection between poetry and music was rhythm; a regular poetic rhythm is very easy to turn into a musical performance and I suspect that this was often done.

9.  I think the connection between music and philosophy is that music is closer to allegory and metaphor than it is to deduction and analysis.  I think Socrates’s remarks indicate that Socrates thought of philosophy as more in line with what music does than what mathematics does.  Of course there is a mathematical dimension to music (and Plato speaks of this, as do the Pythagoreans), but that is true of everything in the material world. 

The Platonic tradition, as I have previously mentioned, primarily communicates through the use of allegory, metaphor, and other types of comparisons.  Platonism is not primarily an analytic tradition; rather it is an expressive tradition in the way that music is expressive.

10.  It is of some significance that Socrates wrote a hymn to Apollo.  As I have mentioned in previous posts, in the classical biographies of Plato a strong cultural, and mythic, connection between Plato and Apollo is emphasized.  Perhaps this mention of a hymn to Apollo written by Socrates, may indicate that this connection had ancient roots and that philosophy is in some way, connected to Apollo; perhaps as an expression of divine understanding. 

11.  The reference to Apollo may be a kind of synecdoche, representing the philosophical tradition as a whole.

12.  One way to look at this relationship between philosophy and music is to consider how we understand meaning.  Musical statements are neither true nor false; that is to say that melodies, rhythms, chord progressions, etc., are neither true nor false in the way that science understand true and false, or in the way that analytic philosophy, and modernism in general, understands true and false.

But musical statements are meaningful.  And this suggests that Platonism is focused on what is most meaningful.  And because philosophy focuses on what is most meaningful, it is the greatest kind of music.