“Only the Lover Sings” by Josef Pieper Essay

Thoughts about Music symphony prompts the philosophers go on interest because it is by disposition so close to the fundamentals of homosexual existence (Pieper 39). In the section, Thoughts about Music, from Josef Piepers Only the Lover Sings subterfuge and Contemplation, discusses unison and the intriguing wonder, What do we perceive when we attend to medicine? (40).Pieper answers this question by quoting Schopenhauer, who shouted medicament, does not speak of things but tells of weal and woe (42). This makes genius because it relates to mans good, and our yearning for perfect happiness. When listening to unison certain emotions surface, as Plato stated, Music imitates the impulses of the soul (Pieper 45). Thus, to truly understand what we perceive when we listen to music, one must understand what is being expressed, and not simply listen. For many, music can be an out of body experience, something that truly reveals man and his sum in life. Some may argue that music i s simply a means of personal enchantment, of escapism (Pieper 50). How one views and interprets music truly reveals ones character, because, music lays bare mans inner existential condition, (Pieper 50).In addition, Pieper continues to answer the question of what we perceive when we listen to music, by quoting other philosophers and the ideas of Western philosophical traditions. To repeat thus has the nature of music variously been unsounded in the Western philosophical tradition- as nonverbal articulation of weal and woe as wordless flavour of mans intrinsic dynamism of self-realization, a process understood as mans journey toward ethical personhood, as the presentment of mans will in all aspects, as love.This, for instance, is the meaning of Platos statement that music imitates the impulses of the soul, or as Aristotle puts it music is similar to ethics and related to it. The same tradition continues in remarks by Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche when they say that music invariably is the expression of an immediacy as no interfering medium is involved or (Schopenhauer) that of all the arts it is music that represents the will itself or (Nietzsche in his interpretation of Wagner) that music lets us ascertain nature transformed into love (Pieper 44-45).The philosophy of music is something that can be interpreted differently by all. Pieper uses sufficient evidence to support the claim that music does in fact play an important role in mans true character and how he views his life, and ultimately his existence. roleOnly the Lover Sings Art and Contemplation by Josef Pieper