Plato employs an influential musical metaphor to describe human wholeness as the ‘tuning’ or harmonization of human motivations: the musical soul will ‘harmonize her [reason, emotion, and desire] like the three limiting notes in a musical scale – high, low, and middle; she binds [herself] together… only then, as a unity, does she act’ (Republic 4, 443d).
This small-scale daytime workshop explores the role of musical imagery and analogy in the Platonic tradition of philosophy and psychology, touching on Greek and Latin traditions with Plato himself (5th-4th century BCE), Boethius (6th century CE), and Marsilio Ficino (15th century CE).
We’ll conclude with a public musical performance and opportunity for hands-on study of the ancient lyre and monochord attributed to Pythagoras that inspired students in Plato’s Academy: further details of the concert are available here.
- Workshop participants
- Workshop programme
- Please RSVP to attend (optional but encouraged)
- Daytime talks and discussion (9am-2:30pm)
- Evening concert with the ancient lyre (5-6:30pm, reception to follow)
We are grateful to the UBC Faculty of Arts and Green College for support making this workshop possible.