The Influence of Kant’s Critical Philosophy on Formalism in Music

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PHD student of Imam Khomeini International university

2 Imam Khomeini Internaional University

3 Imam Khomeini International University

4 assistant professor in philosophy Imam Khomeini International University

10.48308/kj.2024.233791.1206

Abstract

Eduard Hanslick, the first formalist thinker in music criticism, believed that music is the moving forms of tones. He argues that music is nothing but a form without any content or theme outside of its form. Therefore, music cannot express the feeling that comes from the outside, but if there is a feeling, it is the result of the forms and the structure of the music itself. The difference between music and other arts is that it cannot represent reality. Therefore, aesthetic judgment on music should be thoughtful and based on reflection rather than feeling. The content of music cannot be conceptual and the beauty of music is not objective. We can find these concepts by Hanslick in Immanuel Kant's The Critique of Judgment. Kant believes that beauty appears in the form of phenomena, on which  any aesthetic judgment should be based. Also, Kant believes that aesthetic judgment should not be based on personal interest or a specific goal, but should be general and universal so that it can be presented as a universal (subjectively necessary) judgment, that is, individual and personal feelings should not be involved in the judgment. Hanslik's approach to music criticism is also based on this concept. 

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References

Adorno, T.W. (1975), Philosophie der neuen Musik, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp Verlag 
Bonds, Mark E. (2014), Absolute Music: The History of an Idea, Oxford University Press
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Dahlhaus, Karl (1967), Aesthetics of Music, trans. William W. Austin, Cambridge University Press
Hanslick, Eduard (1854), Vom Musikalisch-Schönen, Breitkopf und Härtel
Hanslick, Eduard (1986), On the Musically Beautiful, trans. Geoffrey Payzant, Indianapolis: Hackett
Hughes, Fiona (2007), Kant’s Aesthetic Epistemology, Edinburgh University Press
Kant, Immanuel (1793), Critik der reinen Vernünft, Felix Meiner Verlag
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Kant, Immanuel (1977), Critique of the Pure Reason, Cambridge University Press
Kant, Immanuel (1978), Critique of the Power of Judgement, Cambridge University Press
Schiller, Friedrich (1967), Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen, ed. Elizabeth Wilkinson and L. A. Willoughby, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Van den Braembussche, Antoon (2009), Thinking Art, Springer
 

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History

  • Receive Date: 18 November 2023
  • Revise Date: 09 January 2024
  • Accept Date: 17 February 2024

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