My Music Q&A

Music is defined by the wikipedia article in several different ways: organized sound, language, a subjective experience, a result of social construct, and a category of perception. The first three are most clear and understandable, the last two seem a little more abstract and difficult to grasp.

Music as organized sound is something that anyone who has played an instrument or sang a song, or even appreciated a musical work. A primary example of this would be orchestra music -- nothing seems to be more organized than that. Music as language, though a little abstract, is still understood. I have countless times felt as though music could say what I was feeling more than I ever could. Music is often said to “tell a story,” a selection of language that is not an accident. Music as a subjective experience is the theory that I most subscribe to. This thought is that what music is depends upon the individual listeners.

Music as a result of a social construct is a post-modern idea. Music is different across cultures, and in some languages there isn’t even a blanket word for music, and I feel that this is because it should not be blanketed. The use of a blanket term calls into question something that cannot really be answered or defined. Music as a category of perception is a study of the cognitive aspects of music. The Wiki article states “music is not merely the sound, or the perception of sound, but a means by which perception, action, and memory are organize.” Dance falls into this category, gestures guided by music.

After reading the article, I still feel strongly that music is a subjective thing, but it is also many other things: it is a result of social construct, to an extent; it is the organization of sound, to an extent; it is a cognitive experience; it is an offshoot of language. It is impossible to apply a general blanket definition to music, it is such a wiggly concept that there’s just no way to do it.


And my questions:
1. What’s the difference between music and noise?
2. Why do people listen to music, whatever they define it to be?


I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’ - Kurt Vonnegut

Earth Day

"People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle." -Thich Nhat Hanh

I thought that this quote was fitting of today, being Earth Day. It may not be entirely philosophically relevant, but, like I said, I thought it was fitting. This fits in a bit with my post yesterday regarding what music is. It's the same as miracles -- if you believe in miracles, you can see them everywhere.

~Lisa

We're terrible animals. I think that the Earth's immune system is trying to get rid of us, as well it should. - Kurt Vonnegut

boasas again

More webcomic posting about nationalism.

~Lisa

History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again. - Kurt Vonnegut

Schweitzer and thoughts

Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter -- to all these music gives voice, but in such a way that we are transported from the world of unrest to a world of peace, and see reality in a new way, as if we were sitting by a mountain lake and contemplating hills and woods and clouds in the tranquil. - Albert Schweitzer

I absolutely adore music, for this reason. What is music? we are asked. Music is what makes us happy. Music can come from instruments, or music can come from other things in the world. Music can be in the touch of a loved one, or the sound of a symphony. Music is what makes us feel better. Marx could just as easily had said "Music is the opiate of the masses." It's all a matter of what's pleasing to the individual, just like so many things in the world. Sorry if this doesn't please the nihilists or pessimists in the class, but this is my take on it. :)

~Lisa

Music makes practically everybody fonder of life than he or she would be without it. - Kurt Vonnegut

my response to the meat-eating question....

Is it up to anyone to say that anything is morally right for a group of people other than themselves as an individual? If pressed to say whether or not it is morally right for the average US citizen to eat animals, I would have to say no. But that doesn’t mean that people should stop or are going to stop doing it.
I am a meat-eater, after being a vegetarian for about three years. I have thought several times about returning to the lifestyle, but it’s something I have a hard time doing. So instead, I do what Miller suggest, and eat meat “mindfully.” Does it make it right that I don’t eat the meat of animals that are kept in factory farms and slaughtered carelessly? No, but it eases my own consciousness a little bit.
Miller’s self-righteous article does not justify eating meat. It justifies it to himself, saying “as long as I eat meat that is treated humanely, I’m okay, because at least the animal didn’t suffer as much.” Just because the animal does not suffer as much does not mean that it does not suffer. I don’t really think that it makes a difference to the animal if it dies painfully, or if it dies humanely. Either way, the poor animal dies.

~Lisa

Human beings will be happier - not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That's my utopia. - Kurt Vonnegut

Murrow and some thoughts

The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. - Edward R. Murrow

This is kind of how I feel about our current subject: Music. I feel as though what music is is completely obvious, yet we still need to try and define it, and everyone's definitions are going to be different. So far in class we've come to semi-solid conclusions regarding pretty obscure things like time, the morality of eating animals, and the validity of our country's current occupation of Iraq. Yet here we are discussing something that has had and will continue to have an impact on every member of the class, as though it is something foreign to us. We are being asked to define music, as though it were a vocabulary word in junior high. I'm not questioning the validity of the assigned Q&A, I'm just saying that I find it a little amusing and feel as though this quote from Murrow speaks to the class' current situation.

What do you think?

~Lisa

The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music. - Kurt Vonnegut (of himself)

Blake and some thoughts

To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wildflower…hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour… - William Blake

I like this quote because I think it is the epitome of creativity, and creativity is creation, and creation is construction. I like the idea of constructing my reality based upon the world seen in a grain of sand.

I initially took this class because I thought it would deal more with things like this. Focusing on how we are responsible for our own worlds, our own lives. I will say that I am a little disappointed. Oh well, I'm gone in 31 days, so I guess it's not too bad.

~Lisa

Life happens too fast for you to ever think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information. - Kurt Vonnegut

What will "success" look like?

I don’t need research to figure this one out. Success isn’t going to happen. The Iraqi people hate us. It only takes one jihad to make our asses doomed. They will continue attacking America until they bring us down. There is no winning this war. We messed with the wrong people for the wrong reasons and we are doomed because of it.

~Lisa

People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so they’ll have good voice boxes in case there’s ever anything really meaningful to say. - Kurt Vonnegut

class yesterday notes: crimes against humanity

Why didn't we take the "crimes against humanity" route when it came to pressing charges against Saddam Hussein?
The list of his crimes against humanity is extensive and as serious as his other crimes. So why didn't we go that route with charging him? It was ultimately what he was sentenced to death for. One of our main purposes for going into Iraq was to get Saddam Hussein due to alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction. This is a very fuzzy claim, as many classmates have discussed. He even admitted that there were no WMDs in Iraq, that he was just saying it to keep Iran at bay.

Perhaps if we had decided to go after Saddam Hussein for his crimes against humanity, instead of lies about oil and nukes, we wouldn't still be there, and more people throughout the world would support our intents.

~Lisa

I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool. - Kurt Vonnegut

Thomas Hobbes and some thoughts.

Leisure is the mother of philosophy. - Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes is a philosopher that I like a lot. The title of my blog is stemmed from his primary work, The Leviathan. This quote particularly speaks to me because it relates to my life in so many many ways.
I would love to consider myself a philosopher. I think every philosophy student would. However, I lack what Hobbes says is the mother of philosophy: Leisure. And even if I had leisure I wouldn't be able to philosophize. (Yes, I made philosophy a verb there.) If I had leisure I would use it to sleep.
I still think that I might be able to philosophize. Maybe not today, but I can keep trying. But if leisure is the mother of philosophy, and I'm never going to have leisure time, then perhaps I'm never going to be able to philosophize.

Dammit.

~Lisa

There is no order in the world around us, we must adapt ourselves to be the requirements of chaos instead. It is hard to adapt to chaos, but it can be done. I am living proof of that: it can be done. - Kurt Vonnegut

Chuang Tzu and some thoughts.

The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you’ve gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you’ve gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him? - Chuang Tzu

I like this quote because it sort of relates to our conversations in class last week regarding patriotism. I especially like the "Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words." I like it because it implies that all the things that we have words for are things that we still haven't "gotten." The question at the end is what makes it for me, though. Most people want to carry on conversations with people who know words, who know as many words as we do. But if a man (or person) has forgotten words, then that means that they "get" things. And perhaps they could help us "get" things too.

When it comes to patriotism, we clearly don't get it. Jensen alone with the various definitions of patriotism proved that we don't understand the meaning. We cannot forget the word because we do not understand the meaning. We don't get it. Perhaps we should try, but how?

Get it?

~Lisa

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center. - Kurt Vonnegut

is/ought magic trick!

found a bunch of philosophical cartoons here: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cmpbell/Philosophy%20Cartoons.html and thought that this one in particular related to our conversations last week on deriving "ought" from "is."

I hope you enjoy. :)

~Lisa

you got your patriotism in my nationalism! (you got your nationalism in my patriotism!)

In class, DKJ says “it’s not just American propaganda, it’s Norwegian propaganda, it’s Swiss propaganda, it’s Russian propaganda; it’s universal.”

So why is it so hard to make all our varying propagandas compliment each other? Not universalize the propaganda, but universalize the understanding of the propaganda.

The Iraq war:
Iraqis have a sense of patriotism. They love their country, as Americans love America. (Although this to me is difficult to say, because there are so many different types of Americans because there are different Americas: Canadians are Americans; Mexicans are Americans; Peruvians are Americans; yet they all have their own names in association with their countries. Individuals from the United States of America are not the only “Americans.”) REFOCUS! To think that Iraqis are looking at the American infiltration, or “liberation” as the American government would like to believe it to be, as a good thing, as a liberation from their government, is insane. How would we in the United States feel if Canada decided that they needed to “liberate” us, because they don’t feel we have control of our own country. We would feel violated. We would feel as though our validity as a country had been tainted and abused. Canadians would be being patriotic, and sharing their patriotism with the U.S., but we in the U.S., would feel tainted, and our patriotism would be viewed as askew and even terrorist by the Canadians that are trying to “liberate” us. Oh wait, our patriotism is terrorism to the Iraqis…and theirs is patriotism to us.

So maybe patriotism does not need to be universalized. But, like I mentioned before, the respect of it needs to be universalized. Let Americans be proud to be Americans. Let Iraqis be proud to be Iraqis. And don’t try and liberate anybody!

unrelated to class, but still perhaps slightly philosophical and intriguing

First, a transcription:
Guy #1: You should be more careful what you write. You never know when a future employer might read it.
Guy #2: When did we forget our dreams?
Guy #1: What?
Guy #2: The infinite possibilities each day holds should stagger the mind. The sheer number of experiences I could have is uncountable, breathtaking, and I'm sitting here refreshing my inbox. We live trapped in loops. Reliving a few days over and over, and we envision only a handful of paths laid out ahead of us. We see the same things each day, we respond the same way, we think the same thoughts, each day a slight variation on the last, every moment smoothly following the gentle curves of societal norms. We all act like if we just get through today, tomorrow our dreams will come back to us. And no, I don't have all the answers. I don't know how to jolt myself into seeing what each moment could be come. But I do know one thing: the solution doesn't involve watering down my every little idea and creative impulse for the sake of someday easing my fit into a mold. It doesn't involve tempering my life to better fit someone's expectations. It doesn't involve constantly holding back for fear of shaking things up. This is very important, so I want to say it as clearly as I can: FUCK. THAT. SHIT.


Now, my take/opinion on this:
xkcd is an amazing webcomic because of strips like this. Hopelessness is a chronic ailment these days, it seems. In the college environment, life is supposed to be an adventure. New things at every turn. Instead, we find ourselves in the same daily grind. We're often told that the 9-5 life after college is going to kill our minds, our creativity. To be completely honest, I'm looking forward to my life after graduation in a month. Because it's this, it's college, that has been killing my mind, killing my creativity, for the past four years. Instead of cultivating my mind and shaping me into a productive member of society, it has rendered me nearly creatively useless. After graduation, when I get into a 9-5 routine, my dreams can come true. I have more repercussions here for "shaking things up" than I would have in the "real" world. So I agree with Randall, the maker of xkcd, because the world deserves to be shaken up. To hell with the consequences.

Thoughts on Patriotism

These are a few notes that I jotted today in class, elaborating on what Katherine said on the definition of patriotism:

Patriot = when people enjoy the country they have and want to keep it.
optional: keep changing it for its own good.

Companies/corporations go elsewhere to escape their regulations, yet they still want us to be "patriotic" because it will sell.


“I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.”

I'm with Debs.



~Lisa

Another webcomic -- is/ought

So you all know my love for webcomics by now.
I decided to take a crack at an attempt at bridging the is/ought gap with Slither's logic. Please forgive any and/or all of this that doesn't make sense, I'm flu-y.

I. Liberty and safety are inherent rights of mankind. (IS)
II. Liberty and safety are equal to one another. (IS)
III. Liberty and safety, being equal, should go hand-in-hand. (OUGHT)
IV. Mankind is morally obligated to maintain and defend both liberty and safety. (IS(?))

Therefore: People who would give up liberty for safety deserve to be thrown in jail and tortured until they admit they are wrong. (OUGHT)