“Music” as Means of Moral Education in Ancient Greek Philosophy

Abstract

Music and morality represent different fields of human activity that might seemto be antagonistic to one another. Music, as a social culture’s phenomena, indifferent periods of history has embodied excesses that went beyond sociallyaccepted norms (e.g. the Dionysian cult in ancient times or some of manifestationsof modern pop culture) with which morality had been struggling with forcenturies. Thus, the music itself, being merely an object of art, became a powerfulcatalyst for things that destroy the morality of the human nature. Therefore,a valid question on why morality does not separate the music from its immoralmanifestations can be answered as follows: because many of these expressionslose all the meaning in the absence of the musical component. In fact, asidefrom the main character, which is the music, all the “additions” and even theconcomitant elements sometimes become the “criminal”. But, can the musichave such a destructive effect on morality?