Keio University Mita Philosophical Society Lecture Series

Event Date

2022.4.23（Sat）

Event Venue

Other

"Spirit" as Sound: Rethinking "Modernity" Through Music—The Fifth Session: The Fountain of Knowledge

2022/03/23

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Date and Time	Saturday, April 23, 2022, 2:00 PM–4:30 PM (Doors open at 1:45 PM)
Location	North Building Hall, Mita Campus, Keio University
How to Participate	• Admission is free, but registration is required (please register at the URL below). Keio University Mita Philosophical Society Lecture Series: "Spirit" as Sound (5) The Fountain of Knowledge \| Peatix • Please wear a mask to the event. We will also ask you to undergo a temperature check and sanitize your hands with alcohol at the venue. Individuals with a temperature of 37.5°C or higher will be denied entry. There are no plans for online streaming. • High school students interested in the Faculty of Letters are welcome to attend (please take this opportunity to visit the Mita Campus). We also strongly encourage new students with an interest in philosophy, aesthetics (art studies), and literature to join us. • For more details, please see this poster.pdf .
Speakers	Ikuyo Nakamichi (Pianist) × Yoshinori Saito (Professor, Faculty of Letters, Keio University)
Organizer	Mita Philosophical Society

Lecture Outline:

The question of life and forgiveness found by Shakespeare in "The Tempest" and by Beethoven.

The intersection of a grand epic poem from Poland and the life of Chopin.

The logic of Liszt's world, depicted from Dante's "Divine Comedy."

And Mussorgsky's call to the dead, discovered in the world of his deceased friend's paintings.

The concepts that composers evoke with their music. The way the sound fills the space can be called a "fountain of knowledge."

Within the vortex of sound, a definition of life can be heard.

—Ikuyo Nakamichi

"Western modernity" in the history of philosophy and thought can be seen as having its foundations laid by Immanuel Kant and reaching its zenith with G.W.F. Hegel of German Idealism. Inheriting and further developing Kant's rigorous thinking on how "experience" through "consciousness" is possible and what kind of situation it entails, Hegel came to perceive our reality as a series of processes in which "spirit" "phenomenalizes." Ludwig van Beethoven, born in the same year as Hegel, developed Western music of the same period as "thought in sound," thereby opening up entirely new dimensions for both the forms of thought and the possibilities of musical expression.

Using these two figures as the main axes of reference, this series will feature various related philosophers, thinkers, and composers under a different theme each time. A philosopher and a performer will attempt to approach both the cultural background surrounding the musical works—centered on philosophy and thought—and the substance of the individual works themselves from their respective viewpoints. Through this endeavor, the ultimate goal is to reconsider what kind of era "modernity" was and what we in the present should inherit from it. The ten-part lecture series will cover themes such as "Passion and Reason," "The Power of Sorrow," "The Philosophy of Music," and "The Fluctuation of Life and Death." This fifth session, titled "The Fountain of Knowledge," will focus on the following four works.

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 17 "The Tempest," Op. 31-2

Chopin: Ballade No. 1, Op. 23

Liszt: Après une lecture du Dante, S.161/7

Mussorgsky: Suite "Pictures at an Exhibition"

(The pieces will not be performed in their entirety.)

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