Mita Philosophical Society Lecture

03/24/2021

Lecture Outline:

The foundations of "Western modernity" in the history of philosophy and thought can be seen as having been laid by Immanuel Kant, 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 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 through sound," opening up entirely new dimensions for both the forms of thought and the possibilities of musical expression.

With 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 approach the cultural background of philosophy and thought surrounding the musical works, as well as the substance of the individual works themselves, from their respective viewpoints. The ultimate goal of this endeavor is to reconsider what kind of era "modernity" was and what we in the present should inherit from it. This 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 fourth installment, titled "The Genealogy of the Fantasia," will feature the following four works.

Mozart: Fantasia, K. 475

Schumann: Fantasie, Op. 17

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 28, Op. 101

Schubert: Wanderer Fantasy, D. 760, Op. 15

Lecture Poster: "Spirit" as Sound