A Study On Schopenhauer’s Aesthetics Of Music

Schopenhauer’s music thought is mainly based on the ontology of Will and the intuitive epistemology.In his book,Will and Representation are two sides of the world.Will,as the essence and supreme existence of the world,Representation is the indirect objectification of Will,while Idea is the bridge between them.One of the core goals of Schopenhauer’s philosophy is to break through the unknown of Kant’s Thing-in-itself" and devote himself to the knowledge of "Will" in the activities of individual consciousness.In the body,as the cognitive subject,human beings can only perceive the existence of individual Will,but can not recognize the whole Will as the essence of the world while in the aesthetic appreciation of art,the cognitive subject needs to "lose" to grasp the Idea,but can only complete the indirect understanding of the Will.The blockage of these two paths forces Schopenhauer to turn to the third path,which is to construct music metaphysics to solve the core problem of cognitive Will.Music metaphysics is based on two presuppositions: first,music is the reflection of Will itself;second,music and nature share parallel features.Because of the irrationality of Will,the essence of music can not be proved by logical conceptual language,so it can only be demonstrated indirectly by analogy.This leads to problems.Music can’t be said,but it needs to reveal its essence in conceptual language.Music can’t be said,but it needs to be known.The flaws of music thought can be summarized as three points: first,the analogical argument of music is defective and lacks the support of logical evidence;second,the existence of music is premised on mathematical harmony,and Will is disorderly and irrational existence,and the two are not identical.Third,the experience of music relies too much on the special regulations of music itself,thus ignoring the boundaries between music expression and human consciousness activities.Although Schopenhauer’s music thought has mystical tendencies and some potential theoretical flaws,it provides the only theoretical entrance that can communicate directly with the Will and be accessible intuitively.His philosophical aesthetic thought also has a great influence on later philosophers and musicians,and has a modern significance that can not be ignored.