The Value of Music - Sun Tzu, Mo Tzu, Schopenhauer

Music is one of the most interesting art forms to examine and value aesthetically. Chinese philosophers Mo Tzu and Sun Tzu had completely different views on the topic, specifically relating to its socioeconomic impact, while a more modern German philosopher by the name of Arthur Schopenhauer contemplates the aesthetic values in music. It is interesting to see how these three philosophers agree and disagree, and also how we can relate this philosophy to modern day society.

In contrast to Hsun Tzu, Chinese philosopher Mo Tzu clearly believed that music could bring nothing beneficial to the state. He said that one cannot just dig musical instruments out of the earth; they must be attained through heavy taxation of the people. He believed music merely distracts the responsible man or woman from constructively contributing to society and being efficient. His basic argument for opposing state support of music is that tax revenues should be spent on shelter, clothing, and food for the poor people and when revenues are spent on drums, bells, and expensive musical instruments, the money is essentially wasted while it could have otherwise promoted the state at large. Sounding the bells and hitting the drums cannot generate food and shelter for the people. Mo Tzu's utilitarian principles are evident in this selection from his essay pertaining to the value of music: "If you try to promote what is beneficial to the world and eliminate what is harmful by laying heavy taxes on the people for the purpose of making bells, drums, zithers, and pipes, you will get nowhere". In other words, the responsible man should uphold what is favorable to the world in order to provide a model for the world. He justifies this by stating that when rulers have their bells and instruments, they must procure young men to strike these bells and play these instruments. By doing this, the rulers are not doing anything beneficial for the world, only wasting their time listening to this music, and the people making the music are also wasting their time by not planting trees, maintaining their farms, or doing whatever their job was prior to making music. Mo Tzu places no value in music whatsoever, and claims making music is wrong. The only thing music does is make people lazy and inefficient by steering them away from necessary occupations. Thinking back to one of our class discussions about music, I think integrating music into society can actually be beneficial. Take the example of using music in a professional setting to motivate workers or relax workers, clearly the workers are still doing their job (maybe even better than before).

In response to Mo Tzu's selection, Hsun Tzu examines why music is an essential part of life in his selected essay 'A discussion of music'. According to Hsun Tzu, music heavily impacts the emotions of man. When people listen to music together, they are united in harmony. The form of music is highly important when it comes to sending the right vibes. With a form of music that is firm and grand, people will be well-behaved, which leads to a stronger army and more heavily guarded cities. As a result of this, people will be more loyal to their state. However, if music is corrupt and evil, there will only be chaos as a result. People will be disobedient and possibly even revolt against their superiors, but mainly people will be lead astray from 'the Way'. Kings take joy in listening to music and are capable of leading highly organized armies thanks to the harmonious tunes that create unity. This selected piece from Hsun Tzu's essay essentially sums up how greatly he values music: "All the world becomes peaceful and joins together in the joy of beauty and goodness. Therefore I say music is joy."

A great contributor to the philosophy pertaining to the aesthetic value of arts, Schopenhauer explains why music is the most powerful form of art in a selection from The World as Will and Representation. According to Arthur Schopenhauer, music is the only art form that is mimetic of human will. Music is not merely mimetic of a single idea, nor is it a representation of nature itself. It is a universal language and the human emotions or will that it mimics can commonly be understood by everybody. In the sense that music does not rely on any phenomenal representation and copy ideas, music is unlike any of the other arts because it is the only form of art that aesthetically represents will itself. For this reason, Schopenhauer believes music is so much more potent than all other arts. Like Hsun Tzu, he states that harmony and melody contribute to expressing this will as a whole. A dreamy or lazy mood can be analogous to a slow and tranquil melody. The music has no direct relation to this dreamy and lazy mood, but rather an indirect one where music represents the will itself. Or, best said by the man himself: "Music differs from all the other arts by the fact that it is not a copy of the phenomenon, [...], but is directly a copy of of the will itself, and therefore expresses the metaphysical to everything physical in the world, the thing in-itself to every phenomenon." Hsun Tzu and Schopenhauer, I believe, have very similar views on the aesthetic value of music, in that in complete harmony, music is highly influential and essentially the joy in life. To Mo Tzu, however, the aesthetic value of music was not prevalent. His utilitarian approach seemed to lead him to believe that if people are not directly contributing to producing tangible goods, then they are not benefiting the state in any way.

To conclude, I would like to go back to a discussion we had in class regarding the government supporting arts, music specifically. Like Sun Tzu and Schopenhauer, I believe music can unite a people in complete harmony and it completely unlike any other art form. Statistically, the music industry generates billions of dollars per year, even with pirating on the rise, and without the government's support this figure would drop drastically, and I believe many (not all) aspiring musicians would lose their incentive to continue pursuing music as a career. There would still definitely be some passionate musicians who could care less if they get paid to play, but without government support I think this economic situation would be much worse.