Motions of sounds, bodies, and souls [Plato, Laws VII. 790e ff.]

• Main Author: Motions of sounds, bodies, and souls [Plato, Laws VII. 790e ff.]
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Society for the Advancement of Philosophy 2002-12-01
• Series: Prolegomena
• Subjects: Plato; motion; music; dance; bodies; soul; Timaeus; Laws; Philebus.
• Online Access: http://www.hrstud.hr/prolegomena/Pro-2002-2/Pro-2002-2-Clanci-Moutsopol.pdf

This article explores how Plato, in his “metaphysical” dialogues, sees the specific properties of motion (and especially of motion in music), which lend themselves to adaptation for the purposes of maintaining or restoring the health of the soul. Plato explores the property of regular or rhythmic motion in particular. The attention has been drawn to the analogy between the calming effect of music, at the human level, and the Demiurge’s achievement in willing the world into existence. The focus of the article lays on the Laws, in which the principle of musical motion plays a central role in resolution of the contradictions between material and spiritual, natural and physiological, medical and educative.