THE ROLE OF KATHARSIS IN THE ARISTOTELIAN PROGRAM OF MUSICAL EDUCATION. ITS RELATION WITH THE PLAYFUL AND THE EDUCATIONAL FUNCTIONS OF MOUSIKĒ
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15691/0718-5448Vol1Iss2a245Keywords:
katharsis, emotions, mousikē, politics, education, ethicsAbstract
Mousikē (μουσική) is the core of the educational program that Aristotle designs in Politics for the best regime. The philosopher assigns to this discipline different functions and proposes a hierarchical consideration of them. Although he explicitly mentions three musical purposes, namely, play, education and leisure, in the last chapter of the work refers to katharsis (κάθαρσις) as a differentiated function, whose relation with the others does not precise (Pol. 1341b38-40). My purpose in this paper is to show that it is problematic to determine the place that katharsis occupies in the scheme of musical functions that Aristotle draws in Pol. 8. 3, 5-7, especially in relation to the playful and the educational functions. In this sense, I will try to demonstrate that its position oscillates between them and that, in the particular case of the citizens of the best regime, the ethical function is a condition of katharsis. To achieve this purpose, I will analyze the passages in Pol. 8. 5-7 in which the philosopher tacit or explicitly refers to katharsis, with special attention to the valuable and singular general consideration of its meaning that he presents in Pol. 1342a5-15.
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