I think there's a lot of great philosophical argumentation, convincing, and illumination in fiction, partly because fiction gives you a much deeper understanding of a situation than a simplified thought experiment. And some fiction is well-illuminated by music, particularly music that helps bring out structural features in the fiction that aren't necessarily apparent on first look. (This is an aspect of the use of music that I think AI-generated music is so far extremely bad at.)
I'm a big fan of Wagner's Ring cycle (and wrote a 100 word thing about it here: https://aestheticsforbirds.com/2021/02/23/kenny-easwaran-on-richard-wagner/ ). The core theme of the series of operas is that a certain kind of power involves giving up on love - but there are different ways that the magic power of the ring, and the moral power of following the law (symbolized by Wotan's spear), and the power of safety from constructing Walhalla, each involve giving up on a different loved one. Wagner's famous use of leitmotifs throughout his music helps demonstrate this - in the last opera, all these powers are destroyed as Brunnhilde restores love, and you hear this in the music, as the leitmotifs for the ring, for Walhalla, and for Wotan's spear are each successively destroyed. But Brunnhilde herself exists only as Wotan's creation, intended to bring him the Ring, but she has free agency, and she ends up deciding that the best thing for Wotan is to destroy the Ring and defy Wotan's commands, and this too shows up through the music.
In a very different way, the musical Rent is all about the idea that when our time in life is limited (whether due to HIV or just due to mortality) we have to remember to enjoy the moments we do have and not spend all those moments worrying about the future moments that we won't have. This theme is brought out in the stories of many of the individual characters, and it too is conveyed by certain melodic elements being recycled throughout the show. (And I also enjoy that the character who most explicitly tells this theme to everyone else, and embodies it in his life, is the lecturer in "computer age philosophy" at NYU.)
The Curse of Deontology song made me think of how many interesting story ideas there could be for a character who's explicitly a quiet deontologist and consistently acts on his beliefs. It could be a tragic story where his moral constraints prevent him from saving the day, or it could be a more lighthearted story where he teams up with a utilitarian to do the dirty work for him. I imagine there could be lots of fun banter between the two, e.g., "I knew I could trust you to do the wrong thing," but the quiet deontologist would always make sure not to convince his utilitarian friend that he's actually right.
Since you asked, other philosophers write philosophy songs, mainly for illumination rather than persuasion. V. Alan White has been at it a very long time, perhaps the longest: http://philosophysongs.org/awhite/phisong.htm
For my own part... I'm a musician on the side, and I've posted a few of my own songs, though not much lately. A selection:
I'm not sure about philosophy, but there was a brief trend on Twitter (which I participated in) of writing up mathematical proofs as poetry. In theory, these really would be completely convincing!
I agree that it's possible in theory but I don't really see it happening in practice. And certainly not often!
I've been interested in philosophical jokes and memes for over a decade, and am possibly among the ~100-1000 people in the world most aware of them.
And yet I think there are probably less than 10 Western philosophy jokes and memes total that have genuinely philosophical compelling points where the joke or meme presentation gives you a fresh perspective that isn't captured by the text (My favorite is the veil of ignorance trolley problem; I think the visual presentation makes it much more obvious why Harsanyi's presentation is more plausible than Rawls').
Most other "philosophical" humor is referential, where the joke is more like "haha I'm a smart person who gets the joke", or more positively "haha this joke will help me remember philosophical concepts I already learned." Actual philosophical progress advanced in humor is rare, and I think music is even less conducive of a format for such progress than jokes are.
I'm not sure if it's what Linch has in mind - a visual version would be nice! - but Caspar Hare (and other philosophers since) has talked about trolley problems in which each potential "victim" is stuffed into an identical-looking suitcase, and the suitcases are then shuffled randomly across the six positions. Search for "Footbridge with Suitcases" in this paper:
(To be clear I'm sure there are more philosophical jokes/memes that convince people of a position for bad reasons "haha look at how dumb the other position is", and I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing is possible with music)
If I put on blurry glasses, then every song is a bit like an argument: the verse/chorus structure is at least analogous to the premise/conclusion structure.
If I put on blurry glasses, then the distinction between song & poetry elides - poetry is simply language that augments language's musical properties. And then I think of Parmenides, and his philosophical poem at the foundations of Western Philosophy.
I made a musical comedy album a couple years back, and while I didn't set out to put Philosophy to Verse, the Philosophy does creep in. Maybe this track has the most explicit philosophical content:
I actually liked that “hell looks fine to demons” song but i think it might be because I am aware and sympathetic to the message. I think most people if they heard it would be off put by it though.
Maybe this is too obvious, but it really does seem that some pieces of music are objectively better than others. Like the random hitting of music rocks are worse art than any Miles Davis song for example. And from this, maybe these aesthetic truths that we get from interacting with music give us stepping stones for other things. Ethics for example: https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayad047 (though this paper does go the other way around)
I think there's a lot of great philosophical argumentation, convincing, and illumination in fiction, partly because fiction gives you a much deeper understanding of a situation than a simplified thought experiment. And some fiction is well-illuminated by music, particularly music that helps bring out structural features in the fiction that aren't necessarily apparent on first look. (This is an aspect of the use of music that I think AI-generated music is so far extremely bad at.)
I'm a big fan of Wagner's Ring cycle (and wrote a 100 word thing about it here: https://aestheticsforbirds.com/2021/02/23/kenny-easwaran-on-richard-wagner/ ). The core theme of the series of operas is that a certain kind of power involves giving up on love - but there are different ways that the magic power of the ring, and the moral power of following the law (symbolized by Wotan's spear), and the power of safety from constructing Walhalla, each involve giving up on a different loved one. Wagner's famous use of leitmotifs throughout his music helps demonstrate this - in the last opera, all these powers are destroyed as Brunnhilde restores love, and you hear this in the music, as the leitmotifs for the ring, for Walhalla, and for Wotan's spear are each successively destroyed. But Brunnhilde herself exists only as Wotan's creation, intended to bring him the Ring, but she has free agency, and she ends up deciding that the best thing for Wotan is to destroy the Ring and defy Wotan's commands, and this too shows up through the music.
In a very different way, the musical Rent is all about the idea that when our time in life is limited (whether due to HIV or just due to mortality) we have to remember to enjoy the moments we do have and not spend all those moments worrying about the future moments that we won't have. This theme is brought out in the stories of many of the individual characters, and it too is conveyed by certain melodic elements being recycled throughout the show. (And I also enjoy that the character who most explicitly tells this theme to everyone else, and embodies it in his life, is the lecturer in "computer age philosophy" at NYU.)
The Curse of Deontology song made me think of how many interesting story ideas there could be for a character who's explicitly a quiet deontologist and consistently acts on his beliefs. It could be a tragic story where his moral constraints prevent him from saving the day, or it could be a more lighthearted story where he teams up with a utilitarian to do the dirty work for him. I imagine there could be lots of fun banter between the two, e.g., "I knew I could trust you to do the wrong thing," but the quiet deontologist would always make sure not to convince his utilitarian friend that he's actually right.
Ha, that does sound fun!
Since you asked, other philosophers write philosophy songs, mainly for illumination rather than persuasion. V. Alan White has been at it a very long time, perhaps the longest: http://philosophysongs.org/awhite/phisong.htm
For my own part... I'm a musician on the side, and I've posted a few of my own songs, though not much lately. A selection:
David Lewis on time travel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGLFUFYBnhc
What Mary Didn't Know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2GCBIJvG5M
Philosophical Zombies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwuk4P-TjZ8&pp=0gcJCbIJAYcqIYzv
Worm Theory (temporal parts): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W0-bHya0YA
And a song poking fun at misogyny in philosophy (which Justin Weinberg told me "wasn't funny"... you be the judge): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-uDDXUb6ls
Cheers,
Richard Hanley
I'm not sure about philosophy, but there was a brief trend on Twitter (which I participated in) of writing up mathematical proofs as poetry. In theory, these really would be completely convincing!
I agree that it's possible in theory but I don't really see it happening in practice. And certainly not often!
I've been interested in philosophical jokes and memes for over a decade, and am possibly among the ~100-1000 people in the world most aware of them.
And yet I think there are probably less than 10 Western philosophy jokes and memes total that have genuinely philosophical compelling points where the joke or meme presentation gives you a fresh perspective that isn't captured by the text (My favorite is the veil of ignorance trolley problem; I think the visual presentation makes it much more obvious why Harsanyi's presentation is more plausible than Rawls').
Most other "philosophical" humor is referential, where the joke is more like "haha I'm a smart person who gets the joke", or more positively "haha this joke will help me remember philosophical concepts I already learned." Actual philosophical progress advanced in humor is rare, and I think music is even less conducive of a format for such progress than jokes are.
If you have the spare time, could you please link me these <10 jokes/memes? If you have time for only one, I'd love to see the VoI trolley one!
I'm not sure if it's what Linch has in mind - a visual version would be nice! - but Caspar Hare (and other philosophers since) has talked about trolley problems in which each potential "victim" is stuffed into an identical-looking suitcase, and the suitcases are then shuffled randomly across the six positions. Search for "Footbridge with Suitcases" in this paper:
https://web.mit.edu/~casparh/www/Papers/CJHareWishingWell.pdf
But not any suitcases - trolley suitcases, right?
(To be clear I'm sure there are more philosophical jokes/memes that convince people of a position for bad reasons "haha look at how dumb the other position is", and I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing is possible with music)
I love this topic, but am not sure what to think.
If I put on blurry glasses, then every song is a bit like an argument: the verse/chorus structure is at least analogous to the premise/conclusion structure.
If I put on blurry glasses, then the distinction between song & poetry elides - poetry is simply language that augments language's musical properties. And then I think of Parmenides, and his philosophical poem at the foundations of Western Philosophy.
I made a musical comedy album a couple years back, and while I didn't set out to put Philosophy to Verse, the Philosophy does creep in. Maybe this track has the most explicit philosophical content:
https://paulbali.bandcamp.com/track/am-living-ever-minnit-uvvit
I actually liked that “hell looks fine to demons” song but i think it might be because I am aware and sympathetic to the message. I think most people if they heard it would be off put by it though.
Maybe this is too obvious, but it really does seem that some pieces of music are objectively better than others. Like the random hitting of music rocks are worse art than any Miles Davis song for example. And from this, maybe these aesthetic truths that we get from interacting with music give us stepping stones for other things. Ethics for example: https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayad047 (though this paper does go the other way around)