the end of music

 an essay on Plato's Republic

written in November 2018

    The Republic, by Plato, is a philosophic guide to understanding justice and its importance to society. Throughout this work, Plato gives voice to his mentor, Socrates, who uses dialogue to determine the truth about establishing a civilized state. He argues that justice in a society depends on the individual strength and soul; therefore parents must value gymnastics and music in the raising of their sons. Warriors who are not only strong physically, but have just souls are better suited to protect the state from becoming a victim of its own injustice. While it may not take a philosopher to conclude that individual members of an army must be physically strong, the argument for training the soul in music requires more philosophical dialogue. Socrates uses harmony and rhythm, grace, and love to describe music and its relationship to building a just man.

    Socrates first argues that harmony and rhythm are parts of what expresses the soul. He discusses three types of styles: one simple, another multiplex, and the last a mix of the two. “And also that good and bad rhythm naturally assimilate to a good and bad style; and that harmony and discord in like manner follow style; for our principle is that rhythm and harmony are regulated by the words, and not the words by them” (pg 104). Socrates describes rhythm and harmony to be simple, and that simplicity is the best form of style. “Then beauty of style and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity,--I mean the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity which is only an euphemism for folly?” (pg 104). An individual warrior must practice harmony and rhythm to allow a flow of pure music in his soul, which causes him to do good and serve justly.

    Socrates also discusses the grace found within rhythm and harmony, and how grace is part of a musical soul. “Let our artist rather be those who are gifted to discern the true nature of the beautiful and graceful; then will our youth dwell in a land of health, amid fair sights and sounds, and receive the good in everything; and beauty, the effluence of fair works, shall flow into the eye and ear, like a health-giving breeze from a purer region, and insensibly draw the soul from earliest years into likeness and sympathy with the beauty of reason” (pg 105). He also argues that harmony holds the capacity of giving grace. “...musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful…” (pg 105). He traces the training of a musical soul and characterizes the true musician: “...because he who has received this true education of the inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art and nature…” (pg 105). Within harmony is grace, which also produces a just soul in a battleman.

    Socrates lastly looks at the individual and his true love as a result of musical training. “And when a beautiful soul harmonizes with a beautiful form, and the two are cast in one mould, that will be the fairest of sights to him who has an eye to see it?...And the man who has the spirit of harmony will be most in love with the loveliest; but he will not love him who is of an inharmonious soul?” (pg 106). Socrates goes on to say that within true love there is no anger or intemperance, nor must those two things fall upon true love. He says that if one was founding a city he might make a law for husbands and wives to stay loyal to one another, and that if one does not, they are deemed guilty of bad taste. He concludes with these words: “...for what should be the end of music if not the love of beauty?” (pg 108).

    Harmony and rhythm, grace, and justice are the details Socrates gives to define a man raised musically. Plato asserts that, as an individual in his state, a warrior must be brought up through gymnastics and music in order to be a man of justice. Besides being in powerful physical condition, a warrior must have a love for beauty if he is going to defend the principles of justice in his state. The appreciation of the purpose of music is essential for creating a society that values justice as a tool to protect the citizens. According to Plato, music has an impact on the soul that builds an individual into who he will be, and the end of music, if virtuous and right, will be the love of beauty.