Aquinas, the 'Great Theory of Beauty', and Music | Prof. Michael Dickson

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

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Summary

Professor Michael Dickson examines the relationship between beauty and music, tracing the development of aesthetic theories from ancient Greek philosophers to modern thinkers. He critiques modernist approaches that dismiss beauty in art and architecture and advocates for a return to the "great theory of beauty" which emphasizes proportion, clarity, and integrity.

This lecture was given on February 20th, 2024, at University of South Carolina.

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About the Speaker:

Professor Michael Dickson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina. His research interests are in the philosophy of music, philosophy of psychiatry, and medieval philosophy. He has also worked in the philosophy of physics, especially quantum theory. He is the author of Quantum Chance and Nonlocality (1998).

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Thomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.8	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:13.1	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.1	To learn more and to attend these events,
0:21.7	visit us at to mystic institute.org.
0:25.1	Thank you, Kendall.
0:26.3	A few weeks ago, I gave a talk in the South Carolina Study Center
0:29.5	that was heavy on Aquinas.
0:31.3	So I'm in an interest of not repeating myself,
0:34.6	this one's gonna be somewhat lighter on Aquinas,
0:36.4	although Aquinas will come up from time to time. And Aquinas' views are motivating a lot of what I say, but I'm
0:42.3	not going to make a lot of explicit reference to the text of Aquinas, just a few of them.
0:48.3	And so with that idea in mind, I thought I'd offer an alternative title. Both titles are fine. They both
0:53.3	work. The alternative title is what titles are fine. They both work.
0:59.0	The alternative title is what is good music and what good is music?
1:01.9	I may not get to the second half of the second question.
1:05.7	We'll see after I get to on with the first question if there's time to say something about the second.
1:09.0	If not, we could talk about it in the question period if you're interested.
1:12.6	I'm going to read to you because if I don't read, then I'll get too excited about one topic and spend the rest of the time on that.
1:16.6	This keeps me disciplined, but I'll try to stay animated for you.
1:20.6	So let's get into considering what is good music
1:25.6	by considering church architecture. During roughly the middle of
	...

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