| Title | Music, Poetry, and Politics in Averroes’s Commentary on Plato’s “Republic” |
| Type | Book Section |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2022 |
| Published in | Plato's Republic in the Islamic Context. New Perspectives on Averroes's Commentary |
| Pages | 87–110 |
| Categories | Poetics, Politics, Plato |
| Author(s) | Douglas Kries |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
| As our title announces, the current essay will explore three subjects that, in Averroes's Commentary on Plato's “Republic,” lead from one into another, almost like a short series of stepping-stones. The first part of the essay will consider the treatment of music in the Commentary, arguing that Averroes effectively reduces music to poetry. The second of the stepping-stones will show that the Commentary credits poetry with educating the young especially and in that way transforms poetry into a political art for disciplining and educating citizens. The third will take up the question of the Andalusian's extended criticism of poetry's common practice of offering pleasurable prizes and rewards for virtue and show how the Commentator applies this criticism of poetry to the very author on whom he is commenting. In pursuing all three of these questions, we will focus squarely on Averroes's Commentary on Plato's “Republic,” attempting to understand that text on its own terms but against its obvious background, the Republic of Plato. Nevertheless, in pursuing the teaching of The Commentary on Plato's “Republic,” we cannot neglect the important research that has been done in recent decades on classical Islamic philosophy's understanding of Aristotle's Organon generally and of the Poetics in particular. We will therefore turn to the reports of other scholars on these aspects of Averroes, at least to the extent that such reports will be helpful in enabling us to understand better the Commentary on Plato's “Republic.” In the Republic, Plato initiates his analysis of the education of the guardians with a discussion of music in the latter portions of book 2; that discussion extends through much of book 3. Averroes's corresponding treatment of the education of the guardians through music is in the “First Treatise” of the Commentary, mostly in a relatively lengthy and isolable section that extends from 29.9 through 36.5. During his treatment of music, Plato divides his subject into three parts: “melody is composed of three things—speech, harmonic mode, and rhythm.” Averroes seems to accept this division, although he inverts the order of the three elements: “A melody occurring in a narrative is composed of three things: rhythm, harmonic mode, and the speech to which the melody is set” (34.30–31). |
{"_index":"bib","_type":"_doc","_id":"5350","_score":null,"_source":{"id":5350,"authors_free":[{"id":6200,"entry_id":5350,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":null,"person_id":null,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Douglas Kries","free_first_name":"Douglas","free_last_name":"Kries","norm_person":null}],"entry_title":"Music, Poetry, and Politics in Averroes\u2019s Commentary on Plato\u2019s \u201cRepublic\u201d","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","main_title":{"title":"Music, Poetry, and Politics in Averroes\u2019s Commentary on Plato\u2019s \u201cRepublic\u201d"},"abstract":"As our title announces, the current essay will explore three subjects that, in Averroes's Commentary on Plato's \u201cRepublic,\u201d lead from one into another, almost like a short series of stepping-stones. The first part of the essay will consider the treatment of music in the Commentary, arguing that Averroes effectively reduces music to poetry. The second of the stepping-stones will show that the Commentary credits poetry with educating the young especially and in that way transforms poetry into a political art for disciplining and educating citizens. The third will take up the question of the Andalusian's extended criticism of poetry's common practice of offering pleasurable prizes and rewards for virtue and show how the Commentator applies this criticism of poetry to the very author on whom he is commenting. In pursuing all three of these questions, we will focus squarely on Averroes's Commentary on Plato's \u201cRepublic,\u201d attempting to understand that text on its own terms but against its obvious background, the Republic of Plato. Nevertheless, in pursuing the teaching of The Commentary on Plato's \u201cRepublic,\u201d we cannot neglect the important research that has been done in recent decades on classical Islamic philosophy's understanding of Aristotle's Organon generally and of the Poetics in particular. We will therefore turn to the reports of other scholars on these aspects of Averroes, at least to the extent that such reports will be helpful in enabling us to understand better the Commentary on Plato's \u201cRepublic.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn the Republic, Plato initiates his analysis of the education of the guardians with a discussion of music in the latter portions of book 2; that discussion extends through much of book 3. Averroes's corresponding treatment of the education of the guardians through music is in the \u201cFirst Treatise\u201d of the Commentary, mostly in a relatively lengthy and isolable section that extends from 29.9 through 36.5. During his treatment of music, Plato divides his subject into three parts: \u201cmelody is composed of three things\u2014speech, harmonic mode, and rhythm.\u201d Averroes seems to accept this division, although he inverts the order of the three elements: \u201cA melody occurring in a narrative is composed of three things: rhythm, harmonic mode, and the speech to which the melody is set\u201d (34.30\u201331).","btype":2,"date":"2022","language":"English","online_url":"","doi_url":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/9781800104983.005","ti_url":"","categories":[{"id":44,"category_name":"Poetics","link":"bib?categories[]=Poetics"},{"id":4,"category_name":"Politics","link":"bib?categories[]=Politics"},{"id":20,"category_name":"Plato","link":"bib?categories[]=Plato"}],"authors":[],"works":[],"republication_of":null,"translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"book":null,"booksection":{"id":5350,"section_of":5346,"pages":"87\u2013110","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":5346,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":"bibliography","type":4,"language":"en","title":"Plato's Republic in the Islamic Context. New Perspectives on Averroes's Commentary","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","short_title":"","has_no_author":null,"volume":null,"date":"2022","edition_no":null,"free_date":null,"abstract":"","republication_of":0,"online_url":"","online_resources":null,"translation_of":"0","new_edition_of":"0","is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"ti_url":"","doi_url":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/9781800104983","book":{"id":5346,"pubplace":"","publisher":" Boydell & Brewer","series":"","volume":"","edition_no":"","valid_from":null,"valid_until":null},"persons":[{"id":6196,"entry_id":5346,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":null,"person_id":null,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"},"free_name":" Alexander Orwin","free_first_name":" Alexander","free_last_name":" Orwin","norm_person":null}]}},"article":null},"sort":[2022]}
| Title | Music, Poetry, and Politics in Averroes’s Commentary on Plato’s “Republic” |
| Type | Book Section |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2022 |
| Published in | Plato's Republic in the Islamic Context. New Perspectives on Averroes's Commentary |
| Pages | 87–110 |
| Categories | Poetics, Politics, Plato |
| Author(s) | Douglas Kries |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
| As our title announces, the current essay will explore three subjects that, in Averroes's Commentary on Plato's “Republic,” lead from one into another, almost like a short series of stepping-stones. The first part of the essay will consider the treatment of music in the Commentary, arguing that Averroes effectively reduces music to poetry. The second of the stepping-stones will show that the Commentary credits poetry with educating the young especially and in that way transforms poetry into a political art for disciplining and educating citizens. The third will take up the question of the Andalusian's extended criticism of poetry's common practice of offering pleasurable prizes and rewards for virtue and show how the Commentator applies this criticism of poetry to the very author on whom he is commenting. In pursuing all three of these questions, we will focus squarely on Averroes's Commentary on Plato's “Republic,” attempting to understand that text on its own terms but against its obvious background, the Republic of Plato. Nevertheless, in pursuing the teaching of The Commentary on Plato's “Republic,” we cannot neglect the important research that has been done in recent decades on classical Islamic philosophy's understanding of Aristotle's Organon generally and of the Poetics in particular. We will therefore turn to the reports of other scholars on these aspects of Averroes, at least to the extent that such reports will be helpful in enabling us to understand better the Commentary on Plato's “Republic.” In the Republic, Plato initiates his analysis of the education of the guardians with a discussion of music in the latter portions of book 2; that discussion extends through much of book 3. Averroes's corresponding treatment of the education of the guardians through music is in the “First Treatise” of the Commentary, mostly in a relatively lengthy and isolable section that extends from 29.9 through 36.5. During his treatment of music, Plato divides his subject into three parts: “melody is composed of three things—speech, harmonic mode, and rhythm.” Averroes seems to accept this division, although he inverts the order of the three elements: “A melody occurring in a narrative is composed of three things: rhythm, harmonic mode, and the speech to which the melody is set” (34.30–31). |
{"_index":"bib","_type":"_doc","_id":"5350","_score":null,"_source":{"id":5350,"authors_free":[{"id":6200,"entry_id":5350,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":null,"person_id":null,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Douglas Kries","free_first_name":"Douglas","free_last_name":"Kries","norm_person":null}],"entry_title":"Music, Poetry, and Politics in Averroes\u2019s Commentary on Plato\u2019s \u201cRepublic\u201d","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","main_title":{"title":"Music, Poetry, and Politics in Averroes\u2019s Commentary on Plato\u2019s \u201cRepublic\u201d"},"abstract":"As our title announces, the current essay will explore three subjects that, in Averroes's Commentary on Plato's \u201cRepublic,\u201d lead from one into another, almost like a short series of stepping-stones. The first part of the essay will consider the treatment of music in the Commentary, arguing that Averroes effectively reduces music to poetry. The second of the stepping-stones will show that the Commentary credits poetry with educating the young especially and in that way transforms poetry into a political art for disciplining and educating citizens. The third will take up the question of the Andalusian's extended criticism of poetry's common practice of offering pleasurable prizes and rewards for virtue and show how the Commentator applies this criticism of poetry to the very author on whom he is commenting. In pursuing all three of these questions, we will focus squarely on Averroes's Commentary on Plato's \u201cRepublic,\u201d attempting to understand that text on its own terms but against its obvious background, the Republic of Plato. Nevertheless, in pursuing the teaching of The Commentary on Plato's \u201cRepublic,\u201d we cannot neglect the important research that has been done in recent decades on classical Islamic philosophy's understanding of Aristotle's Organon generally and of the Poetics in particular. We will therefore turn to the reports of other scholars on these aspects of Averroes, at least to the extent that such reports will be helpful in enabling us to understand better the Commentary on Plato's \u201cRepublic.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn the Republic, Plato initiates his analysis of the education of the guardians with a discussion of music in the latter portions of book 2; that discussion extends through much of book 3. Averroes's corresponding treatment of the education of the guardians through music is in the \u201cFirst Treatise\u201d of the Commentary, mostly in a relatively lengthy and isolable section that extends from 29.9 through 36.5. During his treatment of music, Plato divides his subject into three parts: \u201cmelody is composed of three things\u2014speech, harmonic mode, and rhythm.\u201d Averroes seems to accept this division, although he inverts the order of the three elements: \u201cA melody occurring in a narrative is composed of three things: rhythm, harmonic mode, and the speech to which the melody is set\u201d (34.30\u201331).","btype":2,"date":"2022","language":"English","online_url":"","doi_url":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/9781800104983.005","ti_url":"","categories":[{"id":44,"category_name":"Poetics","link":"bib?categories[]=Poetics"},{"id":4,"category_name":"Politics","link":"bib?categories[]=Politics"},{"id":20,"category_name":"Plato","link":"bib?categories[]=Plato"}],"authors":[],"works":[],"republication_of":null,"translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"book":null,"booksection":{"id":5350,"section_of":5346,"pages":"87\u2013110","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":5346,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":"bibliography","type":4,"language":"en","title":"Plato's Republic in the Islamic Context. New Perspectives on Averroes's Commentary","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","short_title":"","has_no_author":null,"volume":null,"date":"2022","edition_no":null,"free_date":null,"abstract":"","republication_of":0,"online_url":"","online_resources":null,"translation_of":"0","new_edition_of":"0","is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"ti_url":"","doi_url":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/9781800104983","book":{"id":5346,"pubplace":"","publisher":" Boydell & Brewer","series":"","volume":"","edition_no":"","valid_from":null,"valid_until":null},"persons":[{"id":6196,"entry_id":5346,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":null,"person_id":null,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"},"free_name":" Alexander Orwin","free_first_name":" Alexander","free_last_name":" Orwin","norm_person":null}]}},"article":null},"sort":["Music, Poetry, and Politics in Averroes\u2019s Commentary on Plato\u2019s \u201cRepublic\u201d"]}