The passions and cognitive functions of music

“Music is an enigma.” Why do we enjoy music? Why did this ability to enjoy sound appears in evolution? Why animal cries evolved toward Palestrina, Bach, and Justin Bieber. Aristotle was the first one to ask this question: “Why does music, being just sounds, remind us of the states of our soul?” Many great minds tried to answer this question, from Pythagoras to Helmholtz. Even Kant, who explained the emotions of the beautiful by relating it to knowledge, could not explain music: “it merely plays with senses.” Darwin thought that his theory of evolution can explain everything in the living world, with one exception: “Music is the greatest mystery.” Today evolutionary musicologists agree with Darwin. Pinker repeats Kant: music is “auditory cheesecake,” for biological causes and effects “music is useless”.

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