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Socrates & Plato on music: uh-oh

stubhead

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"Any musical innovation is full of danger to the whole state, and ought to be prohibited . . . when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them."
- Socrates

Socrates also did extensive study into the effects of music, recognizing its potential as an instrument of indoctrination and character development:

"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."
Well at least I know what went wrong now....

Plato observed the effect that music had on society in his day and made this thought provoking statement.
"In order to take the spiritual temperature of an individual or society, one must mark the music."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOAZZD9Dcxo
 
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