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A philosophical exploration of aesthetic experience during
bereavement. In Aesthetics of Grief and Mourning, philosopher
Kathleen Marie Higgins reflects on the ways aesthetics aids people
experiencing loss. Some practices related to bereavement, such as
funerals, are scripted, but many others are recursive,
improvisational, mundane--telling stories, listening to music, and
reflecting on art or literature. Higgins shows how valuing these
grounding, aesthetic practices can ease the disorienting effects of
loss, shedding new light on the importance of aesthetics for
personal and communal flourishing.
Although many of the world's musical traditions recognize the
positive value of music for ethical life, the Western philosophical
tradition has largely forgotten this idea. The dominance of
formalism in musical aesthetics has encouraged this abandonment of
the idea that music has an ethical dimension. Greater attention to
musical experience and to the way that context affects the meaning
that music has to performers and listeners helps to bring music's
ethical potential into focus. In The Music of Our Lives, Kathleen
Higgins argues that the arguments that Plato used to defend the
ethical value of music are still applicable today. Music encourages
ethically valuable attitudes and behavior, provides practice in
skills that are valuable in ethical life, and symbolizes ethical
ideals and the possibility of interpersonal harmony. In these ways
it develops our ability to live well and to think clearly about our
ethical situation. Music provides a model for the good human life.
Nietzsche's Zarathustra takes an interdisciplinary approach to
Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, focusing on the philosophical
function of its literary techniques and its fictional mode of
presentation. It argues that the fictional format is essential to
Nietzsche's philosophical message in his work. Part of that message
is Nietzsche's alternative to the Western worldview as developed by
Plato's dialogues and the Christian Gospel, which he presents
through the teachings of his hero, Zarathustra. Another part of
that message is that any doctrine, including those of Zarathustra
himself, has an ambivalent nature. Although doctrinal formulations
are designed to preserve and communicate philosophical insights,
they can become dead formulas, out of touch with the live
philosophical discoveries that they aimed to capture. Thus Spoke
Zarathustra explores Zarathustra's own vulnerability to this risk,
and his way of regaining real connection with living wisdom. The
doctrine of eternal recurrence, which is particular prominent in
Zarathustra, is a case in point. The doctrine is offered in
opposition to the worldview that Nietzsche associates with the
Christian doctrine of sin, which in his view promotes a view of
this life as devoid of intrinsic value. However, certain ways of
adhering to this doctrine themselves rob life of its value. The
book also defends the importance of Part IV of Thus Spoke
Zarathustra, which many scholars have seen as unimportant by
comparison with the first three parts. Nietzsche's Zarathustra
argues that Part III would not have been a culmination for the
work, and that Part IV is essential to Nietzsche's project. Part
IV's allusions to Apuleius' The Golden Ass, an ancient Menippean
satire, suggest that it should be read as a satire in which
Zarathustra falls into and recovers from folly. It is thus the
culminating statement of the point that there is always a
discrepancy between the living philosophical insight and any
attempt to articulate it,
From our first social bonding as infants to the funeral rites that
mark our passing, music plays an important role in our lives,
bringing us closer to one another. In The Music between Us,
philosopher Kathleen Marie Higgins investigates this role,
examining the features of human perception that enable music's
uncanny ability to provoke, despite its myriad forms across
continents and throughout centuries, the sense of a shared human
experience. Drawing on disciplines such as philosophy, psychology,
musicology, linguistics, and anthropology, Higgins' richly
researched study showcases the ways music is used in rituals,
education, work, healing, and as a source of security and - perhaps
most importantly - joy. By participating so integrally in such
meaningful facets of society, Higgins argues, music situates itself
as one of the most fundamental bridges between people, a truly
cross-cultural form of communication that can create solidarity
across political divides. Moving beyond the well-worn takes on
music's universality, The Music between Us provides a new
understanding of what it means to be musical and, in turn, human.
From our first social bonding as infants to the funeral rites that
mark our passing, music plays an important role in our lives,
bringing us closer to one another. In "The Music between Us",
philosopher Kathleen Marie Higgins investigates this role,
examining the features of human perception that enable music's
uncanny ability to provoke, despite its myriad forms across
continents and throughout centuries, the sense of a shared human
experience. Drawing on disciplines such as philosophy, psychology,
musicology, linguistics, and anthropology, Higgins's richly
researched study showcases the ways music is used in rituals,
education, work, healing, and as a source of security and - perhaps
most importantly - joy. By participating so integrally in such
meaningful facets of society, Higgins argues, music situates itself
as one of the most fundamental bridges between people, a truly
cross-cultural form of communication that can create solidarity
across political divides. Moving beyond the well-worn takes on
music's universality, "The Music between Us" provides a new
understanding of what it means to be musical and, in turn, human.
This book offers a lively and unorthodox analysis of Nietzsche by examining a neglected aspect of his scholarly personality - his sense of humour. While often thought of as ponderous and melancholy, the Nietzsche of Higgins's study is a surprisingly subtle and light-hearted writer. She presents a close reading of The Gay Science to show how the numerous literary risks that Nietzsche takes reveal humour to be central to his project. Higgins argues that his use of humour is intended to dislodge readers from their usual somber detachment and to incite imaginative thinking.
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