Josef Haydn and Thomas Nagel on Continuity in Nature and the Nature of Continuity
Josef Haydn and Thomas Nagel on Continuity in Nature and the Nature of Continuity
David Beckwith Greene
ABSTRACT
According to Thomas Nagel, neo-Darwinians do not recognize the radical discontinuity between subjective experience and materially conceived reality. He calls for a new understanding of preconscious matter such that genuine continuity between it and subjectivity may become intelligible. According to Monroe Beardsley, music presents modes of continuation. An analysis of modes of continuation in Haydn’s “The Creation” shows that the continuity within the humankind aria and between it and the preceding arias models what Nagel is seeking: Both a fresh grasp on the discontinuity between humankind and other moments of natural history and a new kind of continuity.
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