A. F. Losev’s phenomenology of pure musical being

Annotation

Phenomenological approach to the study of arts has its own peculiarities, which have formed since the emergence of this direction in philosophy. Phenomenology is interested in music to a greater extent due to its abstract nature; although it does not have a material form like sculpture, painting or architecture, music is extremely capable of influencing the psycho-emotional state of a person. It may seem that physiology, psychology and physics should be the basis of such studies, but, as A. F. Losev shows in his work “Music as a Subject of Logic”, this basis cannot fully explain the phenomenon of real, authentic music. In order to comprehend or, at least, to touch the real phenomenon of music, the thinker introduces the concept of “pure musical existence”, which, in turn, has its own basic provisions. The aim of the article is to examine and analyse the concept of pure musical existence proposed by A. F. Losev in its specificity and structure. By examining the fundamentals, according to A. F. Losev, a conclusion is formed that pure musical existence is a hyletic being, manifesting itself in a chaotic form; music is a struggle with selfhood, but has in itself the life of numbers, hence the philosopher's reliance on the ancient idea of the connection between mathematics and music becomes obvious, but A. F. Losev endows the former with logicality and the latter with illogicality.

Keywords

• art
• music
• phenomenology
• phenomenology of art
• phenomenology of music
• phenomenological analysis
• musical being
• philosophy of art, philosophy of music
• A. F. Losev
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Contribution of the authors

Bocharkin D. V. – research concept, conducting the research, justification of the purpose of the article, writing the draft, final conclusions; Matyushova M. P. – scientific management, conducting the research, follow-on revision of the text, text preparation and editing, approval of the final version.

References

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