"Like all the arts, music is founded upon the exalted symbols of the moral sense. To submit to these inscrutable laws, and by means of these laws to tame and guided our own mind so that the manifestations of art may pour out: this is the isolating principle of art. To be dissolved in its manifestations: this is our dedication to the divine,which calmly exercises its power over the raging of untamed elements, and so lends to the human imagination its highest effectiveness, so always art should represent the divine, and the relation of the human person toward art is religion. What we obtain from art comes from God, its divine inspiration which appoints an aim for human faculties, which we cannot attain on our own."
How about defining it as an instance of functional complexity? And treating the list of properties as following necessarily from this definition? Okay, this is very diamond-in-the-rough (or perhaps zirconium...) but here goes my thoughts on the matter: (Complexity) Many diverse parts (functional) acting for the sake of the whole I think I need to add something like "not as the instrument of another" or something like that. Given that they act together as one whole and given entropy, etc., the organism will need to posses more order than its surroundings (homeostasis). It will therefore need to take in energy (nutrition), which it will use to sustain its readiness to interact with its environment so as to preserve its own being (homeostasis again?), but which will eventually break down (death), so that in order for that life form to continue it will need to duplicate itself (reproduction), which, upon occurring, will involve both development (growth) to maturity and...
Comments