A. F. LOSEV ON THE NEOPLATONIC ESSENCE OF MUSIC IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF SUBSTANTIAL MUSICAL EXISTENCE (TO THE 130TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF ALEKSEY FEDOROVICH LOSEV)
G. G. Kolomiets
Orenburg State University, Orenburg, Russia
e-mail: kolomietsgg@yandex.ru
Abstract. The article is written in connection with the anniversaries of the life of the great Russian thinker Alexey Fedorovich Losev and is devoted to one of the aspects of his aesthetic research related to the interpretation of music in Neoplatonism. This article makes sense to emphasize the substantial ontological essence of music, relying on Losev’s phenomenological-dialectical method, on his commitment to Neoplatonism as the last significant ancient philosophical movement. Losev considered the philosophical foundations of music in the cosmological treatises of such philosophers as Quintilian, Proclus, Sallust. Touching upon the ancient origins of the philosophy of music as an aesthetic field, the author refers to the Pythagorean teaching of the divine number and the musical harmony of the spheres. At the same time, Neoplatonic ancient philosophy demonstrates different types of existence of music, or ancient Greek music. The combination of the logical and the illogical in Losev’s philosophical thinking allows the author to present through the prism of the philosophy of substantial musical existence the closeness of the idea of the existence of the music of the Neoplatonists, proceeding from the ideas of the One, and Losev, the divine unity, where the thought of music goes far beyond the limits of the actual musical art. Music in philosophical knowledge is outside of art as world harmony, substance, becoming in time, divine number, or the life of numbers, the expression of the numerical first principle. In the sources, the author used the works of A. F. Losev: “The History of ancient Aesthetics”, “Dialectics of myth”, “Dialectical foundations of mathematics”, which presents a deep connection between mathematics and music. At the same time, the author relied on his aesthetic research “The Logos of music in the phenomenological-dialectical method of A. F. Losev”, and other chapters of his book “The Value of Music: a philosophical aspect” and his dissertation “The concept of the value of music as a substance and a way of value interaction of a person with the world”. Summarizing, the author moves from the dialectic of musical-substantial being to the philosophical concept of “musical” as an aesthetic category that requires further research.
Key words: A. F. Losev, aesthetics, Neoplatonism, philosophy of music, substance, musical, dialectic, myth, connection of music and mathematics.
Cite as: Kolomiets, G. G. (2023) [A. F. Losev on the Neoplatonic Essence of Music in the Context of the Philosophy of Substantial Musical Existence (to the 130th Anniversary of the Birth of Aleksey Fedorovich Losev)]. Intellekt. Innova cii. Investicii [Intellect. Innovations. Investments]. Vol. 5, pp. 121–129, https://doi.org/10.25198/2077-7175-2023-5-121.
