%0 Journal Article
%T The concept of music evolution in Herbert Spencer¡¯s and Charles Darwin¡¯s theories
%A Petrov Ana
%J Filozofija i Dru£¿tvo
%D 2012
%I Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade
%R 10.2298/fid1203253p
%X This paper deals with the discourses on music in Herbert Spencer¡¯s and Charles Darwin¡¯s theories of evolution. Even though both Spencer and Darwin construed music as a carrier of the expression of affects and a part of a ubiquitous evolutional process towards ever increasing progress of culture, these authors¡¯ discourses differed from each other in the understanding of the origin and function of music. Darwin considered music as being one of the (natural) means of making a selection during the process of evolution of the humans as a biological species. Notwithstanding certain similarities to Darwin, Spencer (as well as his followers) discussed music as a part of a socio-cultural evolution, which entailed an approach to music as a historical and cultural phenomenon. I will here elaborate the position of the discourses on music in Spencer¡¯s and Darwin¡¯s general theories of evolution, point out to the relevant aspects of the concept of music evolution and mention the influence that these theories had on the 19th-century official discourses on music.
%K Charles Darwin
%K discourses on music
%K evolutionism
%K music evolution
%K Herbert Spencer
%K the origin of music
%U http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0353-5738/2012/0353-57381203253P.pdf