Music and the Exploration of Consciousness

Education, Philosophy, and Religion department (2nd floor) in the Parkway Central Library (1901 Vine Street) 

Free. Refreshments will be served.

From Thomas-

How does music affect us so profoundly? How does this art form, which is, after all, just wiggles in the air, make us feel emotions sometimes even stronger and stranger than those of our everyday lives? How is it able, in rare moments, to transport us into frenzy, rapture, ecstasy, and other far-out states of mind? I have been grappling with these questions for a few years now, most recently in the form of a first-year seminar I taught at UPenn in Fall 2025. In this talk, I will share some perspectives from scholarly traditions such as musicology, aesthetics, anthropology, religious studies, and brain science. I will also offer up a few things for us to read, listen to, and ponder as we reason together about the mystery…