Czy muzyka jest symbolem porządku moralnego? Koncepcje Gisèle Brelet i Pascala Quignarda

The paper examines Gisèle Brelet’s and Pascal Quignard’s concepts concerning the relation between music and morality. The fi rst consideration involves Gisèle Brelet’s assumption that music always helps to instill virtue in the listeners. Brelet claims that we can train ourselves to be better people by listening to absolute (instrumental) music in particular. Contrary to Brelet’s intuition, Pascal Quignard, in his controversial discussion of music in La haine de la musique (Hatred of music), asks how we could be moved by Schubert and at the same time be able to act ferociously? How to explain the coexistence of Holocausts and terror campaigns on one hand, and the aesthetic sensibilities of the persons responsible for such evil on the other? In my paper, I give a sympathetic hearing to both Brelet’s and Quignard’s perspectives. I try to respond to some likely objections to Brelet’s idealism and Quignard’s skepticism.