Sound and Reason: Synesthesia as Metacognition

ISBN-13: 9789811923395 / Angielski / Twarda / 2022

Sven Hroar Klempe

Opis

This book is about the human mental capacities that are mostly veiled in the use of language yet can be revealed through music activities. In speech, just one word is articulated at the time, whereas in music different pitches sound simultaneously. This conflict demonstrates that rationality must be regarded as relative, as rationality in music may create chaos in speech. Moreover, investigating the role of sound in synesthesia reveals that its aesthetic combinations are related to the human capacity to enjoy different types of harmonies in music. Drawing on new research regarding synesthesia as a more fundamental basis for human cognition, this book brings this a step further by introducing synesthesia as a general metacognitive process, hinting at the aesthetical origin of fundamental logical operations. Bringing together a number of cultural perspectives on music, language, and mathematics, this volume expertly illustrates that music reveals a fundamental system that deeply combines the sensorial and the intellectual human capacities.

Spis treści

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. The Understanding of Music in Early Psychology and Musicology

Chapter 3. The Experimental Psychology’s Use of Music to Uncover Mental Capabilities

Chapter 4. Polyphony as a Higher Mental Function

Chapter 5. A Psychological Approach to Complexity: Synesthesia

Chapter 6. Sound and Communication

Chapter 7. Systems and Complexity

Chapter 8. Musical Systems

Chapter 9. Music in Literature

Chapter 10. From Synesthesia to Metacognition./

O autorze

Sven Hroar Klempe (born 1955, Mag.art., Dr.art.) is full Professor in Psychology at the Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. His background includes full Professor in Musicology, Assoc. Prof. in Media Studies, teacher and journalist.

Blurb

This book is about the human mental capacities that are mostly veiled in the use of language yet can be revealed through music activities. In speech, just one word is articulated at the time, whereas in music different pitches sound simultaneously. This conflict demonstrates that rationality must be regarded as relative, as rationality in music may create chaos in speech. Moreover, investigating the role of sound in synesthesia reveals that its aesthetic combinations are related to the human capacity to enjoy different types of harmonies in music. Drawing on new research regarding synesthesia as a more fundamental basis for human cognition, this book brings this a step further by introducing synesthesia as a general metacognitive process, hinting at the aesthetical origin of fundamental logical operations. Bringing together a number of cultural perspectives on music, language, and mathematics, this volume expertly illustrates that music reveals a fundamental system that deeply combines the sensorial and the intellectual human capacities.

Sven Hroar Klempe (born 1955, Mag.art., Dr.art.) is full Professor in Psychology at the Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. His background includes full Professor in Musicology, Assoc. Prof. in Media Studies, teacher and journalist.