Manuel Figueroa Bonilla
Manuel Figueroa Bonilla was born in 1992 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he currently lives. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the Pennsylvania State University (2014), a Juris Doctor from the University of Puerto Rico School of Law (2017), and a Master's Degree in Philosophy from the University of Puerto Rico (2021). His thesis dissertation for the award of the latter degree is titled La Educación Musical en los libros II y III de la República de Platón (Musical Education in Books II and III of Plato's Republic), and was supervised by Dr. Étienne Helmer, PhD. This research is on the importance of the concept of music in educational and political philosophy in Plato’s Republic.
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western canon philosophers of antiquity. While a rich musical culture can be gathered from the available historiography of classical Greece, and such a study is indispensable to an understanding of mousiké and classic philosophy of music, Plato’s treatment of the subject laid new ground in the understanding of mousiké, postulating it as the most vulnerable arena in the polis. If Pythagoras was perhaps the great pioneer of musical philosophy, Plato must be credited with setting it at the foundation of not only education, but politics as well. In Plato's Republic, the most important stage of education is childhood; the vehicles of this education are mousiké for the soul (or mind) and gymnastics for the body. Thus, an understanding of the term mousiké is necessary for a complete picture of Plato’s philosophical range in the Republic. The Greek word mousiké describes that which is in the domain of the muses, arts that encompass music, poetry, song and dance. As E.R. Cummings stated, “In the view of Antiquity, [the muses] belonged not only to poetry but to all higher forms of intellectual life besides”; or as Strabo said, “all educated men are servants of the Muses”. Thus, a musical education for Plato describes a cultural education, where music is central, as will be demonstrated. By recognizing mousike’s role in shaping early psychology, and regarding a psychological approach to politics as the key to an understanding of political philosophy, Plato
brings to light a theory of music with mankind at its center.
Conference Presentations
western canon philosophers of antiquity. While a rich musical culture can be gathered from the available historiography of classical Greece, and such a study is indispensable to an understanding of mousiké and classic philosophy of music, Plato’s treatment of the subject laid new ground in the understanding of mousiké, postulating it as the most vulnerable arena in the polis. If Pythagoras was perhaps the great pioneer of musical philosophy, Plato must be credited with setting it at the foundation of not only education, but politics as well. In Plato's Republic, the most important stage of education is childhood; the vehicles of this education are mousiké for the soul (or mind) and gymnastics for the body. Thus, an understanding of the term mousiké is necessary for a complete picture of Plato’s philosophical range in the Republic. The Greek word mousiké describes that which is in the domain of the muses, arts that encompass music, poetry, song and dance. As E.R. Cummings stated, “In the view of Antiquity, [the muses] belonged not only to poetry but to all higher forms of intellectual life besides”; or as Strabo said, “all educated men are servants of the Muses”. Thus, a musical education for Plato describes a cultural education, where music is central, as will be demonstrated. By recognizing mousike’s role in shaping early psychology, and regarding a psychological approach to politics as the key to an understanding of political philosophy, Plato
brings to light a theory of music with mankind at its center.