Monaco 3/6 philosophical meetings. – Exclusively for Madame Figaroand in collaboration with PhiloMonaco Week, which runs until June 16, six philosophers shed sensitive light on the essence of being. Today, with philosopher and author Vincent Delecroix*, we learn to rediscover the song of our feelings.
Let us imagine for a moment that philosophers do not always say anything. Around 1755 Rousseau wrote a Essay on the origin of languages, remained unfinished. It is actually an essay on music in which he takes the side of Italian melody and singing against the privileging of French music, in this case Rameau, based on harmony, mathematical relationships. How does this musicological debate relate to language? It raises a brilliant hypothesis. we started singing before we could talk.
Undoubtedly, an obscure hypothesis, the fruitfulness of which is quite confirmed. before being a tool for conveying ideas and information, language is first devoted to the expression of feelings and emotions. We began to feel before thinking and language to affect. the heart makes the tongue sing before reason makes it speak. Because emotions are sung and made to be sung, opera knows something about this. And they remain in the musicality of the tone, the modulation of the voice. It is there, at this musical edge of speech, that the speaker really stands. But reason dominates language, it disappoints us. The meaning (of words) becomes a great thing, the expressiveness of the voice becomes parasitic.
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“We talk to each other, but we don’t express anything anymore”
At the end of this story, there is a neutral and tuneless language of information exchange: we talk to each other, but we no longer express anything. What remains of the song in our voice? When did we stop being lyrical? These questions can be asked of human history on the way to a more instrumental use of language, words without music. You can also ask yourself these questions: When is the chirping of a child still in my mouth or the fragile melody of the feeling of love? And when will emotion overcome my thin voice again to vibrate? Philosophers talk nonsense, says the neutral voice of scientists. But, really, it is Rousseau who, fortunately, whispers in my ear from time to time. “What did you do to your voice?”
Vincent Delecroix is Director of Studies in Philosophy of Religion at the École Pratique des Hautes Études-PSL. He posted a remarkable post Sing (Ed. Poche Champs-Champs essays Flammarion), and recently Shipwreck
(Ed. Gallimard).
PhiloMonaco Week is organized from Tuesday June 11 to Sunday June 16 by Rencontres Philosophiques de Monaco, chaired by co-founder Charlotte Casiraghi. Free and open to all. In the program: ecology, education, care, woman, art of living and the pleasure of philosophizing.
The matches are broadcast live and replayed on philomonaco.com
Source: Le Figaro
