Harmony and melody in Kant's second analogy of experience

Resumo

My aim in this paper is to examine how, from a Kantian perspective, the model of the Second Analogy of Experience could be applied to the perception of objective successions and coexistences of musical sounds, that is to say, to the hearing of chords and melodic lines. I begin by showing how the reasoning of the Second Analogy can reasonably be transferred to this new realm of experience; I examine, then, some difficulties related to this proposed transference of the Kantian argument; and I conclude by raising and answering some objections that could be made against my proposal.