Comment

Comment by Dr. Martin E. Rosenberg on April 27, 2009 at 2:06pm

Nelson: What I like about this passage is your invocation of an ethics of music performance implied by the responsibility of the musician to create positive effects. One of the most important cognitive scientists that I pay attention to is Francisco Varela (d.1999), who with Humberto Maturana, helped develop the concept of _autopoiesis_, first in neurobiology, and then in information theory and then in cognitive science. It has influenced our understanding of how cognition _happens_ in all living things, it has transformed our understanding of computers and their emergent behavior, and grounded our understanding of the relationship between science and Eastern epistemologies. He was a practicing Buddhist, capable of writing for MIT Press or Shambalah Press. He wrote a very short, but I think a very important book, called _Ethical Know-how: Action, Wisdom and Cognition_ from the Writing Sciences Series at Stanford UP. He defines a wise person as "one who knows what is good and spontaneously does it." This is what Krishna was trying to teach Arjuna when he says "Established in Being, Perform Action." This is also the core concept in Judaism: "Tikkun Olam," which means to repair the world--a concept originating in the Kabbalistic writings of Isaac Luria, and which has had enormous influence: through the philosopher Henri Bergson (d.1941), and through Bergson, the stream of cognitive science I'm most interested in (Merleau-Ponty to Varela in particular), as well as to the emergence or self-organization thread in contemporary complexity (and chaos) theory, particularly the work of Nobel Laureate Ilya Prigogine. I believe that there is something central to the experience of jazz that spontaneously conforms to the imperative to make the world a better place. I think that what you have to say, what philosophers like Bergson and Deleuze have to say, what physicists like Prigogine have to say, what cognitive scientists like Varela have to say, are deeply embedded because they share both a recognition, and a commitment, to effect an _evolutionary_ trajectory for human civilization.

Comment by James R. Meny on September 12, 2008 at 7:13pm

I'm sold. Where can I find more?

Comment by Bryan Skip Reed on September 12, 2008 at 6:35pm

Wonderfull video, and the knowledge is priceless. Thank you very much for sharing.

Comment by PMT Studio on September 12, 2008 at 5:32pm

Comment by amber ojeda on September 12, 2008 at 7:01am

Nelson,
I really enjoyed the Metaphysics of Music thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.

Love,
Amber