Evaluation Music According to Plato and Aristotle Comparison Essay by Master Researcher

Music is an important element in life. Every person has the ability to listen to music and evaluate it based on his or her own personal tastes. This paper explains Aristotle's belief that measuring the worth of music based on personal likes and dislikes was the only appropriate way to determine music value. The paper also discusses Plato's view which differed from Aristotle's. Plato claimed that certain criteria had to be used to evaluate music. These criteria were necessary to alleviate subjective arguments and provide a universal system of measurement important in an ordered society. The paper then discusses the point that, while it is Aristotle's concept of music evaluation that was ultimately embraced by society, Plato's musical evaluation process can still be attributed to the manner in which some people believe that the value of music should be measured. Plato believed that music had the power to alter human emotion.