"This because, as we have said already, the ignorant believe that all things have been made on their account, and they say that the nature of some thing is good or bad, healthy or putrid or corrupt, in accordance with the way in which they are affected by it. For example, if the motion which the nerves receive from objects which are represented through the eyes conduces to health, then the objects by which it is caused are called beautiful, but those which excite the opposite motion are called deformed. Then those that excite the sense through the nostrils are called fragrant or fetid, and those that excite the sense through the tongue are called sweet or bitter, tasty or insipid, and so on. Further, those that excite the sense through touch are called smooth, rough or smooth, and so on. Finally, those that excite the ears are said to produce noise, sound, or harmony. The last of these has so crazed human beings that they believed that God, too, is delighted by harmony; again, there were some philosophers who persuaded themselves that the movements of the heavenly bodies produce a harmony.... These sayings show sufficiently that human beings judge about things in accordance with the disposition of their brain, and that they imagine things rather than understand them. For if they understood things, then those things (as mathematics bears witness) would at any rate convince them, even if they did not attract them."
Sorry, this is a little long, but the moment that made me think about the quote was the section on harmony.... robert wood
> Michael Pollak wrote:
>> On Wed, 18 Jun 2008, Miles Jackson wrote:
>>
>>
>>>This is inaccurate. Many musical scales do not include the fourth and
>>>the fifth.
>>
>>
>> For example?
>>
>> Michael
>
> Well, the major pentatonic scale does not include the fourth; the
> locrian scale does not include the fifth; the Iwato (Japanese) scale
> does not include the fifth; the whole tone scale does not include the
> fourth or the fifth. Arab scales divide the octave into sixteen unequal
> intervals that do not correspond well to the twelve notes in the Western
> chromatic scale.
>
> In sum: there is nothing natural and necessary about any particular
> musical scale.
>
> Miles
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