JeanPaul_Sartre_JeanPaul_Sartre_Basic_Writing

15 The work of artThe conclusion of The Psychology of the Imagination includes a discussionof the work of art, reproduced below. Here I discuss Sartre’s views on musicand painting.Although music meant a great deal to Sartre personally, he wrote verylittle about it. What he does say, in The Psychology of the Imagination, inWhat is Literature? and in Situations is of considerable philosophical interest.Sartre thinks that what is expressed or communicated through musiccan not be wholly expressed or communicated in words. Words can notsubstitute for music. (If they could, music would be in a sense redundant.Music would be, perhaps, an abbreviation of verbal language.) Sartre saysof music it will always be over and above anything you can say about it. Nomatter how thorough the attempt to characterise in words what is expressedin music something remains uncaptured. Music says more than we can saythat it says. Music as heard can not be verbally described, even thoughmusical notation is an abstract description of music, and the language ofphysics or aesthetic appreciation includes true assertions about music.Sartre thinks music does not take on meaning by referring to non-musicalreality. The ‘significance’ of a melody is nothing outside the melody itself. Ifwhat music signifies is music then the significance of music can not befound in non-musical reality. It does not follow that words can not expresswhat music expresses but it is inconsistent with the existence of any nonmusicalsource of musical significance that could be accessed either verbally or musically. Language expresses non-linguistic reality but music doesnot express non-musical reality. This does not soundly refute the possibilityof the verbal expression of the musical but it is inconsistent with one pictureof that putative possibility.