Music, leisure and politics
Music, leisure and politics

Summary/Abstract: Ancient philosophers were clearly concerned with the function of art (music, poetry, visual arts) inmanaging the political community. Philosophical consideration of the political foundations andfunction of music to form a public education is found in Plato (Republic, Laws) and Aristotle(Politics). Since we intend to make the relationship between music, leisure, and politics the centralproblem here, we pay the greatest attention to how Aristotle sees the connection between theseconcepts. Aristotle cares equally about preserving and nurturing all three functions of music ineducating political community members. Therefore, he refuses to prioritize any of the functions ofmusic because he considers all three functions necessary for the development of a happy member ofthe political community. In this article, we specifically stress the function of leisure. Its role in thepolitical life of citizens in the best state constitution is to confirm citizens' freedom. Namely, if thegovernment in the polis does not work in the interest of all citizens and does not produce freedomfor all, then it turns its citizens into slaves who spend their whole lives in hard work. The fact thatlegislators and politicians rule to produce enough leisure for their citizens is precisely the mostsignificant proof that it is a government over free citizens and serves the interests of all, not just theone who rules. Leisure, that is, free time, actually constitutes the political being of a free citizen, tothe same extent that the absence of leisure constitutes the political being of subjects and slaves in,for example, monarchy or tyranny. In the best constitution, it becomes crucial how the citizensspend their free time in leisure because a wrong choice would lead to their idleness. Hence, musicbecomes essential because, as Aristotle suggests, music and philosophy are good ways for citizensto practice their free political being.

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