Chrysippus’ lullaby: the early Stoics on the benefits of mousikē

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the scope and significance of the Stoic commitment to the view that mousikē is morally beneficial. The idea that mousikē can have such a purpose, which I call aesthetic functionalism, is not uniquely Stoic, but I argue that the Stoics do have a distinctive formulation of this view. It is a weak kind of functionalism that approaches mousikē not as a cause but as an instrument of moral improvement, wielded by a willing agent who is the actual cause. The article begins with a discussion of the evidence for the Stoic views. Then, by employing the Epicurean attack on all functionalists as a foil, it spells out the commitments of the Stoic stance in particular. The discussion has two parts: a theoretical and a practical one. The former determines the extent to which the soul could be affected by music (given Stoic materialism), while the latter explores how the extant evidence presents the Stoics’ lifelong engagement with mousikē, with different benefits at different stages of life.

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