Q&A Question 1: Jacob mentioned that in Philosophy & Music, the class decided that form and content were one and the same. Nussbaum contends that in regards to literature, form and content are organically linked, but distinguishable. Why is the relationship between form and content different in regards to music and to literature?
Since I didn't go through the Philosophy & Music seminar myself, I'm not exceptionally well prepared to answer this question, but I've talked it over with Jacob and I'll give it a shot. When you change the form of a certain literary content, the content may get altered slightly, but the same general content remains. However, since music is not representational, it has no content aside from its form. Therefore, if you change music's form, the content also completely changes; its form is its content.
I like Nussbaum's assertion that form and content are organically linked, but I am unsure as to how strong the link is. Certainly, different forms can alter how content is expressed and perceived, but I suspect that the general content remains the same.
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