Jim Lesurf wrote:

Jim Lesurf wrote:

There was no "purpose" so far as the radiation
happening to hit that
particular molecule is concerned. It just happened, and
then a chain
of events occurs. Equally, the chain could have been
different at any
point if some other event had occurred.


Don't you then have difficulty in finding *any* sensible
meaning for
"purpose"?

Nope. Once human awareness, etc, are involved then that
can insert
"purpose". I go out to get the shopping because I want to
eat. I am
conscious of this and my purpose is to get the food I
prefer, etc.

OK, so it's a human thing. Thanks. I am particularly
relieved to find that you attribute purpose to the human,
rather than to the "selfish gene" of Dawkins, who you refer
to elsewhere in this thread.

Is it attributable only to individual humans, or can a
number of humans have a single purpose?

I'm happy to perch on this particular branch for the moment.
Music is an activity of humans, and so is going to the shop.
If going to the shop serves some purpose, then it's not
unreasonable to suggest that music has a purpose. At least,
music would have as many purposes as people who take active
part in it. That seems half way there.

Taking the view that a number of humans can have a single
purpose, like we might hope of an England football team for
example, and stretching it, it also seems logical to suggest
that the sum total of human civilisation has made the sum
total of music for some purpose. Certainly one piece of
music tends to have much in common with another. It's a
collective term, after all, with a singular meaning, and so
is "the sum total of human civilisation".

Or have I got the wrong end of the stick again? It's
difficult to tell, as ISTM I'm being hit from two opposite
directions by two people who say they agree with each other.
It was never my intention to drag a god, or anything at all
metaphysical, into the matter.

The thing about religious music was an illustrative aside to
points others had already made. It has particular importance
with respect to the purpose of music, perhaps, because for
long stretch of recent human history, churches and
monastaries were pretty much the sole repositories and
originators of advanced musical technology and theoretical
discovery. Also, religious music possibly comes closest to
having a conscious, avowed, purpose.

Ian