Mozart and after: The Revolution in Musical Consciousness

Abstract

Kant's revolution was initiated by a new conception of the nature of consciousness. As the first readers of the Critique of Pure Reason (1781) immediately appreciated, Kant's starting point was a reversal of priorities. In the then dominant tradition of Locke, consciousness was held to follow on perception. The mind begins empty, as a tabula rasa; it fills itself by attending to sensations which reach it from the external world. Consciousness, for Locke, is not awareness of self; instead, it is taking cognizance of what lies outside the mind. Indeed, before the 1780s it was not even possible to say, simply, I am but only, I am conscious of x. Kant began by exchanging the positions of consciousness and sensation. In his system, consciousness precedes sensation, and he argues that meaningful sensations are possible only if a well-defined consciousness already exists to perceive them. Logically speaking, we must be aware of ourselves before we can become aware of anything outside us; we must be conscious in general before we become conscious of anything in particular; we must be conscious of ourselves internallyand for Kant that means in time-before we can become conscious of