It's Music the Whole Way Down...

Music and the "acoustic nature of the soul" in Novalis

Music is key in Novalis’ notion of an encyclopedic project of philosophy. Music is a metaphor that, according to Novalis, enables a framework for the mystical unity of all sciences. Language, poetry, mathematics, chemistry, medicine, and the physiology of the human body are grasped in terms of musical properties such as rhythm, melody, tone, mood, and v…