What makes a great work of music what it is? What integrates a given piece as one coherent whole? It may help to step back and ask what makes any given thing essentially itself. Fortunately, Aristotle can help us understand this question and its surprising ramifications.

John MacAuslan’s research explains this search for a thing’s essence and how philosophy can help us gain further understanding of our thinking about music.

Read more about his work in the Journal Of Essence and Context