Gary Tomlinson lecture: 'Evolutionary Humanities and the Hard Problem of Music'
125 Convocation Way, Longmire 110
Abstract
Human sciences and life sciences might be presumed to cross in the topic of human evolution, but this crossing has proved fraught. On the one side evolutionary scientists doubt the value of humanistic contributions to their project; on the other, humanists seem to be divided between “cultural Darwinists” constructing specious evolutionary explanations for cultural phenomena and critical theorists who look to the often racist history of evolutionary claims and deem suspect any evolutionary humanities.
Musicologist, cultural theorist, and evolutionist Gary Tomlinson explores this set of problems through the case-in-point of human music. How can the capacities we gather under this rubric help point a true path for evolutionary humanities? How, conversely, can evolutionary explanation help account for the foundational nature of musical capacities in that other basic rubric, the human?
Gary Tomlinson is a Sterling Professor of Music and Humanities at Yale University. His recent research sits at the intersection of music, evolutionary theory, and philosophies of signs and meaning. In 2015, his "A Million Years of Music" set new terms for a basic question: How did humans come to be musical creatures? "The Machines of Evolution and the Scope of Meaning" of 2023 gauged the reach of meaning-making beyond humans in our world, while "Astrosemiosis: Grounds for Intelligent Life Beyond Earth," due out in January 2027, explores the requirements for meaning-making to emerge on any world.
Tomlinson’s earlier books and essays have concerned opera, early modern European music, indigenous New World musics in the era of European invasion, and more. His awards and honors include MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2027 he will deliver the Ernest Bloch Lectures in Music at the University of California, Berkeley.