The Fifth Perspective

Music has been one of the most controversial arts throughout all ages. Various instruments and the beautiful sound created by combining notes are the result of this beautiful and radiant art, but music has always had both supporters and opponents. Today, music is recognized as a science, but in the past, when its status was considered as an art or even less, how was it treated? Did the artists who played instruments and were disparaged by the term ‘entertainer’ manage to influence these perspectives or not? What were the views of jurists, mystics, and philosophers about music? Mysticism, which regards music as one of the bases of ecstasy and effective in the manifestation of mystical and spiritual states, how did it approach this art? Philosophers who considered the world a consequence of music, what was their opinion? Akbar Irani, in the book The Fifth Perspective, answers all these questions. This book is an effort to examine the foundations of music from legal, mystical, philosophical, and scientific viewpoints.