72 quotes
Hearing music is like viewing scenery and... when we hear good music our minds react in very much the same way they do when we see things.
Music, Mind, and Meaning (1981)
So much of our human resourcefulness comes from having multiple ways to describe the same situations—so that each one of those different perspectives may help us to get around the deficiencies of the other ones.
Some form of self-awareness is surely essential to highly intelligent thought... On the other hand, I doubt that any part of a mind can see very deeply into other parts; it can only use models it constructs of them.
Music... immerses us in seemingly stable worlds! How can this be, when there is so little of it present at each moment?
Music, Mind, and Meaning (1981)
Clearly, the child is learning about space! ...how on earth does one learn about time? Can one time fit inside another? Can two of them go side by side? In music, we find out!
Music, Mind, and Meaning (1981)
We must see that music theory is not only about music, but about how people process it. To understand any art, we must look below its surface into the psychological details of its creation and absorption.
One's present personality cannot share all the thoughts of one's older personalities — and yet it has some sense that they exist. This is one reason why we feel that we possess an inner Self — a sort of ever-present person-friend, inside the mind, whom we can always ask for help.
The Society of Mind (1987)
We rarely recognize how wonderful it is that a person can traverse an entire lifetime without making a single really serious mistake — like putting a fork in one's eye or using a window instead of a door.
The Society of Mind (1987)
Concrete concepts are not necessarily the simplest ones. A novice best remembers "being at" a concert. The amateur remembers more of what it "sounded like." Only the professional remembers the music itself, timbres, tones and textures.
K-Linesː A Theory of Memory (1980)
Since we have no systematic way to avoid all the inconsistencies of commonsense logic, each person must find his own way by building a private collection of "cognitive censors" to suppress the kinds of mistakes he has discovered in the past.
Jokes and their Relation to the Cognitive Unconscious (1980)
It would seem that Perceptrons has much the same role as The Necronomicon -- that is, often cited but never read.
Attributed
I cannot articulate enough to express my dislike to people who think that understanding spoils your experience… How would they know?
Attributed