What we do know is that music profoundly affects our emotions. And since different arts feed different sides of our perceptions, they are not single entities. The evolution of the brain seems to have resulted in a modular-like construction. Ultimately, music is a necessity in the lives of all but a very few. As a fundamental cognitive and symbolic activity, music is an appropriate and reasonable accompaniment to diverse social occasions - not only concerts and religious services but also military parades and sporting events.
Music is an integral part of what human beings are and can be.
Moreover, listening to music broadens the range of our emotional responses. He believes that art, in whatever guise, constitutes a chief avenue to happiness and to the discovery of life's multiple meanings. This alone makes music eminently worthy of study, as much as any academic subject in any university curriculum. From his perspective as an administrator, Narmour allows that this is a difficult period for higher education and wants to make sure that genuine scholars are involved in the tough decisions that must be made. That' s another one of the reasons I took the job.