Abstract

ROGER E. BISSELL challenges Ayn Rand's interpretation of the nature of musical perception. Abandoning her earlier Jamesian view of sensation and perception for the flawed Helmholtizian model, Rand overlooked the musical-literary analogy and its usefulness in understanding and evaluating musical experience. Using Rand's analysis of esthetic "identification" and findings of psychophysiological research, Bissell aims to correct this error and to make a stronger case for the underlying unity of the arts.