• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.1-18
• /
• 2024

The purpose of this study is to explore the ethical possibilities of praxial music education from the perspective of embodied cognition. Praxial music educators rely on embodied cognition, which views cognition as meaning generated through the dynamic interplay between a living system and its environment, to present empathy and care as ethical values in music education. However, they do not specifically discuss how embodied cognition can be applied at the intersection where music transitions into ethics. Therefore, this study explores the ethical possibilities of praxial music education by discussing the conditions under which music can advance toward empathy and care for others. Since embodied cognition views cognition as participatory and relational, if musical imagination can foster empathy by understanding others' emotions through participatory music-making and listening, and if this empathy can develop into dialectical empathy generated from intersubjectivity, then praxial music education can move towards ethics. Consequently, praxial music education emphasizes the importance of participatory music-making and listening grounded in concern and care, which presents the following insights: First, participatory music-making should begin with attentive listening. Second, the emphasis should fall on the process of teaching and learning rather than outcomes. Third, the focus should be on musical knowledge that enriches life rather than solely acquiring knowledge for the sake of music. Fourth, teachers must possess both ethical attitudes and professional expertise.