This book investigates the intersection of eighteenth-century Scottish philosophy and early music theory to uncover how Enlightenment thinkers conceptualized the cognitive processes involved in listening to music. Carmel Raz, a scholar specializing in the history of music and science, examines how philosophers like Adam Smith and Thomas Reid utilized musical examples to develop theories of perception, imagination, and sympathy. By analyzing primary texts from the Scottish Enlightenment, the author argues that these thinkers anticipated modern cognitive musicology through their focus on the listener's internal mental activity. The work provides a historical framework for understanding how the act of hearing was transformed into a subject of rigorous intellectual inquiry during this period.

Experts in musicology and intellectual history recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of how Enlightenment philosophy informed musical thought. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which requires a strong background in both music theory and philosophical history to fully appreciate the author's arguments.