Mumford & Sons, Descartes & Unchanging Substances part 1
And death is at your doorstep
And it will steal your innocence
But it will not steal your substance
Above is an excerpt from the song Timshel by Mumford and Sons, the folk rock band from the UK which continues to grow exponentially in adoration. Put simply, I find their music to be exceedingly brilliant. Certainly if the increasing notoriety and glowing reviews of their debut release Sigh No More are any indication, many more people–if they haven’t already–will be finding them just as inspiring as I do.
After one listen to Sigh No More I was immediately struck by how much the recording dripped with lyrical beauty, and to my surprise, unabashed spirituality. Mumford and Sons’ songs deal with a wide variance of human emotion and life issues such despair, death, doubt, love, fear and struggles with ideas of God. The song above, Timshel, is one of my favorite tracks on the album. As much as I love this song, and as much as I love the art that this band creates, when I first heard this song–specifically the line quoted above–I couldn’t help but twinge a little and think of Rene Descartes, Plato, Aristotle and the doctrine of unchanging substances.
Next Post: A Little Descartes Goes Along Way.
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