Edward: To end with a question: Is there any link between music and morality, as Scruton suggested in "The Decline of Musical Culture?"

I will begin by noting that I think you have a knack for asking questions that are extremely hard, bordering on impossible, to answer. Is there a link between music and morality? Sure there is. Morality exists and music exists, so if nothing else, there is a link of correlation.

Is this correlation a causation? This is a tougher question. While I am in no position to deny that music could be the cause of morality for certain people, to make a claim of causation between music and morality seems to be rather presumptuous. I do not think that there is enough evidence to support such a claim. Scruton seemed rather sensational and artistic himself in his claims of classical music, so perhaps he did not mean this literally, but if he did, I would merely question how he arrived at such a conclusion, a question that his article, I think, fails to address.

Question: Intent is commonly a requirement for an object to be art, so my only objection to non-human art is that they do not produce art intentionally. While non-humans are capable of producing aesthetic objects, can they have an artistic intent?