‘the relationship of our beliefs to sentences that we only or primarily sing, let alone to the music which accompanies those sentences, is not at all the same as the relationship of our beliefs to the sentences that we primarily say and say in an assertive mode.’
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue, chapter 4.
MacIntyre is writing about the Scottish Enlightenment. Perhaps he has in mind this key text, that is, song:
Oh ye cannae shove yer granny off a bus
Ye cannae shove yer granny off a bus
Ye cannae shove yer granny, ’cause she’s yer mammy’s mammy,
Ye cannae shove yer granny off a bus!
Ye can shove yer other granny off a bus
Ye can shove yer other granny off a bus
Ye can shove yer other granny, ’cause she’s yer daddy’s mammy,
Ye can shove yer other granny off a bus!
