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In this paper, I address how music theory, generally, and the case of the octave more specifically, played an instrumental and under-appreciated role in the development of seventeenth-century mechanization of sensory perception. In particular, I argue that investigation into the causes of the octave, Aristotle’s chosen example of a formal cause, and other musical intervals like it served to undermine the Neo-Aristotelian framework, while also providing key evidence in support of a mechanistic account of sensory perception. I begin by discussing how the case of the octave was understood in Scholastic Neo-Aristotelian philosophy and how this framework was applied in sixteenth-century music theory. Following this, I show how developments in music theory and acoustics challenged the status of formal causes and real qualities in this Neo-Aristotelian framework. Finally, I show how these developments provided a much needed detailed, empirically supported example of the mechanistic-style metaphysics of sensory perception that was prevalent in the Early Modern period, focusing primarily on Descartes.

“Of the octave the relation 2:1”: how an exemplary case of formal causation turned against the Neo-Aristotelians