rhythm and romanticism 97schemata, and schemata are common to the intelligibility both of musi-
cal structures and of forms of cognition. Kant himself suggests that cog-
nition was originally linked to pleasure in the apprehension of forms of
order, and Schlegel proposes a historical story of why this might be the
case, thus making possible an account of the genesis of transcendental
conditions, of the kind Schelling attempts in theSystem of Transcendental
Idealismand Hegel attempts in thePhenomenology of Spirit. Schlegel pro-
poses his story on the basis of the idea that humankind’s more devel-
oped forms of awareness, which lead to philosophy, are based on an
unpleasant state, in which thought’s potential for boundlessness leads
to a terror which can be tempered by rhythmic order. The pleasure of
rhythmic order derives from the way in which anticipation is regularly
fulfilled, rather than just manifesting itself as a chaotic lack of fulfil-
ment generated by thought’s endless expansive activity. Kant’s remarks
on the connection of the genesis of knowledge to pleasure would seem
to entail a similar underlying conception, but he does not anchor what
he says in a concrete story in the manner Schlegel does. The interest of
Schlegel’s claims derives not least from the combination of somatic and
cognitive pleasure associated with rhythm. Rhythm seems to cross the
sensuous/intelligible divide: it is instantiated in empirical phenomena,
but it also involves synthesis on the part of the subject, as well as being
connected to the subject’s capacity for desire.
Clearly, much of this is pretty contentious. However, even if the spe-
cific story Schlegel tells does not convince – it is backed up with detailed
evidence from classical texts that he interprets in a sophisticated man-
ner – the idea that the generation of abstract forms of thought like
mathematics is connected to prior concrete activities is widely accepted.
Links between rhythm and mathematics are often made as part of the
initial teaching of mathematics to children, because of the way in which
pleasure is generated by rhythmic articulations being used to convey
abstractions. This pleasure in rhythmic repetition makes it easier to
assimilate what is to be learned. Recent empirical research seems to
show that teaching music to children enhances the spatial-temporal rea-
soning required for handling complex mathematical concepts.^11 The
problem is that any such story about philosophy and abstract thought
encounters the difficulty we examined in chapter 2. How does one use11 See http://www.mindinstitute.net/mind3/mozart/mozart.php for details. One does not have
to buy into the more contentious claims of such research to accept that music can
enhance children’s cognitive abilities.