Emblems of Mind: The Inner Life of Music and Mathematics 
by 

Edward Rothstein

 

The Politics of the Aesthetical

The title comes from Wordsworth’s poem, Prelude, which was written and revised from 1798 throughout his life until his death in 1850. On an early morning trek up a Welsh mountain, Wordsworth has an epiphany: the sudden appreciation that his vision of the moon, and the mist in the early morning light wasn’t something ‘natural.’ These things fit together in such a moving way because he was doing the fitting. The vision he had was an artifact, a projection, or better, an emblem of his own mind. It was, he realised, a choice he was making. And if he made this one he could make others. He wrote his poem about the experience. Aesthetics was beginning to be recognised as a Power in the world.

This is a book about a personal aesthetical experience similar to that of Wordsworth. But it is not a vain, narrow exposition by a bloke who happens to like music and mathematics. It is an important case study in the the field of aesthetics. It’s importance is its demonstration of both a method and a possibility. The method is one of mutually confronting contrary aesthetics with each other, evaluating an independent discipline of thought with criteria from another independent discipline. This confrontation demands, in the first instance, an articulation of the aesthetic already in use for each discipline. In itself this is a significant contribution.

The possibility that Rothstein raises is even more exciting, not merely from an intellectual point of view but also in terms of the formal and informal politics of daily life. Through his careful analysis of the two fields he knows well (he has after all committed a substantial part of his life to them), he is confronting himself with what is effectively a political division in his own psyche. This division provokes a rather admirable response in a man like Rothstein: How do these two parts of my life fit together? Is there a unifying commonality of which these two passions are expressions?

Answering such questions is more significant than just as personal therapy. It is an experiment in a political ethos. If he can confront himself with his own apparently contrary interests and resolve them, there is no reason in principle why he can’t do the same when confronted with another human being, and expect a similar result. The prize is a new ‘higher’ understanding of their mutual aesthetics. This synthesis of perception is something that has been sought for centuries, totally unsuccessfully, in epistemology. Rothstein shows that an alternative using aesthetics is both feasible and productive. A very exciting prospect indeed. A more general treatment of this attempt may be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Emblems of Mind is also a very interesting book if you simply like music and maths.