Emblems of Mind – The Inner Life of Music and Mathematics

One is a science, the other an art; one useful, the other seemingly decorative, but mathematics and music share common origins in cult and mystery. This work explains how mathematics makes sense of space, how music tells a story, how theories are constructed, how melody is shaped. It argues that they are images of the mind at work and play.

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One is a science, the other an art; one useful, the other seemingly decorative, but mathematics and music share common origins in cult and mystery and have been linked throughout history. "Emblems of Mind" is Edward Rothstein's classic exploration of their profound similarities, a journey into their "inner life." Along the way, Rothstein explains how mathematics makes sense of space, how music tells a story, how theories are constructed, how melody is shaped. He invokes the poetry of Wordsworth, the anthropology of Levi-Strauss, the imagery of Plato, and the philosophy of Kant. Math and music, Rothstein shows, apply comparable methods as they create their abstractions, display similar concerns with ratio and proportion, and depend on metaphors and analogies to create their meanings. Ultimately, Rothstein argues, they reveal the ways in which we come to understand the world. They are images of the mind at work and play; indeed, they are emblems of Mind itself. Jacques Barzun called this book "splendid." Martin Gardner said it was "beautifully written, marvelous and entertaining." It will provoke all serious readers to think in new ways about the grand patterns in art and life.