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Full Idea
In music, the soul counts the beats of the vibrating object which makes the sound, and when these beats regularly coincide at short intervals, it finds them pleasing. Thus it counts without knowing it.
Gist of Idea
Minds unconsciously count vibration beats in music, and enjoy it when they coincide
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (On Note L to Bayle's 'Rorarius' [1705], [L])
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Philosophical Texts', ed/tr. Woolhouse R/Francks,R [OUP 1998], p.238
A Reaction
Only a mathematician would see music this way! He is defending his account of the unconscious mind. The proposal that we unconsciously count sounds highly implausible. He needs to recognise the patterns that ground mathematics.
Related Idea
Idea 19355 The soul doesn't understand many of its own actions, if perceptions are confused and desires buried [Leibniz]
| 554 | Pythagoreans say things imitate numbers, but Plato says things participate in numbers [Pythagoras, by Aristotle] |
| 644 | For Pythagoreans the entire universe is made of numbers [Pythagoras, by Aristotle] |
| 375 | When musical harmony and rhythm were discovered, similar features were seen in bodily movement [Pythagoras, by Plato] |
| 638 | Pythagoreans define timeliness, justice and marriage in terms of numbers [Pythagoras, by Aristotle] |
| 553 | Pythagoreans think mathematical principles are the principles of all of nature [Pythagoras, by Aristotle] |
| 1518 | Everything must involve numbers, or it couldn't be thought about or known [Philolaus] |
| 1519 | Harmony must pre-exist the cosmos, to bring the dissimilar sources together [Philolaus] |
| 473 | There is no falsehood in harmony and number, only in irrational things [Philolaus] |
| 17858 | Pythagoreans say the whole universe is made of numbers [Aristotle] |
| 1517 | The tektraktys (1+2+3+4=10) is the 'fount of ever-flowing nature' [Sext.Empiricus] |
| 3645 | To understand the universe mathematics is essential [Galileo] |
| 24023 | All the sciences searching for order and measure are related to mathematics [Descartes] |
| 19356 | Minds unconsciously count vibration beats in music, and enjoy it when they coincide [Leibniz] |
| 19592 | The basic relations of nature are musical [Novalis] |