Tehching Hsieh - One Year Performance 1980-1981 (detail) (MoMa, New York City, 2018) (Photography: M. Alhadeff-Jones)
Considered from the point of view of thought processes, rhythmic intelligence implies different forms of reasoning. At least four of these can be retained here, corresponding to as many ways of making intelligible the relations that exist, or are likely to exist, between experienced or observed changes (Alhadeff-Jones, 2018, pp.28-29).
Metaphorical reasoning
A first form of reasoning is metaphorical. It puts in correspondence heterogeneous phenomena of change based on images that allow us to think about their organization. It is used, for example, when differentiating « levels » of temporality (e.g., Adam, 1994; Lesourd, 2006; Roquet, 2007). Thus, the distinction between the « micro » level of temporalities of action, the « meso » level of biographical temporalities, or the « macro » level of institutional and historical temporalities is a metaphor that distinguishes different forms of change according to a « scale » that is applied to them in order to distinguish their scope, magnitude or relations of inclusion. The same applies to the idea of « growth », which evokes temporal phenomena (development, evolution, etc.) by linking them to physical changes deployed in an observable space. The reference to « levels » of temporality or to the idea of « growth » thus refers to spatial metaphors that make it possible to describe phenomena that remain otherwise entangled, invisible or imperceptible to our senses. When we consider the changes experienced or observed, from a rhythmological point of view, there is a whole body of sensible or pictorial references that we are likely to refer to. The use of rhythmic theories, developed in particular in the arts, thus offers words and representations (swing, ritournelle, rhyme, motif, melody, harmony, syncopation, etc.) with an evocative power to represent the plasticity, the dynamics of organization and (re)shaping of the phenomena under consideration. If the appeal of metaphorical reasoning lies in the richness of the vocabulary and the imaginary to which it gives access, as well as in their evocative power, it obviously has its limits. The most significant probably lies in the fact that the use of metaphors does not make it possible to explain in a factual manner the nature of the processes of change experienced or observed. Thus, establishing correspondences between images and temporal phenomena makes it possible to describe, compare and even categorize them, but without making it possible to account for or explain the nature of the phenomena that constitute them. The main obstacle of metaphorical reasoning is that it does not allow logical or rational correspondences to be established in a factual manner. In the perspective of the development of a rhythmic intelligence, the use of metaphorical reasoning, using a pictorial vocabulary to describe phenomena, is not only inevitable, but also desirable, insofar as their symbolic and evocative power constitutes a privileged means of representing and formulating some of the characteristics specific to the changes experienced or observed. From a critical point of view, however, this evocative resource must be accompanied by the ability to reflect on the symbolic significance of the metaphors employed and on the limits of the representations they convene, in a given context.
Analogical reasoning
A second modality of reasoning is analogical. Heterogeneous temporalities and forms of change are related on the basis of similarities or differences that emerge from their comparison. The study of analogies between rhythmic phenomena can be found, in a more or less rational and critical way, at the heart of many theories in the human sciences. This is for instance the case in education, where learning and developmental phenomena have long been considered on the basis of the correspondence between heterogeneous rhythms. For Plato, for instance, musical education provided from an early age is inseparable from the moral development of the individual. According to this conception, exposure to sensitive rhythms (e.g., music, poetry) of a certain quality would thus have a direct effect on personality development. Closer to us, Rudolf Steiner's pedagogy also aims at matching the rhythms experienced in different spheres of existence (aesthetic, biological, discursive, cosmological, etc.) with a view that favors a holistic development of the person (Alhadeff-Jones, 2017, 2018b). In the social sciences and humanities, the notion of « synchronization », borrowed from biology, is also used, particularly in adult education (Pineau, 2000) or in social psychology (McGrath & Tschan, 2004), to account for the relationships of influence, entrainment or domination through which certain rhythms (personal, collective, organizational) impose themselves within educational processes or group dynamics, based on the model of the relationships between cosmological rhythms (circadian or seasonal cycles, for example) and biological rhythms (sleep, reproduction, etc.) Reasoning based on analogy contributes to the understanding of experienced or observed changes, insofar as it favors relationships based on phenomena that are often quite intuitive. Thus, the use of the « wave » analogy to report on the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic makes it possible to communicate an accessible message about the evolution of a biological phenomenon by establishing a correspondence with a universal physical phenomenon. Like metaphorical reasoning, however, analogical reasoning has its limitations. The logics that underlie the experience of physical (e.g., cosmological rhythms), biological (e.g., physiological or epidemiological functioning), psychological (e.g., learning or personality development), sociological (e.g., group dynamics or relationships of influence), and aesthetic (e.g., dance, music, poetry) phenomena are heterogeneous in nature. This means that despite formal correspondences, they are based on processes of very different natures, between which it is not always easy to establish empirical and rational relationships. From the perspective of analogical reasoning, the development of rhythmic intelligence thus implies the capacity to establish correspondences (similarities, differences, causal relations) based on processes of comparison involving the observation of heterogeneous phenomena, present in all spheres of existence (physical, biological, social, cultural world). Similarly, it presupposes a critical capacity to question the nature and legitimacy of these correspondences, in order to avoid the trap of « panrhythmic » thinking (Sauvanet, 2000) which would tend to reduce the complexity of the phenomena observed to the matching of the rhythmic dimensions that they manifest in a superficial manner.
Statistical reasoning
A third modality of reasoning is statistical. It uses quantification and computation to establish correspondences between changes that show some regularity. The evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic has thus contributed over the months to disseminate a rhythmological understanding of the contamination processes, based on statistical analyses highlighting the patterns that characterize the spread of the virus and its variants. In the same way, the increasingly widespread use of sensors measuring and recording body activity (blood pressure, heart rate, movement, etc.) is contributing to the dissemination of an understanding of our health based on the quantification of physical activity, its representation in a mathematical manner (graphs, curves, etc.) and on the correspondences generated by algorithms that can be established between different forms of activity (biological, physical, psychological, etc.). With the advent of research in chronobiology and chronopsychology (Testu, 2008), the study of learning rhythms is also being considered based on the probabilistic correlation between changes in the physical environment (e.g., time of day, time of year) and physiological and psychological changes (e.g., attention span, mood, behaviour), which determine the quality of the educational experience. More broadly, a statistical approach to behavioural rhythms questions the way in which we model the temporal sequences through which certain activities are repeated and succeed one another (Magnusson, 2000). The advantage of a statistical approach to rhythmic phenomena is that it allows relationships to be established on an empirical basis, between phenomena of change that can be modelled. Similarly, it can make it possible - to a certain extent - to anticipate certain phenomena or at least to establish reasonable correspondences between them. Like metaphorical and analogical modalities of reasoning, the statistical approach has its own limitations. First of all, by relating the understanding of rhythmic phenomena to what is quantifiable, it reduces the possibilities of interpretation by limiting them to the numbers, formulas and algorithms it uses to apprehend reality. In so doing, it reduces the rhythms studied to a periodic conception of change that emphasizes an understanding of rhythmic phenomena that privileges the study of frequencies, sequences, periods and tempi that can be measured. On the other hand, by reducing the rhythmicity of observed phenomena to their metric dimension, i.e. measurable, it favours the use of standards (clocks, calendars), norms (units of measurement), or norms (age, frequencies of a behaviour) to capture the observed changes, neglecting all that is of the order of the singularity and the particularity of the ways of flowing (Michon), i.e. what is constitutive of the « movement » of rhythm (Sauvanet, 2000). In this sense, a statistical approach to the rhythms experienced or observed does not allow us to appreciate the qualitative dimension of the changes experienced. From the point of view of the development of rhythmic intelligence, a statistical mode of reasoning complements the metaphorical and analogical modalities considered above. By relying on a computational capacity that can be externalized (formulas and algorithms), it potentially makes it possible to make perceptible phenomena (sequences, correlations) that would otherwise be difficult, if not impossible, to grasp through the senses. The use of this mode of reasoning implies, however, here again, the development of a critical capacity, not only to establish the validity of the measurements and computations produced, but also and above all to point out the limits inherent in the quantification of phenomena of change and their reduction to a metric involving the definition of benchmarks, standards or norms.
Narrative reasoning
A fourth modality of reasoning is based on the logic of explicitation and narration. The explicitation and narration of changes experienced involve both the enunciation of moments of rupture (epiphany, crisis, break-up, accident, discontinuity, etc.) and the description of phenomena that manifest a certain constancy over time, such as habits, scripts, routines, or rituals reproduced in daily life. They also question the way in which the emergence or repetition of these phenomena is part of the life course and the logics that account for the reproduction of ways of thinking, feeling and behaving at different periods of life (Alhadeff-Jones, 2017). In the social sciences and humanities, this type of reasoning is central to the development of the practices of activity analysis, life history, and biographical research. Thus, the explicitation and narration of lived experience make it possible to envision the temporal fabric of the learning, (trans)formative, and developmental processes, by describing their unfolding and the meanings associated with them, in the life of a person or a group (Dominicé, 1990; Lesourd, 2009). The work of explicitation and narration of lived experience thus appears to be complementary to metaphorical, analogical and statistical modes of reasoning. On the one hand, the work of explicitation refers to a phenomenological approach that questions the ways in which language is used to describe and convey the sensible reality of the changes experienced or observed. On the other hand, the narration of experience presupposes a work of « mise en intrigue » (elaborating a plot) (Ricoeur, 1983) required to elaborate the fabric through which the temporal complexity of one’s existence can be organized and meanings given to it. From the point of view of the development of a rhythmic intelligence, increasing and refining the capacity to explicit and narrate the lived experience is of definite interest. The elaboration of narrative processes indeed questions the relationships between language (discursive complexity), interpretation (hermeneutic complexity) and the ways in which we imagine the succession of changes experienced or observed, as well as the temporalities and rhythms they produce. Moreover, the elaboration of narrative processes participates in a particularly efficient capacity to synthesize and organize one’s experience of time (explanation of the relationships of synchrony and diachrony, chronology) which presents benefits from the perspective of identity development (e.g., awareness of the singularity of the subject) and a proven evocative and communicative power (e.g., instrumentalization of storytelling). Finally, the development of capacities to explicit and narrate processes of change can contribute to highlighting tacit or unconscious dimensions of experience, the formulation of which can contribute to processes that are themselves (trans)formative (Alhadeff-Jones, 2017, 2020).
Metaphors, analogies, statistics and narrations: four modalities of expression and development of a rhythmic intelligence
The ability to elaborate, formulate, analyze, interpret, evaluate, judge, or question metaphorical, analogical, statistical, and narrative reasoning is the cornerstone of the development of rhythmic intelligence, considered from the point of view of language and reasoning. This perspective has the merit of highlighting the discursive and interpretative richness that underpins a rhythmological understanding of the changes experienced or observed. It also demonstrates the importance of a critical capacity that allows us to identify the limits of discourse and reasoning mobilized to understand the processes of change from a rhythmological point of view. Such an approach should not, however, hide the fact that the exercise of rhythmic intelligence cannot be reduced to its linguistic, discursive or rational components. The exercise of a rhythmic intelligence in fact convokes all the senses and implies modes of apprehension of the real that do not mobilize either language or reasoning, even though some of them can be put into words and reflected upon a posteriori.
References
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Cite this article: Alhadeff-Jones, M. (2021, mars 15). Metaphors, analogies, statistics, and narratives: Four ways to reason about the rhythmicity of change. Rhythmic Intelligence. http://www.rhythmicintelligence.org/blog/2021/3/15metaphors-analogies-statistics-and-narratives