Abstrakt
The paper shows that Whitehead's idea of "contrast under identity" as an ontological and aesthetic principle strongly influenced the thinking of Susanne Langer, although she developed the idea in her own way. Moreover, Whitehead, unfortunately, did not develop the idea of rhythm in connection with the problems of art.
I would like to show that Langer was able to do it and that in this respect she did fill one of the theoretical "gaps" of Whitehead's philosophy. The paper (1) shows how the concept of rhythm is employed in Whitehead's and Langer's philosophies respectively; (2) demonstrates the connections of the notion "rhythm" and the notion of "life" in both philosophical systems and (3) consider how both thinkers use (or do not use) the concept of rhythm when they speak on aesthetic experience and art.