Rhythm and Cyclicity

Dewey's definition of Rhythm as "ordered variation of changes" seems to challenge his own proposal that "rhythm is a universal scheme of existence". For, if in a "uniformly even flow . . . there is no rhythm", as he explains it, then Rhythm is not universal. In contrast, if Rhythm is defined as entailing periodicity, then, as Whitehead observes, it does apply to all motion--the subatomic constituents of all phenomena consist in orbits, and even a uniform flow consists in a regular variation with respect to time. Hence, the revised formulation, that 'rhythm is the periodicity of all existence', seems to resolve Dewey's ambivalence. Furthermore, it sharpens the distinction between Rhythm and Repetition, for, while, the traditional concept of Repetition expresses Identity, and Deleuze's expresses Difference, Rhythm expresses Cyclicity.