tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post3512485999428188419..comments2023-10-17T08:19:58.196-04:00Comments on FreeThinke: FreeThinkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-87970812653049872622012-08-26T21:38:09.203-04:002012-08-26T21:38:09.203-04:00Please inform me of the schools and universities m...Please inform me of the schools and universities most of the people on my list of creative geniuses attended, and precisely how did those institutions of higher learning help Shakespeare and the others to produce their magnificent output?<br /><br />My points stand. I'm not writing a monograph, so lots of specific examples and a bibliography of references are not necessary.<br /><br />We, apparently, are not all that far apart in much of our thinking, so I wonder why you feel you must forever play the role of Inquisitor or what-I-whimsically-call "Oppositionist?"<br /><br />It's that Critical Theory in which you've been insidiously indoctrinated since early childhood that prompts the seeming antagonism. You aren't aware of it, therefore you think I must be making it up.<br /><br />No. It's fluoride introduced in the water supply. <br /><br />~ FTFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-30235648096661755642012-08-21T06:27:50.538-04:002012-08-21T06:27:50.538-04:00Well, this is the essence of my question:
"i...Well, this is the essence of my question:<br /><br />"is undirected/independent study driven only by curiosity better than tuition towards an accredited course."<br /><br />The answer isn't simple or obvious. There are cases where only the accredited course will do. You don't commission a bridge or undergo surgery from a curious autodidact, you go to someone who's qualified.<br /><br />Of course a student in an accredited course who is not curious and independent is a depressing entity. Good students are a combination of both -- self-motivated and independent, but also willing to slog through the bits they find boring in order to achieve a rounded grasp of the subject / earn their degree, assuming the degree is well designed.<br /><br />The fact is that most students are not curious, an indication that there are now two many students. I don't know what percentage of people would benefit from 3 or 4 years of full-time residential academic study, but it sure isn't 50% (UK's arbitrary target). I'd guess it's more than 10% though.<br /><br />Most of the geniuses you mentioned did go to university, many even worked at them. Did this hamper them? Did it have no effect? Did it help? How would, say, Longfellow have been affected had he worked, say, in a warehouse instead of as a professor of modern language?<br /><br />Genius is so rare that it is almost irrelevant. For the rest of us, the Western Canon is worth studying even though we will not add to it. How do we know where to start? How do you know who to include in your frequent lists of geniuses?<br /><br />Academics provided it, through cataloging and evaluating countless works, many of them awful, so that we can go straight to the good stuff. You don't have to have been a student to benefit from this. If you stray from the canon you quickly discover that the bulk of the work produced in times past were as dismal as the bulk of today is.<br /><br />I mentioned Jowett, because he is the translator through which our Thersites accesses Plato. He was probably not a genius. Was Oxford not the best place for him?<br /><br />It takes a genius to produce it, but we need academics to preserve it.<br /><br />"Universities in modern times have become repositories for a lot of DATA that has been manipulated to serve political agenda."<br /><br />I expect this is true, but I'd appreciate an example. (political agenda could mean a few different things.)<br /><br />"it INDOCTRINATES whole generations to accept a pseudo-righteous, anti-Christian, anti-Capitalist political agenda as Absolute Truth."<br /><br />Strange that I've seen precisely none of this. Maths and science departments tend to be thoroughly segregated from the arts though.jezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14865247084509280406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-86956722427508382252012-08-20T08:58:18.120-04:002012-08-20T08:58:18.120-04:00Don't study other people's opinions ABOUT ...Don't study other people's opinions ABOUT things primarily. Instead, read and enjoy literature purely for the sake of experiencing it for yourself. We'd all learn more if love for reading and exploring ideas were inculcated in us at an early age.<br /><br />This idea that we should acquire knowledge to gain a certain STATUS in the eyes of the COMMUNITY has weakened and defiled the educational process. A degree ought not to be regarded merely as a Certificate of Official Social and Intellectual Acceptability necessary to "get ahead."<br /><br />I would guess that less than 10% of any given population either deserves or is intellectually equipped to benefit from "higher education."<br /><br />What we need are more good Trade Schools where practical skills are taught in an orderly disciplined fashion.<br /><br />There should be no "stigma" attached to being a good plumber, carpenter, electrician, auto mechanic or computer technician.<br /><br />The apprentice system was, perhaps, the best way to teach useful, practical, marketable skills.<br /><br />~ FTFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-85241910145218044482012-08-20T08:47:57.020-04:002012-08-20T08:47:57.020-04:00"I don't know of a better environment to ...<i>"I don't know of a better environment to develop academically. What do you suggest?"</i><br /><br />Good morning, Jez,<br /><br />Here's what I suggest: <b>INDEPENDENT STUDY. Follow natural intellectual curiosity to find knowledge and make new discoveries ON YOUR OWN.</b><br /><br />By all means learn the orthodox views that hold sway in your time, but do not ACCEPT them as Gospel Truth.<br /><br />Virtually ALL the great works of genius were produced by INDIVIDUALS using instinct, intuition, passionate curiosity, great determination and WILL to achieve unique marvels. They were not "taught" by "professors" to produce great things.<br /><br />Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Blake, the Brownings, Dickinson, Longfellow, and most of the other literary lights who formed The Western Canon did NOT become who they were by earning "degrees" in English or any other academic subject.<br /><br />Universities in modern times have become repositories for a lot of DATA that has been manipulated to serve political agenda. The University has replaced the Church for promoting and enforcing a latter-day authoritarian philosophy I call "Progressive Orthodoxy."<br /><br />For the most part the university today does not encourage people to think independently at all. Instead, it INDOCTRINATES whole generations to accept a pseudo-righteous, anti-Christian, anti-Capitalist political agenda as Absolute Truth.<br /><br />Shakespeare, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Jane Austen, George Eliot, the Brontes, Dickens, WIlbur and Orville Wright, Edison, -- the lot of them -- were NOT "products" turned out by universities promoting any sort of GroupThink. <br /><br />The university certainly has its uses, but it's value is now vastly overrated.<br /><br />~ FreeThinke<br />FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-15018157279687440892012-08-20T06:25:35.476-04:002012-08-20T06:25:35.476-04:00Did you avoid university, Thersites? Did Benjamin ...Did you avoid university, Thersites? Did Benjamin Jowett?<br /><br />I agree that far too many people spend time at universities these days, but I don't know of a better environment to develop academically. What do you suggest?jezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14865247084509280406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-54450581545772985062012-08-16T11:17:14.807-04:002012-08-16T11:17:14.807-04:00I think his metaphor serves as a warning to genius...I think his metaphor serves as a warning to genius.It may be "useful" in cranking out corporate bureaucrats and drones, but it will never serve the entrepeneur orpolymath. The Rhodes Scholarship and other free/easy paths to higher education are also "traps" to be avoided.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-18828170152632865392012-08-16T11:03:29.046-04:002012-08-16T11:03:29.046-04:00Nietzsche's use of the orchestra metaphor is e...Nietzsche's use of the orchestra metaphor is entertaining, Thersites, but isn't it rather a roundabout way of saying universities tend to be governed by mediocre minds acting as lackeys to whatever stodgy, decadent Establishment happens to be in place at any given time?<br /><br />I'm sure I am not alone in having seen that for myself long ago.<br /><br />The University today more than ever before is a monstrously overbearing, self serving influence that seeks to stifle intellectual curiosity and stultify bright young minds.<br /><br />They want to turn out PRODUCTS useful to the Establishment;s aims and directives. Independence and creativity are the very last things they wish to encourage. <br /><br />That might topple them from their thrones, and detonate their Ivory Towers out from under them.<br /><br />Can't have that, can we?<br /><br />The answer, I guess, depends on where, who you and what you are.<br /><br />~ FT<br /><br /><br /><br />FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-38990510982585185532012-08-16T10:51:07.050-04:002012-08-16T10:51:07.050-04:00I live with Him -- I see His face --
I go no more ...I live with Him -- I see His face --<br />I go no more away<br />For visitor -- or sundown --<br />Death's single privacy<br /><br />The only one -- forestalling mine --<br />And that -- by right that He<br />Presents a claim no wedlock <br />Has ever granted me --<br /><br />I live with Him -- I hear His voice --<br />I stand alive today --<br />As witness to the Certainty<br />Of Immortality --<br /><br />Taught me by Time, the lower way,<br />Conviction every day --<br />That Life like this is endless --<br />Be Judgment what it may.<br /><br />~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)<br /><br />She might as well have written that about my lifelong relationship with Beethoven -- and with <i>herself</i> for that matter.<br /><br />When you are fortunate enough to feel connected with the best, why settle for anything less? Life is too short to waste on foolishness -- as I and many others have discovered a bit too late in life.<br /><br />~ FreeThinke<br />FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-13898197876396916602012-08-16T09:55:53.617-04:002012-08-16T09:55:53.617-04:00Grub Street.
A "day labourer" approach ...<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grub_Street" rel="nofollow">Grub Street</a>.<br /><br />A "day labourer" approach to culture.<br /><br />Nietzsche, "On the Future of Our Educational Institutions"<br /><br /><i>"For centuries it has been an understood thing that one alluded to scholars alone when one spoke of cultured men; but experience tells us that it would be difficult to find any necessary relation between the two classes to-day. For at present the exploitation of a man for the purpose of science is accepted everywhere without the slightest scruple. Who still ventures to ask, What may be the value of a science which consumes its minions in this vampire fashion? The division of labour in science is practically struggling towards the same goal which religions in certain parts of the world are consciously striving after,--that is to say, towards the decrease and even the destruction of learning. That, however, which, in the case of certain religions, is a perfectly justifiable aim, both in regard to their origin and their history, can only amount to self-immolation when transferred to the realm of science. In all matters of a general and serious nature, and above all, in regard to the highest philosophical problems, we have now already reached a point at which the scientific man, as such, is no longer allowed to speak. On the other hand, that adhesive and tenacious stratum which has now filled up the interstices between the sciences--Journalism--believes it has a mission to fulfil here, and this it does, according to its own particular lights--that is to say, as its name implies, after the fashion of a day-labourer.<br /><br />"It is precisely in journalism that the two tendencies combine and become one. The expansion and the diminution of education here join hands. The newspaper actually steps into the place of culture, and he who, even as a scholar, wishes to voice any claim for education, must avail himself of this viscous stratum of communication which cements the seams between all forms of life, all classes, all arts, and all sciences, and which is as firm and reliable as news paper is, as a rule. In the newspaper the peculiar educational aims of the present culminate, just as the journalist, the servant of the moment, has stepped into the place of the genius, of the leader for all time, of the deliverer from the tyranny of the moment. Now, tell me, distinguished master, what hopes could I still have in a struggle against the general topsy-turvification of all genuine aims for education; with what courage can I, a single teacher, step forward, when I know that the moment any seeds of real culture are sown, they will be mercilessly crushed by the roller of this pseudo-culture? Imagine how useless the most energetic work on the part of the individual teacher must be, who would fain lead a pupil back into the distant and evasive Hellenic world and to the real home of culture, when in less than an hour, that same pupil will have recourse to a newspaper, the latest novel, or one of those learned books, the very style of which already bears the revolting impress of modern barbaric culture--"</i>Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-72071544269414421672012-08-16T09:46:35.737-04:002012-08-16T09:46:35.737-04:00I prefer an explanation which doesn't depend o...I prefer an explanation which doesn't depend on coordinated mischief. My workstation's local dictionary has an entry for "epergne". Does yours? I imagine it would.<br /><br />The reason our local machines' dictionary's are bigger than blogspot's is not because blogspot wants to reduce our vocabulary but because blogspot checks thousands of users' messages every hour. That's a far greater load than our personal machines are under, so obviously blogspot cares more about making each spellcheck efficient. One way to do that is to shorten the dictionary.<br /><br />Meanwhile the internet is full to bursting with dictionaries, thesauruses and encyclopedias with entries for "epergne" -- if it's a conspiracy, it's a poorly executed one.<br /><br />Beethoven might be a fitting main course for a banquet, but I don't think he's quite suitable for daily bread. He's a beef wellington, or an expensive single malt whisky. I love him, but it wouldn't be good to have him every day. He demands my full attention, which I can't always give him.jezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14865247084509280406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-40994686592485227812012-08-16T09:43:51.320-04:002012-08-16T09:43:51.320-04:00Nietzsche, "On the Future of Our Educational ...Nietzsche, "On the Future of Our Educational Institutions"<br /><br /><i>"Have you ever, at a musical rehearsal, looked at the strange, shriveled-up, good-natured species of men who usually form the German orchestra? What changes and fluctuations we see in that capricious goddess "form"! What noses and ears, what clumsy, danse macabre movements! Just imagine for a moment that you were deaf, and had never dreamed of the existence of sound or music, and that you were looking upon the orchestra as a company of actors, and trying to enjoy their performance as a drama and nothing more. Undisturbed by the idealizing effect of the sound, you could never see enough of the stern, medieval, wood-cutting movement of this comical spectacle, this harmonious parody on the homo sapiens.<br /><br />"Now, on the other hand, assume that your musical sense has returned, and that your ears are opened. Look at the honest conductor at the head of the orchestra performing his duties in a dull, spiritless fashion: you no longer think of the comical aspect of the whole scene, you listen—but it seems to you that the spirit of tediousness spreads out from the honest conductor over all his companions. Now you see only torpidity and flabbiness, you hear only the trivial, the rhythmically inaccurate, and the melodiously trite. You see the orchestra only as an indifferent, ill-humored, and even wearisome crowd of players.<br /><br />"But set a genius—a real genius—in the midst of this crowd; and you instantly perceive something almost incredible. It is as if this genius, in his lightning transmigration, had entered into these mechanical, lifeless bodies, and as if only one demoniacal eye gleamed forth out of them all. Now look and listen—you can never listen enough! When you again observe the orchestra, now loftily storming, now fervently wailing, when you notice the quick tightening of every muscle and the rhythmical necessity of every gesture, then you too will feel what a pre-established harmony there is between leader and followers, and how in this hierarchy of spirits everything impels us towards the establishment of a like organization. You can divine from my simile what I would understand by a true educational institution, and why I am very far from recognizing one in the present type of university."</i><br /><br />Not even five hundred years of Grub Street could inundate Will Shakespeare. I doubt that 500 more will accomplish better.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-68508938515498872762012-08-16T09:41:03.540-04:002012-08-16T09:41:03.540-04:00Humanity is in danger of no longer appreciating &q...<i>Humanity is in danger of no longer appreciating "wheat" while it's being fed a steady diet of chaff.</i><br /><br />Don't despair, FT. "Time" heals all wounds. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grub_Street" rel="nofollow">Grub Streeters</a> have been inundating the planet with useless paper for over five hundred years... but somehow... the "good" survived.<br /><br />Nietzsche, "One the Future of our Educational Institutions"<br /><br /><i>"Have you ever, at a musical rehearsal, looked at the strange, shriveled-up, good-natured species of men who usually form the German orchestra? What changes and fluctuations we see in that capricious goddess "form"! What noses and ears, what clumsy, danse macabre movements! Just imagine for a moment that you were deaf, and had never dreamed of the existence of sound or music, and that you were looking upon the orchestra as a company of actors, and trying to enjoy their performance as a drama and nothing more. Undisturbed by the idealizing effect of the sound, you could never see enough of the stern, medieval, wood-cutting movement of this comical spectacle, this harmonious parody on the homo sapiens.<br /><br />"Now, on the other hand, assume that your musical sense has returned, and that your ears are opened. Look at the honest conductor at the head of the orchestra performing his duties in a dull, spiritless fashion: you no longer think of the comical aspect of the whole scene, you listen—but it seems to you that the spirit of tediousness spreads out from the honest conductor over all his companions. Now you see only torpidity and flabbiness, you hear only the trivial, the rhythmically inaccurate, and the melodiously trite. You see the orchestra only as an indifferent, ill-humored, and even wearisome crowd of players.<br /><br />"But set a genius—a real genius—in the midst of this crowd; and you instantly perceive something almost incredible. It is as if this genius, in his lightning transmigration, had entered into these mechanical, lifeless bodies, and as if only one demoniacal eye gleamed forth out of them all. Now look and listen—you can never listen enough! When you again observe the orchestra, now loftily storming, now fervently wailing, when you notice the quick tightening of every muscle and the rhythmical necessity of every gesture, then you too will feel what a pre-established harmony there is between leader and followers, and how in this hierarchy of spirits everything impels us towards the establishment of a like organization. You can divine from my simile what I would understand by a true educational institution, and why I am very far from recognizing one in the present type of university."</i><br /><br />"Epergne on", FT!Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-2897336392505070412012-08-16T09:23:43.598-04:002012-08-16T09:23:43.598-04:00Humanity is in danger of no longer appreciating &q...<i>Humanity is in danger of no longer appreciating "wheat" while it's being fed a steady diet of chaff.</i><br /><br />"Time" weeds out the chaff for us, FT. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grub_Street" rel="nofollow">Grub Street</a> scribblers have been trying to bury us in chaff for going on five hundred years now, to no avail.<br /><br />The point being, if you want to appreciate good writing, it's best to "avoid" works produced on "Grub Street."<br /><br />And as Nietzsche said in his "On the Future of Our Educational Institutions"...<br /><br /><i>"Have you ever, at a musical rehearsal, looked at the strange, shriveled-up, good-natured species of men who usually form the German orchestra? What changes and fluctuations we see in that capricious goddess "form"! What noses and ears, what clumsy, danse macabre movements! Just imagine for a moment that you were deaf, and had never dreamed of the existence of sound or music, and that you were looking upon the orchestra as a company of actors, and trying to enjoy their performance as a drama and nothing more. Undisturbed by the idealizing effect of the sound, you could never see enough of the stern, medieval, wood-cutting movement of this comical spectacle, this harmonious parody on the homo sapiens.<br /><br />"Now, on the other hand, assume that your musical sense has returned, and that your ears are opened. Look at the honest conductor at the head of the orchestra performing his duties in a dull, spiritless fashion: you no longer think of the comical aspect of the whole scene, you listen—but it seems to you that the spirit of tediousness spreads out from the honest conductor over all his companions. Now you see only torpidity and flabbiness, you hear only the trivial, the rhythmically inaccurate, and the melodiously trite. You see the orchestra only as an indifferent, ill-humored, and even wearisome crowd of players.<br /><br />"But set a genius—a real genius—in the midst of this crowd; and you instantly perceive something almost incredible. It is as if this genius, in his lightning transmigration, had entered into these mechanical, lifeless bodies, and as if only one demoniacal eye gleamed forth out of them all. Now look and listen—you can never listen enough! When you again observe the orchestra, now loftily storming, now fervently wailing, when you notice the quick tightening of every muscle and the rhythmical necessity of every gesture, then you too will feel what a pre-established harmony there is between leader and followers, and how in this hierarchy of spirits everything impels us towards the establishment of a like organization. You can divine from my simile what I would understand by a true educational institution, and why I am very far from recognizing one in the present type of university."</i><br /><br />So keep serving up "epergne's", FT. Some people still hear you.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-16919417820578342132012-08-16T08:08:29.159-04:002012-08-16T08:08:29.159-04:00Provocative and ironic, Thersites. If there had be...Provocative and ironic, Thersites. If there had been no "writing," we would have no knowledge whatsoever of the great discoveries and copious wisdom of the ancient world.<br /><br />The computer, however, has made "publishing" so damnably facile we are in danger of drowning in a veritable Sargasso Sea of useless, clumsily phrased, irritatingly redundant, half-formed thoughts "full of sound and fury signifying nothing."<br /><br />Humanity is in danger of no longer appreciating "wheat" while it's being fed a steady diet of chaff.<br /><br /><i><b>NOTE: The spelling verification device rejected "epergne" in the last post. This sort of thing happens to me with fair frequency. My once-quite-unexceptional knowledge of the language now far exceeds that of the automata purportedly designed to guard against orthographical and linguistic malfeasance. I see this as a DELIBERATE MOVE on the part of THOSE IN CONTROL to increase ignorance and decrease knowledge. A population deprived of knowledge and out of touch with its history is much more easily enslaved. And some dodo is waiting to tell me to put on my "tin foil hat" for saying so. Mockery and humiliation are other ways "they" use to keep us "in line."]</b></i><br /><br />~ FreeThinkeFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-14961179757016205212012-08-16T07:37:07.956-04:002012-08-16T07:37:07.956-04:00The orchestral introduction and "postscript&q...The orchestral introduction and "postscript" in the Moody Blues selection are beautiful -- wonderful use of harmony and instrumentation. The singing and the words are less inspired.<br /><br />If music were a banquet, Beethoven would be a main course, while The Moody Blues would belong in a silver epergne like a portion of candied fruit or mixed nuts -- or possibly like a cut glass dish decorously filled with an assortment of mixed pickles.<br /><br />~ FreeThinkeFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-45316868625705129072012-08-16T05:44:14.268-04:002012-08-16T05:44:14.268-04:00That's what Thoth said in Plato's "Ph...That's what Thoth said in Plato's "Phaedrus"... that the inventor of an "artful" device is not always the best judge of its' usefullness... that the art of writing would lead to human " forgetfulness"... theres a downside to every up.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-30117053751625554552012-08-16T04:32:11.863-04:002012-08-16T04:32:11.863-04:00Very interesting material.
But while I agree that...Very interesting material.<br /><br />But while I agree that good art is "medicinal" (excellent word) I still think that it's a very different type of "useful" than the cellphone, in that its requirements for material functionality overwhelm its purely psychological impact. Very often the impact of always-on communication is the opposite of medicinal.jezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14865247084509280406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-63762692802538365622012-08-15T14:41:01.501-04:002012-08-15T14:41:01.501-04:00Astounding...<a href="http://youtu.be/tuxnZvlvOqw" rel="nofollow">Astounding</a>...Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-69235897037689650552012-08-15T14:36:06.438-04:002012-08-15T14:36:06.438-04:00Aesthetics are "feelings". Read Kant...Aesthetics are "feelings". Read Kant's "Observations on Feelings of the Beautiful and Sublime.". Or better, listen to the Moody Blues "Dawn is a Feeling.". ;)Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-512851970915902942012-08-15T14:33:05.588-04:002012-08-15T14:33:05.588-04:00Aesthetics are "feelings". Kant's &...Aesthetics are "feelings". Kant's "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observations_on_the_Feeling_of_the_Beautiful_and_Sublime" rel="nofollow">Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime</a>".Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-47318776437794544152012-08-15T14:29:14.831-04:002012-08-15T14:29:14.831-04:00As the Moody Blues once sang, Dawn is a Feeling......As the Moody Blues once sang, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observations_on_the_Feeling_of_the_Beautiful_and_Sublime" rel="nofollow">Dawn is a Feeling</a>... or as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observations_on_the_Feeling_of_the_Beautiful_and_Sublime" rel="nofollow">Kant once conjectured</a>, the Beautiful and Sublime are "feelings".Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-14124051596280504612012-08-15T14:25:05.132-04:002012-08-15T14:25:05.132-04:00...the aesthetic is a "feeling of calmness&qu......the aesthetic is a "feeling of calmness" or one of "agitation". You should read Kant's "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observations_on_the_Feeling_of_the_Beautiful_and_Sublime" rel="nofollow">Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime</a>".Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-57806334674782207062012-08-15T14:22:41.066-04:002012-08-15T14:22:41.066-04:00Hemispheric dominance consists of "knowledge ...Hemispheric dominance consists of "knowledge of difference". "Knowledge of sameness" is largely subtracted and "ignored".Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-90838928404203276372012-08-15T14:18:17.717-04:002012-08-15T14:18:17.717-04:00The need for "symmetry" is biological. ...The need for "symmetry" is biological. The brain has TWO hemispheres. One hemisphere performs "inductive" functions, the other, "deductive". Guess which side the "pieces together the big picture". Guess which side breaks down the small sensory details. For vision and hearing, dominance resides in the "opposite" hemisphere. The same goes for smell/taste.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-68126191796114478532012-08-15T14:13:43.565-04:002012-08-15T14:13:43.565-04:00So what word do you use to describe the purely aes...<i>So what word do you use to describe the purely aesthetic qualities of a work?</i><br /><br />The words of Plato in "Philebus"... or in this case, the words of Benjamin Jowett, his translator... "<i>There are three criteria of goodness—beauty, symmetry, truth. These are clearly more akin to reason than to pleasure, and will enable us to fix the places of both of them in the scale of good. First in the scale is measure; the second place is assigned to symmetry; the third, to reason and wisdom; the fourth, to knowledge and true opinion; the fifth, to pure pleasures; and here the Muse says 'Enough.' </i>"Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.com