From: Allen Barrows (allen_barrows@yahoo.co.uk)
Date: Thu Jun 23 2005 - 17:52:53 BST
Allen wrote:
___________________
… truth in intellectual terms is the degree to which harmonious relationships are elegant
and aesthetically valued. I may be banging on about harmony allot, but
so does ZMM!
__________________
Allen, could you elaborate on exactly what you mean by harmony?
Hello Steve, Yes i can try to elaborate on what i mean by harmony, and thank you for
giving me the opportunity to do so.
>From Anthony McWatts web version of his book which you can find at his superb
website - just perform a simple search and i am sure you will find it with ease:
...such experience is noted by Professor of psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi133
(1990, p.xiii):If a tennis player is asked how it feels when a game is going
well, she will describe a state of mind that is very similar to the description a chess
player will give of a good tournament. So will be a description of how
it feels to be absorbed in painting, or playing a difficult piece of music. Watching a good
play or reading a stimulating book also seems to produce the same
mental state. I called it ‘flow,’ because this was a metaphor several respondents gave
for how it felt when their experience was most enjoyable - it was like
being carried away by a current, everything moving smoothly without effort.As noted
above in Section 2.3.4., such personal experience is evident in mathematics.
The aesthetic feeling noted by mathematicians (such as Poincaré and Dirac) may be
described as an intense coherence between their repertoire of intuitions and
postulations. Thus, intellectual creativity
and insight emerge at the ‘sweet spot’ of coherence while, conversely, are reduced by
too much reliance on static methods. ‘Genuine mathematics, then, its
methods and its concepts, by contrast with soulless calculations, constitutes one of the
finest expressions of the Human spirit.’ (Gullberg, 1997, p. xxi)
Indeed, it would appear that mathematics, at its best, is a form of art.
Allen - The beauty a methematician finds in creative activity is not romantic in the SOM
sense, it is a beauty of participation and being included in the work.
Caring. Art. There is no split here between romantic and classic because everything
works as one flow.
>From ZMM:
"Sounds like art," the instructor says.
"Well, it is art," I say. "This divorce of art from technology is completely unnatural. It’s
just that it’s gone on so long you have to be an archeologist to
find out where the two separated. Rotisserie assembly is actually a long-lost branch of
sculpture, so divorced from its roots by centuries of intellectual wrong
turns that just to associate the two sounds ludicrous."
They’re not sure whether I’m kidding or not.
"You mean," DeWeese asks, "that when I was putting this rotisserie together I was
actually sculpting it?"
"Sure."
Allen - 'This divorce of art from technology is completely unnatural.' The Intellect is an
artist not a differentiating outlook Steve. The intellect is both
artist and appreciator of its own creative activity in one flow.
Again from Anthony McWatts web version of his book:
The static patterns may be said to resonate in a particular way with Dynamic Quality in
which our patterns are included in the coherence. This is supported by
Csikszentmihalyi (1990, p.xiv) who observes:We feel involved, concentrated, absorbed.
We know what must be done, and we get immediate feedback as to how well we
are doing. The tennis player knows after each shot whether the ball actually went where
she wanted it to go; the pianist knows after each stroke of the keyboard
whether the notes sound like they should… We forget ourselves and become lost in the
activity.Csikszentmihalyi (1990, p.xiv) further notes that: ‘this state of
consciousness... comes as close as anything can to what we call happiness’ where we
may experience high intensity wonder and joy. An intense coherence of static
patterns may indicate the beautiful or may even approach a mystic experience. Such
may be enlightenment - an exceptional ‘sweet spot’ between static quality
patterns.We feel a sense of
transcendence, as if the boundaries of the self had been expanded. The sailor feels at
one with the wind, the boat, and the sea; the singer feels a mysterious
sense of universal harmony. In those moments the awareness of time disappears, and
hours seem to flash by without our noticing.(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p.xiv)
Allen - '...a mysterious sense of Universal harmony.' That is what i am talking about
when i talk about harmony Steve and i hope it helps you now that i have
attempted to elaborate. I am more than happy to say more if you should like me to
Steve, but Anthonys work will provide you with some excellent material.
Thank you,
Allen
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Jun 24 2005 - 00:27:28 BST