Thursday, May 21, 2009

More Thoughts on Angel and Demons

The Tao of heaven is to take from those who have too much and give to those who do not have enough. Man’s way is different. He takes from those who do not have enough to give to those who already have too much. (verse 77. Tr. Gia Fu Feng)


 



I tend to disagree that dualism is a false construct. No doubt a struggle to identify this process even within our own situation that we are locked on this wheel of life and one wonders how can one rise above it? Sure and most certainly, philosophical thoughts about life.


Sir Francis Bacon


Sir Francis Bacon-Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban KC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), son of Nicholas Bacon by his second wife Anne (Cooke) Bacon, was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Although his political career ended in disgrace, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific revolution. Indeed, his dedication may have brought him into a rare historical group of scientists who were killed by their own experiments. His most celebrated works include The New Atlantis.


Whether it's true or not some politicians become unhappy with the current state of things and dream of a better state. Dream about an ideal society. So they may adopt this new persona to drive home all those things that are not acceptable and write artistically about the new vison in poetic merit. A shakespearean perhaps? So it as a double life.


Bacon's Utopia: The New Atlantis


In 1623 Bacon expressed his aspirations and ideals in The New Atlantis. Released in 1627, this was his creation of an ideal land where "generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendor, piety and public spirit" were the commonly held qualities of the inhabitants of Bensalem. In this work, he portrayed a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge. The plan and organization of his ideal college, "Solomon's House", envisioned the modern research university in both applied and pure science.


Bacon's dream here is very familiar to most researchers as one looks to Plato's dialogues. Like Shakespeare, the dialogues were scenes set by Plato himself, and in such a state,  the Atlantis "was a vision" he himself had. Some might dispute my charcterization of Plato, but I am sure that Bacon realized the way he might work, dealing with his unhappiness and charges against him,  while then following the logic of what I am saying about Plato.


City of the Sun


Tommaso Campanella- See also:The City of the Sun


In Angel and Demons,  while it is The Roman catholic church, there is this other culture that rides along side of it,  that was to become the bankers of the world placed in positions of trust, to lead society along it's agenda.  Instead of,  the one lead by the Roman Catholic church. So this leads one to think "about presentation and the technologies we currently have" and what happened in the "frescoes of the Vatican in Rome" that we might garner from it,  a medium of expression. These then were  to  become thoughts about the measure of artistic impressionism. Let's say by Raphael? My pick.


This was used in the film while thinking about Raphael first, it was the sculpture and works of Gian Lorenzo Bernini that tantalized langdons work to point the way for this counter culture to reveal its destiny in face of that same Roman Catholic tradition.


Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)-----Rhetoricalthough not a rhetorician, contributed to the field in his writings. One of the concerns of the age was to find a suitable style for the discussion of scientific topics, which needed above all a clear exposition of facts and arguments, rather than the ornate style favored at the time. Bacon in his The Advancement of Learning criticized those who are preoccupied with style rather than "the weight of matter, worth of subject, soundness of argument, life of invention, or depth of judgment." On matters of style, he proposed that the style conform to the subject matter and to the audience, that simple words be employed whenever possible, and that the style should be agreeable.


So why would Bacon, if he knew to present the thoughts of the day by scientific measure, thought himself to expose, only the other side of this thinking with artistic merit? Of course I am making the connection between William Shakespeare and Sir Francis Bacon. This could all be for naught while one digests the thinking here, about the way one lives, and the world that could exist, if only....?



Word play is a literary technique in which the nature of the words used themselves become part of the subject of the work. Puns, obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly formed sentences, and telling character names are common examples of word play.

All writers engage in word play to some extent, but certain writers are particularly adept or committed to word play. Shakespeare was a noted punster. James Joyce, whose Ulysses, and even more so, his Finnegans Wake, are filled with brilliant writing and brilliant word play is another noted word-player. For example, Joyce's phrase "they were yung and easily freudened" clearly conveys the meaning "young and easily frightened", but it also makes puns on the names of two famous psychoanalysts, Jung and Freud.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Plato,

    “So why would Bacon, if he knew to present the thoughts of the day by scientific measure, thought himself to expose, only the other side of this thinking with artistic merit? “

    An interesting piece which contains things I have often considered concerning Bacon. I think that Bacon used words in such fashion to demonstrate the unreliability of them when truth must be decided. For instance in the work of science for which he is most famous being Novum Organum ( New Instrument) he states the following:

    “The syllogism consists of propositions, propositions consist of words, words are symbols of notions. Therefore if the notions themselves (which is the root of the matter) are confused and overhastily abstracted from the facts, there can be no firmness in the superstructure. Our only hope therefore lies in a true induction. “

    This is to imply that words alone and their lack of firmness of meaning cannot be trusted yet a method established to serve as being the ruler of truth. He suggested this as being what he contended to be his scientific method, which he called the inductive method which where the gathering of observationial evidence of the world to be then deduced as to decide. Deduction then was not eliminated, yet only considerded valid when supported by evidence. I suggest is resultant of him as being by profession a lawyer:-) The one aspect he could not deny to be eliminated from his method was the soundness in deducing things as being equal as a unquestionably necessary element which he expressed as follows:

    “the mathematical postulate that if two things are equal to the same thing they are equal to one another is conformable with the rule of the syllogism in logic which unites propositions agreeing in a middle term.”

    So as can be seen the deductive reliance of the equation was born and with it the core principles of what defines as being science whether they be expressed in numbers or words and as often times both.

    Best,

    Phil

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  2. Hi Phil,

    I agree with all your points.

    I am retracing my steps in terms of the idea of this counter culture in the movie called the Illuminati, was a not so strange idea when we spoke of the idea of Plato writing his own dialogues and speaking as if a number of people, as was Shakespeare, and his real identity as that of Sir Francis Bacon, which I have elucidated in the post.

    So confined by their own perspectives, that they thought to speak as wide a possible and as free as possible without the constraints of? You see? Speculation of course.

    yet a method established to serve as being the ruler of truth. He suggested this as being what he contended to be his scientific method, which he called the inductive method which where the gathering of observational evidence of the world to be then deduced as to decide.So most certainly describing the constraints as defined in your wording to think outside the box.

    So this brings us back too, the Aristotelian arche.

    Although Aristotle in general had a more empirical and experimental attitude than Plato, modern science did not come into its own until Plato's Pythagorean confidence in the mathematical nature of the world returned with Kepler, Galileo, and Newton. For instance, Aristotle, relying on a theory of opposites that is now only of historical interest, rejected Plato's attempt to match the Platonic Solids with the elements -- while Plato's expectations are realized in mineralogy and crystallography, where the Platonic Solids occur naturally.Plato and Aristotle, Up and Down-Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D. You can see where this points to differences in belief about "deduction" that you have with regard to my own.

    This was the contention I saw when being shown of Pirsig. People wanted to discard Plato when the mineralogy of "the belief" came in physical form?

    Best,

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Plato,

    Yes as I was indicting in the discussion on Bee’s post regarding if .999... be equal to one, was to suggest that there exists to be a difference between what is possible and what is certain. This difference has always appeared to me to be an important one, for it seems also to mark the difference between what can be real and what cannot.

    The question that then comes is to ask, as Godel proved that mathematics as its now considered is limited to being certain to the limit of its own axioms and structure, if there be something that lay beyond its ability to decide or is deciding itself what constitutes to be this? This is where Pirsig extended Plato’s notion, where quality is the decider of what is real. The thing with quality is it’s not solely limited by symmetry, economy and number, yet rather at best only described by them, for these are what Bacon recognized as the words.

    So then we must further ask, is quality a aspect of possibility or the consequence of decision and if so how are they made and by what? So the equation expressed by Pirsig is “quality=truth + beauty" and so the quest is not so much to learn what lies on either side but what constitutes to be in between.

    Best,

    Phil

    ReplyDelete
  4. “quality=truth + beauty"Phil:The thing with quality is it’s not solely limited by symmetry, economy and number, yet rather at best only described by them, for these are what Bacon recognized as the words.Hence my struggle, that what is real has a expression that leads me to believe in "the duality of our position," and then, the realization, that to rise above it, is to be able too, "discern."

    This goes back to your statement.

    Phil:So as can be seen the deductive reliance of the equation was born and with it the core principles of what defines as being science whether they be expressed in numbers or words and as often times both.So this is what I am after, a re-cognition of what the basis of mathematics is(?)while knowing this is leading to an extra-ordinary realization of the truth. That allows one to rise above the "social situation" where born, were two perspectives and voices spoken in language current in society.

    That discernment rests within the scope of what becomes "self evident," is the bridge that intuitively remains "unquestionable to the insight" and includes reason. I of course do not advocate irresponsibility while it appears as if "caught in the perception of dualism." I would point out that the vision of Bacon and Plato whereby such thinking points toward a better society?

    How can this be so if understanding the requirement of science?

    So, you recognize the quality?:)

    Thank you for re-igniting the quality aspect as I am looking to complete a method whereby one can become equipped to see this equatorial understanding that leads to such simplicity.

    I have always recognized the disdain that some speak of with regard to beauty and ugliness in science is about "our perceptions of reality" and am always dismayed when something can appear so ugly?:)

    From the Middle Ages inherited the manuscript Cook among other texts that serve as balm to feed the burgeoning vitality of scientific thought from the Renaissance to end with a period of unprecedented horror and darkness in the history of knowledge. The processes of transmitting knowledge are immersed unnameable in myth, where 'myth' is intuitive thinking, with some peculiar logic, which produces a "vision" not arbitrary or personal events. (...) es una forma muy concisa y profunda de transmitir experiencia. 2 (...) Is a very concise and convey deep experience. 2Best,

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