Odysseuse on the Move

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

The Inquiring Mind and Spinoza

A mention of Spinoza in an often reread book led to the question: why Spinoza? Why not Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle? Naming any or all of the latter philosophers would have resulted in the novel's complicated plot. Reference books shed no light on the matter. How often does a casual mention of a name dropped into a larger work elicit enough curiosity to inspire a detour into research? It seems that in life there are many more questions than there are answers.

Answers themselves are complicated. Some are facts, known to be truth at the time they are stated. Many are opinions and are as varied as there are humans. The word "opine" has recently come into the vocabulary heard and read in the media, and has been repeated often enough to give rise to the suspicion that some effort is being made to impress listeners and readers. "I think; you opine" Take your pick!

Here are some questions to be considered, perhaps answered, perhaps "opined". Have you ever come to a stop in your listening or reading and gone to a source in order to find out more about the subject? If so, do you have reference materials in your home or office which can provide answers? Would you go to a library for more information? or Google? or somewhere else? Do you have friends and acquaintances who can provide information? Do you know why the word "enhance" is often used incorrectly instead of "increase" or "improve"?

Spinoza's opinion (he opined!) that "Nature abhors a vacuum." has been taken seriously and will lead to more frequent essays on this blog.

Spinoza also said
MAN IS A SOCIAL ANIMAL.


What do you think? Opine?

Monday, October 24, 2005

SPINNING WITH SPINOZA

Benedict [Baruch] Spinoza Philosopher, 1632-1677
P.G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse Writer, 1881-1975

Why have these two men from different vocations and centuries come together in an essay? P. G. Wodehouse wrote humorous novels, most of which poked fun at 20th century British aristocracy; Spinoza gave voice to his philosophical pronouncements from his home in Holland.

Early in P. G. Wodehouse's 1946 novel "Jeeves in the Morning", Bertie Wooster seeks to placate his man-servant mentor, Jeeves, by offering to buy him a book. Jeeves requests a new and recently annotated edtion of the works of Spinoza. Bertie consents and assumes that Spinoza is the latest mystery thriller, and wants to know if the book is Book Society's Choice of the Month. Jeeves reply is, "I believe not, sir."

At the bookstore it becomes known that the clueless Bertie has ordered a book by Spinoza, at which point the novel spins off into a convolution of comedic events propelled by someone being misled into thinking that Bertie must have reformed and become a serious thinker.

Some readers might have wondered what there was about Spinoza that made Jeeves choose that subject. A little research would reveal that the philosopher included science, mathematics, and much more, in his thinking, and that much of his work was incomprehensible to the layman, especially to the reader who would be perusing P. G. Wodehouse in the first place. However, one statement by Spinoza has become known to everyone and is often quoted without attribution.

Spinoza wrote
NATURE ABHORS A VACUUM

Saturday, October 08, 2005

IMPRESSIONS OF AN EXPRESSIONIST

1930 A little girl is sitting in her small wicker rocking chair. She has been given a new tablet of white paper, and her father has sharpened her pencil with his penknife. As usual, she is drawing the most beautiful ladies of which she is capable. She also draws gowns for them. Sometimes she draws paper dolls, about four inches tall, designs entire wardrobes for them, cuts them out and places them in her father's empty flat green metal Lucky Strike cigarette box - the 50 cigarette size.

1938 When she is sixteen she is accepted as an art student at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The students have the run of the museum before and after visiting hours. The world of the arts opens. She is still living at home and commuting by streetcar. It is not a dangerous city and there is transportation at all hours.

The beautiful ladies are forgotten; reality sets in. Outside the door of the Life Drawing classroom a group of new students have no idea what to expect. They murmur among themselves, saying that surely the models will be wearing clothes - won't they? Inside, they see the model. She is wearing a robe. She removes the robe and the Professor situates her on a raised platform. The students do not look at one another, they just begin to draw. The Professor walks from one student to another, advising and correcting. It suddenly becomes obvious to all that drawing and painting the human body is most difficult. The nudity is forgotten in the necessity of depicting the body in charcoal and various media. Life Class is hard work.

The girl notices that some of the advanced painters and sculptors who will have careers in the art world are not producing realistic art. A new idea has taken hold. It does not yet have a name, but it is arising in Chicago and in New York City: art does not have to be about something real, it must be an expression of one's emotions and reactions to the world around us. Make an abstraction of reality!

She shares her experiences with her parents. The nude models are taken for granted as part of an artist's education as well as all of the representational forms of art. But when she says, "I've learned that art doesn't have to be about anything, and I really like that idea." her father looks skeptical and a little disapproving.

2005 By the mid-twentieth century the new artform had a name: abstract expressionism. Its definition, as given in the previous post, describes the movement that troubled the father but entranced his daughter.

If you had a choice of an artwork - a painting, sculpture, drawing, photograph, lithograph - what would it be?

Alfred North Whitehead said
Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment in recognition of the pattern.