Chapter 27 studies the intellectual and cultural history of modern Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. This assignment enables students to evaluate the upheaval in ideas and science, the religious revival, and the artistic and architectural innovations that signaled a marked departure from the assumptions that many Europeans had inherited from the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries.
The objective is to research one individual’s ideas in a selection from their own writing or intellectual production. The excerpt from the primary source should be approximately one page in length. These can be found quite easily via the Internet. Then, students should introduce the text with a paragraph that identifies the individual’s main idea and how it challenged pre-existing notions. Third, the primary source should be followed by two or three comprehension questions for blog readers to consider. Finally, the whole exercise should be posted to our class blog below and appropriately cited using EasyBib to format references according to MLA style.
Igor STRAVINSKY (1882-1971)
ReplyDeleteIgor Stravinsky was a Russian born composer who had revolutionized music between the two World Wars, by leading two movements of contemporary music. In his early years of composing, he was mentored by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, whose influence would be apparent in his early works. He was also inspired by the French impressionists Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. He combined both Russian and French styles in his works such as Fireworks, The Faun and the Shepherdess and Firebird. His musical style was a mix of “clean orchestral textures, ‘bright’ instrumentation, and an emphasis on stamping irregular rhythms”. His ballet Firebird had a great success, and led to the composition of two more ballets: Pétrouchka and Le Sacre du Printemps, which are both equally important to the twentieth century. His music was so revolutionary, that at the Paris premiere of Firebird, riots were held. By the end of World War I, Stravinsky’s music grew with his works: L’Histoire du Soldat, Tango and Ragtime. These works were first perceived as parodies, yet were later characterized to have elements of “objectification”. He took classical procedures and updated them to expand the harmonic language. This new style coined by Stravinsky was called neoclassicism. His music was most influential in between the two World Wars, most importantly in the United States and France. After having composed The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky moved on to serialism. This style consists of using a fixed series of notes, especially the twelve notes of the chromatic scale.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tGA6bpscj8
"Classical Net - Basic Repertoire List - Stravinsky." Classical Net. Ed. Steve Schwartz. Classical Net. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. .
What were the two styles that Stravinsky led?
DeleteWho were Stravinsky's inspirations, and how did he execute their techniques?
How old was Stravinsky in the linked video and which orchestra is he conducting?
Rose,
DeleteThank you for your posting!
Marcel Proust (KRISTINA MAKARIAN)
ReplyDeleteUp until the 19th century, literature’s purpose had been either instructive, distractive, propagandist, or informative; great romantic or adventure novels that aided society to escape their dull lives, how to manuals to build or repair anything from household items to houses, bias logos to promote war and encourage men to join the army, and newspapers articles spreading good and bad happenings. By the 19th Century, realism took over with Emile Zola and Victor Hugo that shook readers by publishing raw reflections of the middle class life at the time. Blended with 19th century’s pessimistic realism, the 20th century gave birth to a new desire to observe, analyze, and express the “complexity and irrationality of the human mind.” Marcel Proust was amongst such writers and attempted to put his thoughts into writing exactly how and in what order they came to mind. This was a commonly used technique throughout the century called the stream-of-consciousness technique in which writers often used interior monologues in order to convey every conjunction of feelings, memories, and desires that often pass through our minds unrealized. Born in Paris in 1871 in a Jewish family, Proust spent his youth in social isolation that he hints in his semi-autobiography Remembrance of Things Past (1927.) Being an outcast of society during his studies, suffering from asthma during the entirety of his life, spending time in the army, engaging in heterosexual and homosexual love affaires, and witnessing the accidental death of his beloved, Proust decided he had seen enough to write an autobiography. Although he had translated, critiqued, and written many other works, this was his most famous. Although rejected at first as his writing contained long passages that seemed to dwell unendingly on a simple event and unorganized assortment of emotions and thoughts, his work became a historical master piece as he perfectly portrayed the stream-of-consciousness technique unlike his authors before him that mainly focused of revealing harsh lifestyle realities and not the works of the human psychology. Overall, Marcel Proust with his unclear and continuous plot line achieved a magnificent piece of literature that served as a magnifying glass into his mind.
Sources:
Proust, Marcel. "A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu." 001 : [---- I ---- Combray] Longtemps, Je Me Suis Couché De Bonne Heure. Jean-Yves Tadié. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. .
"Marcel Proust." The World Wide Cemetery. Michael Stanley Kibbee, 28 Apr. 1995. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. .
Liukkonen, Petri. "Marcel Proust." Www.kirjasto.sci.fi. Ari Pesonen, 2008. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. .
McKay, Hill, Buckler, Crowston, Wiesner-Hanks, and Perry. "McKay, A History of Western Society." Chapter 27: Age of Anxiety P.860. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. .
Link to Primary Source:
http://alarecherchedutempsperdu.org/marcelproust/001
(First page of Remembrance of Things Past)
Questions:
Does Marcel Proust successfully guide the reader through his train of thought going to bed and waking up? How does the punctuation and choice of the 1st person benefit his end purpose?
Can Marcel Proust’s writing be categorized as realistic and autobiographical or novelistic and sprinkled with fiction or a mix of both?
What parts of his story can be identified as unnecessarily long or purposeless to his life in a global perspective, and how does this serve his stream-of-consciousness technique?
Alban Berg (1885-1935) was an Austrian composer who pioneered modern music in the twentieth century. His musical career began in 1904 when he met Arnold Schoenberg, who, together with other composers, formed the Second Viennese School. During these years with Schoenberg, Berg mastered his composition skills and wrote many pieces including, Seven Early Songs (1905-1908), Piano Sonata (1908), Four Songs (1909) and String Quartet (1910). Berg’s repertoire contained relatively few songs compared to other great composers because of his meticulous composing style, by which he strived for perfection in his pieces. The opera that placed him in the forefront of twentieth century music was Wozzeck (1921). This opera was based on dramatist’s Georg Buchner’s play Woyzeck, in which a poor working man murders his lover, Maria, for suspicions over adultery, which ultimately leads to his own death. Through this opera, Berg did not want to simply illustrate the tragic fate of the main character, but rather portray a greater vision of violence and irrationality that had plagued human experience after World War I. Wozzeck, and most of Berg’s compositions, were characterized by the twelve-tone technique (created by Schoenberg), which consisted of giving equal importance to all twelve notes in a chromatic scale. This method gave birth to “atonal music,” which is defined by a lack of a tonal center key. This choice of composition was greeted with great opposition because it abandoned the traditional harmony and tonality that was heard in most of the compositions of the previous centuries.
ReplyDelete"Alban Berg." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 18 Mar. 2012. .
Primary Source:
Berg, Alban. "What Is Atonality?" Interview. 23 8 June 1936. Print.
.
Discussion Questions:
1. How does Berg address the many misconceptions held by individuals regarding atonal music?
2. How does Berg justify atonal music as a viable form of music?
Link to primary source:
Deletehttp://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/music/berg/interview.pdf
Ludwig Wittgenstein (PART I)
ReplyDeleteLudwig Wittgenstein (April 26th 1889-April 29th 1951) was an Austrian-British engineer, school teacher, World War I officer, and hospital porter during World War II, but most importantly, a philosopher of logic, mathematics, mind and language. Born into a very wealthy European industrial Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, Wittgenstein is described as being one of the greatest philosopher’s of the 20th century due to his modern influence on diverse topics such as ethnic and religion, aesthetics and culture, logic and language, and perception and intention. Often seen as controversial, his analytic philosophy is characterized in two stages: his early philosophical thought and the later ones. The early stage of his thoughts was published in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) where he focused on the nature of philosophy by creating a relationship between the world, thought, logic and language. The later stage of his thought is the one he is mostly recognized for. He articulated his thoughts in the Philosophical Investigations (1953). Philosophical Investigations was ranked the most important philosophical book of the 20thcentury and said to be “the one crossover masterpiece in twentieth-century philosophy, appealing across diverse specializations and philosophical orientations” by Douglas P. Lackey in December 1999 (“What are Modern Classics? The Baruch Poll of Great Philosophy in the Twentieth Century”, The Philosophy Forum, pp.329-344). Philosophical Investigations was revolutionary because it critiques the ideology of early philosophy including his own conclusions in his earlier work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Wittgenstein’s new philosophy is described as being “anti-systematic,” yet still key to “genuine philosophical understanding of traditional problems.”
Philosophical Investigations is divided in two parts. The first is very critical of traditional philosophy, and mostly rejects his earlier ideology on truth, thought, and language. The second focuses on philosophical psychology and perception. One example of an issue he addressed is the perception of words. He argues that words are defined by the function they have within a certain phrase or setting, which he calls a “language-game.” Wittgenstein never explicitly defined the term “language-games”, but an example of what he meant is in the following excerpt: (The first paragraphs of Philosophical Investigations)
Ludwig Wittgenstein(PART II)
ReplyDelete“1. ‘When they (my elders) named some object, and accordingly moved towards something, I saw this and I grasped that that the thing was called by the sound they uttered when they meant to point it out. Their intention was shown by their bodily movements, as it were the natural language of all peoples; the expression of the face, the play of the eyes, the movement of other parts of the body, and the tone of the voice which expresses our state of mind in seeking, having, rejecting, or avoiding something. Thus, as I heard words repeatedly used in their proper places in various sentences, I gradually learnt to understand what objects they signified; and after I had trained my mouth to form these signs, I used them to express my own desires.’
These words, it seems to me, give us a particular picture of the essence of human language. It is this: the individual words in language name objects--sentences are combinations of such names.--In this picture of language we find the roots of the following idea: Every word has a meaning. The meaning is correlated with the word. It is the object for which the word stands.
Augustine does not speak of there being any difference between kinds of word. If you describe the learning of language in this way you are, I believe, thinking primarily of nouns like 'table', 'chair', 'bread', and of people's names, and only secondarily of the names of certain actions and properties; and of the remaining kinds of word as something that will take care of itself.
Now think of the following use of language: I send someone shopping. I give him a slip marked 'five red apples'. He takes the slip to the shopkeeper, who opens the drawer marked 'apples', then he looks up the word 'red' in a table and finds a colour sample opposite it; then he says the series of cardinal numbers--I assume that he knows them by heart--up to the word 'five' and for each number he takes an apple of the same colour as the sample out of the drawer.--It is in this and similar ways that one operates with words--"But how does he know where and how he is to look up the word 'red' and what he is to do with the word 'five'?" ---Well, I assume that he 'acts' as I have described. Explanations come to an end somewhere.--But what is the meaning of the word 'five'? --No such thing was in question here, only how the word 'five' is used.
2. That philosophical concept of meaning has its place in a primitive idea of the way language functions. But one can also say that it is the idea of a language more primitive than ours. Let us imagine a language ...The language is meant to serve for communication between a builder A and an assistant B. A is building with building-stones; there are blocks, pillars, slabs and beams. B has to pass the stones, and that in the order in which A needs them. For this purpose they use a language consisting of the words 'block', 'pillar', 'slab', 'beam'. A calls them out; --B brings the stone which he has learnt to bring at such-and-such a call. -- Conceive this as a complete primitive language.”
1) The first paragraph cited is a quotation Wittgenstein took from Augustine’s Confessions I.8. Why does Wittgenstein quote from Augustine, and how does he use Augustine’s opinion to create his own arguments?
2) According to Wittgenstein’s second example (paragraph noted 2), what do you think he meant by the term “language-games?”
Sources:
-Biletzki, Anat, and Anat Matar. "Ludwig Wittgenstein." (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). 8 Nov. 2002. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. .
- Passage taken from Google Books : Wittgenstein, Ludwig. "Philosophical Investigations." Google Books. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. .
Albert Einstein is today one of the few synonyms to genius. The most famous and influential phycisist of the 20th century, Einstein is known not only for his work on the American Atom Bomb but also the speed of light and relativity. Growing up, einstein was considered a failure, both by his teachers and his parents. Little by little, his passion for physics became apparent, and his status of failure was transformed to genius. Before Einstein, scientists followed Newton’s theory that gravitational attraction was based on forces between two bodies. Yet Einstein contradicted this notion, claiming that an object falling was actually one that was following a pre-destined trajectory that, while seemingly curved (the orbit of a planet, for example), was actually a straight line. Einstein further revolutionized the physics of the day when he disproved the popular belief of the time, that the speed of light wasn’t a constant. Galileo had believed in the 17th century that the speed of light, although extremely rapid, varied. Einstein, along with his famous E=MC2 (Energy is determined by the mass of a body multiplied by the speed of light squared), determined that light was not only traveling at a constant speed of approximately 300,000 kilometers per second but that traveling any faster was physically impossible. This redefined how quickly men could some day travel and determined that the universe around us is not in real time but often delayed by hours, days or years. Einstiens theories have remained unchallenged (the many stimulations that neutrinos travelled faster than light have been falsified) to this day and continue to shape the world of physics as we know it.
ReplyDelete1) How did Einstein challenge the pre-20th century view of gravitational pull?
2) How did Einstein's definition of the speed of light change the world's view on vast distances and on the universe that surrounds us?
Sources
"Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity." Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
"How Einstein Arrived at E=MC Squared." No-Nonsense Stress Cures That Really Work! Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
"Relativistic Dynamics." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Feb. 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
"The Day the Universe Went All Funny." Special Relativity: Physics. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
"Principle of Relativity." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 Dec. 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
"Speed of Light." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
"Bumps and Wiggles: An Introduction to General Relativity." General Relativity: Einstein: Physics. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
"Albert Einstein." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
ReplyDeleteFranz Kafka was a German-Jewish writer in the late 19th – early 20th centuries who portrayed in many of his novels or novellas the incomprehensible, alienated world of the Age of Anxiety. One of his most famous novellas is The Metamorphosis (1915), in which the protagonist, a certain Gregor Samsa, turns into a giant insect. Thus Kafka portrays the helplessness of individuals as they are crushed by inexplicably hostile forces. The first four paragraphs of his The Metamorphosis is enough to attest to this, for the tone is already one of great pessimism and despair. This foreshadows the widespread despair and age of anxiety that would follow the First World War. This nightmarish situation that Kafka describes also foreshadows the horrors that would materialize in the Nazi state – although Kafka would not live to witness them himself. Regardless, this pessimistic view of life challenged the pre-existing notions of the existence of hope, in that Kafka effectively rejected progress as he described his “anti-utopia”. Indeed, more and more authors in the first half of the twentieth century such as Kafka turned toward these anti-utopias that represented the desolation of the era. In the very first paragraph alone, one could note the words “anxious”, “monstrous”, “verminous”, “pitifully”, and “helplessly”. These words obviously mirror Kafka’s feeling that the wars would yield no beneficial consequences or progress. This is much unlike the Enlightenment that introduced a new worldview based on the use of progress. In this case, the protagonist is very much alone, confused, in pain, and no amount of progress, scientific or otherwise, or the Renaissance’s virtù could deliver Gregor Samsa from his plight. This also goes against the Renaissance belief in virtù – the quality of being able to shape the world according to one’s will – and emphasis put on the individual, because Kafka portrays protagonists not unlike Gregor Samsa who are powerless against the “hostile forces” that have complete control over them and their world. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor can’t fight the fact that he’s been turned into a bug. He can’t even roll over onto his right side or scratch his abdomen properly.
Questions:
1. Now that you’ve read about how Kafka felt about the First World War and the age of anxiety that followed it, why do you think he decided to make his protagonist turn into an insect of all things?
2. How does his writing reflect the atmosphere of the era and create a tone of despair and hopelessness?
Sources:
McKay, Hill, Buckler, Croston, Wiesner-Hanks, and Perry. McKay, A History of Western Society. Chapter 27: Age of Anxiety p. 861. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
Primary Source: (especially first 4 paragraphs)
Johnston, Ian, and Franz Kafka. "Franz Kafka The Metamorphosis." Records.viu.ca. Ian Johnston, Mar. 2009. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
Walter Gropius (May 18, 1883 - July 5, 1969)
ReplyDeleteWalter Gropius was a German architect who founded the Bahaus School and pioneered, along with Le Corbusier and Ludwig mies van der Rohe, the modern architecture movement. This new modern architecture emphasized the simplification of the form, structure, and theme of a building. It promoted functionalism, the belief that buildings should serve as well as possible the purpose for which they were made. During his career, Gropius emphasized the need to provide healthful conditions for workers. In 1911, he designed the Fagus shoe factory in Alfed, Germany and built a clean and light building made of glass and iron. In 1919, Gropius was appointed head of the Grand-Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts in Weimar, which he would merge into a single interdisciplinary school, the Bahaus. The Bahaus brought together many leading modern architects, designers, and theatrical innovators. Modern architecture developed in response to the lavish stylistic excesses of Victorian and Edwardian architecture. The ornate and decorated buildings were replaced with sober and clean-cut lines. Buildings were often made of symmetrical rectangles made of concrete, glass, and steel.
Primary Source:
Marchand, Professor Bruno. Théorie De L'architecture III. Thesis. Web.
http://ltha.epfl.ch/enseignement_lth/theorie/polycopie_th4/chap_2.pdf
The following sources are direct quotes of Walter Gropius and responses to his architecture, published in Professor Bruno Marchand’s thesis. (Sources are in French)
« Les œuvres typiques de la Renaissance ou du Baroque avaient une façade symétrique et leur approche se faisait à partir d’un axe central (...) Un bâtiment conçu selon l’esprit de notre époque n’adopte plus le modèle contraignant de la façade symétrique. Il faut se déplacer autour du bâtiment pour apprécier son « caractère corporel » (corporeality) et comprendre le fonctionnement de ses différentes parties »
(W. Gropius cité par D. Sharp, Bauhaus, Dessau, Phaidon Press Limited, Londres, 1993)
« Gropius affirme qu’en « l’honneur du Travail, il faut construire des palais qui non seulement offriront à l’ouvrier, esclave du labeur industriel moderne, la lumière, l’air et la propreté, mais lui donneront à ressentir quelque chose de la dignité de la grande idée commune qui porte le Tout. »
(W. Gropius, « L’art monumental et la construction industrielle » (1911) in W. Gropius, Architecture et société, pp. 32-33)
« Dans le cas des nouveaux bâtiments industriels, le travail de l’architecte consiste à «illustrer le sens du processus de fabrication tout en traduisant dignement la valeur interne de l’installation et de la méthode de travail (...) La forme exactement consacrée, ne laissant aucune place au hasard, les contrastes clairs, l’agencement des structures, l’emboîtement des éléments semblables, l’unité de forme et de couleur vont devenir le bagage esthétique de l’architecte moderne, conformément à l’énergie et à l’économie de notre vie publique. »
(W. Gropius, « L’évolution de l’architecture indus- trielle moderne » (1913) in W. Gropius, Architecture et société, op. cit., p. 31)
A response to the Bahaus :
ReplyDelete« Le Bauhaus, avec ses célèbres parois de verre, comprenait des ateliers, des salles de conférence et d’exposition que l’on pouvait combiner partiellement. La maison des étudiants, appelée la Prellerhaus, formait un bloc plus élevé avec six étages et vingt-huit studios. Ceux-ci étaient spacieux, de conception très simple, pouvant servir à la fois de chambre et d’atelier. Chaque studio donnait sur un petit balcon constitué d’une plaque de béton en surplomb. La maison des étudiants était reliée au bâtiment central, le véritable Bauhaus, par une sorte de pont, bâtiment à un étage construit sur pilo- tis, qui contenait la cantine, le théâtre, la salle des fêtes et débouchait dans le hall du bâtiment prin- cipal. Il était facile de réunir beaucoup de salles entre elles. Une passerelle, avec des bureaux admi- nistratifs, rejoignait à angle droit l’école de perfectionnement. C’est ainsi que naquit cet ensemble original construit à partir de deux corps de bâtiments en forme de L qui se recoupaient et s’emboî- taient à des niveaux différents. Ces passerelles sur des piliers lui donnaient de la légèreté (elles étaient destinées à relier rapidement et directement entre elles les diverses ailes du bâtiment). Les parois de verre du Bauhaus soulignaient cet effet de légèreté. »
(Giedion, Espace, temps, architecture)
1) How did modern architecture differ from pre-existing architecture?
Delete2) How did contemporary social and industrial problems promote the development of modern architecture?
3) What buildings in New York do you think are inspired by modern architecture?
4. How does Giedon's account of the Bahaus exemplify modern architecture and Gropius' principles?
DeleteJames Joyce (1882-1941) was a famous Irish writer known for his use of stream of consciousness, and other avant-garde writing techniques before and during the opening of the Second World War. Among his many works are short stories collection Dubliners (published in 1914). The Artist as a Young Man (1914) and his only play Exiles (finished, and published in 1918). During the First World War he began to write Ulysses. Deemed the greatest novel of the 20th century by the Modern Library, Ulysses takes place in a single day, June 16 1904 or “Bloomsday” as he refers to it, in Dublin following two main characters: Stephen Dedalus (a character seen in the Artist as a Young Man, said to be the alter-ego of Joyce) and Leopold Bloom (a half-Jewish advertising canvasser based loosely on Homer’s Odysseus) as well as Bloom’s wife Molly (based in part, on Joyce’s then mistress Nora Barnacle). The book follows these characters day, thoughts, and relates the story, from many different perspectives, and in a style that reminds reader’s of Homer’s Odyssey. The text frequently uses stream of conscious technique, making the reader see a situation through the mind of one of the characters via inner monologues and subjective, but vivid descriptions. Up till that period novels touched on social problems, but retained sound reason in their characters and storyline. In writing Ulysses, Joyce set a trend for inner monologue and irrational psychology in novels, absent up until this time. First published in 1922, in France, it was banned for several years in Great Britain and the United Sates for its vivid, sometimes crude images (acted and though), as well as controversial topics, and ideas discussed by the characters in the course of the story. Despite these initial setbacks to publication, the book passed, smuggled or legally published, into the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteCritical Questions:
• Socially speaking, who would be especially shocked by the content and style of the novel?
• How can we tell that Joyce is writing from the psychological view point of one of his characters, in an internal monologue?
• How would passages like this one be different from writing in the XIXth century?
• Traynor, Mark. "A Brief Biography of James Joyce." jamesjoycecenter.ie. The James Joyce Center, 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. http://www.jamesjoyce.ie/detail.asp?ID=19
• The Modern Library. "Modern Library." 100 Best Novels «. Random House, Inc., 1995. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/
• "Ulysses." By James Joyce. Search EText, Read Online, Study, Discuss. Ed. Jalic, Inc. The Literature Network, 1999. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/ulysses/
• Culture Shock Literature. "James Joyce's Ulysses." PBS. PBS/WGBH, 1999. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/flashpoints/literature/ulysses_a.html
Primary Source:
ReplyDelete“Ines told me that one drop even if it got into you at all after I tried with the Banana but I was afraid it might break and get lost up in me somewhere because they once took something down out of a woman that was up there for years covered with limesalts they’re all mad to get in there where they come out of you’d think they could never go far enough up and then they’re done with you in a way till the next times yes because there’s a wonderful feeling there so tender all the time how did we finish it off yes O yes I pulled him off into my handkerchief pretending not to be excited but I opened my legs I wouldn't let him touch me inside my petticoat because I had a skirt opening up the side I tormented the life out of him first tickling him I loved rousing that dog in the hotel rrrssssttawokwokawok his eyes shut and a bird flying below us he was shy all the same I liked him like that moaning I made him blush a little I got over him that way when I unbuttoned him and took his out and drew back the skin it had a kind of eye in it they’re all Buttons down the middle on the wrong side of them Molly darling he called me what was his name Jack Joe Harry Mulley was it yes...”
Molly Bloom; from "Penelope" (episode 18) of Ulysses, James Joyce
SOREN KIERKEGAARD (Rhea Rizk)
ReplyDelete" A man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him."
At the turn of the 19th century philosophy endured sudden and dramatic changes. Especially after World War I many important philosophers began to question the presence of God and the meaning of life and stress the importance of a rational train of thought. Many notable philosophers such as Albert Camus, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jean-Paul Sartre and Soren Kierkegaard, were influential in the development of new philosophical schools including logical positivism, analytical philosophy and existentialism. Soren Kierkegaard (5 May 1813 –11 November 1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian and religious author. He was one of the many philosophers who played an important role throughout the nineteenth century by highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment. Soren Kierkegaard was born in Copenhagan to a wealthy family. His mother previously worked as a maid for his father, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard’s family before the two engaged in an intimate relationship shortly after the death of his first wife. He was educated at a prestigious boys' school (Borgerdydskolen), before attending Copenhagen University where he studied philosophy and theology. His graduation at the Copenhagen University seemed very distant as the philosopher encountered serious crises of confidence about spirituality and about his personal growth. However, his father’s death in 1838 pushed him to complete his studies and in 1840 he was awarded a Magister (Doctoral) degree in Theology. In September 1840 Kierkegaard became engaged to Regine Olsen, a seventeen year old who was the daughter to a member of the Danish Parliament. However Kierkegaard felt that his philosophical obligation rendered him unsuitable for a married life and so in 1841 he broke off the engagement. Kierkegaard is considered to be the father of existentialism, the belief that that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible entity capable of determining his or her own development through acts of the will. In the final years of his life Kierkegaard agressively critiqued the Church of Denmark through newspaper articles and self-published pamphlets. He focuses mainly on the objective proof that Christianity truly exists and believes that far too many people are lazy in there religion because many Christians did not fully understand the meaning of Christianity. Through his many influential works, Kierkegaard’s influence and philosophies is still recognized today.
Sources :
"Søren Kierkegaard" Encyclopedia Britannica
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/317503/Soren-Kierkegaard
"Søren Kierkegaard" Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Søren_Kierkegaard
"Theology of Søren Kierkegaard" Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theology_of_Søren_Kierkegaard
" Soren Kierkegaard Biography Philosophy of Existentialism"
http://age-of-the-sage.org/philosophy/kierkegaard.html
"Søren Kierkegaard" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/
Open Ended Questions :
• How do the graduation and engagement scenarios implicitely show that, although he was a philosopher he did not consider himself superior to the rest of society?
• How are the issues that Kierkegaard touched upon different than philosophers in previous centuries? Why is he considered the "father of existentialism" ?
Primary Source : Works Of Love - Soren Kierkegaard
Werner Karl Heisenberg was born on December 5th 1901 and died February 1976. Nowadays we do not hear much talk about Werner Karl Heisenberg but little do we know that he was implicated in many theories that set ground for quantum theory and particle and nuclear physics. Heisenberg studied physics and mathematics at the university of Munich. He was taught by Arnold Sommerfield and Wilhem Wien and he folowed courses with Max Brone, James Franck and David Hilbert. He will receive the physics Nobel prize the year of 1932. Werner Karl Heisenberg most important work is the uncertainty principle. The uncertainty principle is the theory that a particle can borrow energy in the sole condition that it is returned shortly after. This may seem basic but it was a revolutionary theory that would start the foundations and development of quantum theory.
ReplyDeletePrimary source:
ReplyDeletehttp://todayinsci.com/H/Heisenberg_Werner/HeisenbergWerner-Quotations.htm
Can we say that Werner Heisenberd had a big contribution to the quantum theory?
Would the quantum theory have been discovered if it wasn't for Heisenbergs uncertainty principle?
Would Alber Eindstein have success with Heisenbergs discvoeries?
Abdoulaye mouflet
*Would Albert Einstein have had success withouth Heisenbergs discoveries ?
Deletesources:
Werner Heisenberg - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 21 Mar 2012 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1932/heisenberg-bio.html
"Heisenberg / Uncertainty Principle - Werner Heisenberg and the Uncertainty Principle." The American Institute of Physics. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
"Werner Karl Heisenberg." Heisenberg Biography. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
Abdoulaye Mouflet
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) (Sofia Calatrava)
ReplyDeleteArnold Schoenberg, was an Austrian expressionist composer of the 20th century. His peculiar style of music was tagged along side Jazz and viewed as degenerate art by the dominating Nazi party in Germany. His forward thinking and composition changed the way people though about and listened to music completely. What made his music so different from previous more Romantic and Classical compositions was his 12 tone method. This method, consisted of playing all 12 notes before repeating any other to equalize their usage and not emphasize the sound of any particular note. This method gives his music texture that is almost palpable to the audience. Transmitting a wave of intense emotion and color. At the time his controversial method of composing was said to include many sexual and vulgar connotations. His work can be connected to Kandinsky’s painting which was very emotional as well and presented a deep psychological analysis of the effect color and textures and shapes had on the viewer. His abstract and expressive painting were not supposed to be esthetically beautiful but were meant to trigger some kind of emotion from the spectator. Like Schoenberg his art was misunderstood and seen as “degenerate” in the eyes of many.
"The Music Chamber." ThinkQuest. Oracle Foundation. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
PRIMARY SOURCES:
Schoenberg’s Suite op. 25, Präludium
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrjg3jzP2uI
Suite op. 25, Musette
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39x0Ypi4gTc&feature=related
TWELVE TONE METHOD EXPLANATION:
Shoenberg’s Twelve tone Method (explanation)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5dOI2MtvbA&feature=related
QUESTIONS:
1. Why did many people including the Nazi party tag Schoenberg’s work as “degenerate” and vulgar? How did certain events in history change people’s perspective of life and culture, for them to accept and learn to appreciate new types of music?
2. Why do you think that music changed from the classical to the an expressionist movement in which harmony of notes was no longer an object of importance?
3. Through the his music (either Suite op. 25 Präludium or Musette), what emotional effect did Schoenberg want to have on his audience?
Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973) is usually regarded as the first French Existential philosopher. Although his work took three paths, since he composed music, wrote plays, and exercised existentialist philosophy, the latter remains his most prominent area of study. Marcel focused on the modern individual's struggle in a technologically dehumanizing society. Ideas that he developed were mainly those of participation, fidelity, exigence, and presence. The Mystery of Being is a famous two-volume work authored by Marcel. “The Broken World” is the second chapter and one of the most important in this work. According to Marcel, the modern world is often in conflict with itself, and therefore there is a need to transcend or exceed its disunity. Transcendence implies going beyond the limits of ordinary experience. He explains that transcendence is fundamental to human experience. Marcel also argues that philosophic thought is reflective. Reflection may be a process of recalling or reexamining our past experiences in order to understand them. Reflection transforms experiences into concepts. Marcel saw the human person as a participant in, rather than a spectator of, reality and life. Marcel was repelled by philosophies that employed special terminologies or proceeded by assuming that reason could achieve a total grasp of reality. To him, personal experience is the basis of all enquiries. Marcel and existentialism challenged previous train of thought because in the 18th century, the Enlightenment philosophers sought to mobilize the power of reason as it promoted science and intellectual exchange. However, existentialism is mostly based on will. Moreover, Marcel even challenged existentialism, as many associate the term with atheism and Marxism. Marcel was not an atheist, nor was his philosophy as dark as most existentialists’. Marcel considered himself a Socratic Christian. And, there is optimism in Marcel’s works that were not focused on the dread and anxiety of Kierkegaard, but rather on the hope offered by Jesus Christ. As a passionate convert to Catholicism, Marcel sought to connect his philosophical beliefs to his faith. He believed that faith was a lived experience that defied explanation. Marcel did not seek to win coverts, but he sought to explore the relationships between people, as well as between the individual and modernity. Overall, Marcel feared that modern life, and the embrace of technology, was leading to the denial of God’s existence.
ReplyDeleteSources:
"Gabriel Marcel." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.
Hernandez, Jill Graper. "Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Marcel, Gabriel. University of Texas at San Antonio, 7 Dec. 2009. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.
Haselhurst, Geoffrey. "Existentialism Philosophy." : Discussion of Existentialist Quotes, Jean Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, Albert Camus. 2011. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
Marcel, Gabriel, The Mystery of Being, Volume I: Reflection and Mystery. London: The Harvill Press, 1950
MacIntyre, "Existentialism," in A Critical History of Western Philosophy. Edited by D.J. O'Connor. New York: The Free Press, 1964.
Questions:
1. How do Marcel’s religious beliefs affect his philosophy? And how does it differ from traditional philosophical beliefs as well as existential?
2. How did Marcel’s ideas on transcendence and reflection reveal his beliefs on reality?
Primary Source:
DeleteII. A BROKEN WORLD
Enquiry into one of the conclusions of the foregoing chapter, which dissociates truth and universal validity.
Is not this dissociation dangerous?
If not, how, and from what point does it appear so?
Note that the objection implies a pre-notion or anticipated schematizing of the relation between the subject and the truth which he will have to recognize.
Truth is indeed conceived as something to be extracted; this extraction is referable on principle to a universal technique, with
the result that truth should be transmissible to anyone.
But we are prone to forget that the more intelligence transcends
technical activity, the less the reference to anyone as indeterminate is called upon to intervene.
This objection is on the other hand a product, as it were, of a world that ignores exigencies of reflection.
This world of ours is a broken world, which means that in striving after a certain type of unity, it has lost its real unity. (These types of unity in the broken world are:
(1) Increased socialization of life: we are one and all treated as agents, registered, enrolled, and we end by merging into our own identity cards. (2) Extension of the powers of the State, which is like a searching eye on all of us. (3) This world has lost its true unity probably because privacy, brotherhood, creativeness, reflection and imagination, are all increasingly discredited in it.
Therefore--it is of the very utmost urgency that we reflect, and
reflect upon reflection, in order to bring to light that exigence which
animates reflection (cf. Chapter III), and in order to show that this
exigence when at work transcends any sort of process whatever, and
sweeps beyond the opposition of the empiric ego and the universal ego.
To read the full work: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=82044354
Ernest Rutherford, a chemist and physicist with roots in England and New Zealand, was one of the most important physicists in history and considered by many to be the founder of nuclear physics.
ReplyDeleteRutherford’s main contribution and challenge to pre-existing notions came with the Rutherford model of the atom and his atomic theory. Indeed, before Rutherford, J. J. Thomson believed that the atom was in fact similar to “a jigsaw puzzle” that was composed of “smaller pieces”. After the discovery the atoms had positive charges due to the work of Eugen Goldstein, Thomson theorized that the atom resembled a circular piece of raison bread. An atom, he believed, was composed of pieces of small and negatively charged electrons, which would be represented by the raisins, that were spread out from one another and mixed all together in the atom was thought to be composed of sub-atomic particles that were all mixed together in a larger clump of positive charges, represented by the bread. However, in 1908, Rutherford proved Thomas’ model of the atom to be mistaken. In 1909, Rutherford conducted the Geiger-Marsden experiment, and this experiment as well as a few others allowed him to make his main contribution to science as well as serve as the foundation for a large portion of high-energy physics. Indeed, with this experiment he put forth the basic structure of the atom, which he showed was composed of a very small positive nucleus encircled by a “cloud of orbiting electrons that are 100,000 times larger.” This Rutherford model, that was put forth in 1911, had a few key points such as the electron cloud that composes the atom does not have any influence on the alpha particle scattering”, as well as the fact that much of the atom’s charge is concentrated in the very, very small center of the atom, which came to acquire the name nucleus. This contribution to modern science was huge. Following this discovery, many scientists began to see that in fact the atom is not actually be described as a single particle, but as being made up by much smaller subatomic particles. This ultimately "Led to a revolutionary conception of the atom as a miniature universe in which the mass is concentrated in the nucleus surrounded by planetary electrons."
Please indicate where your quotes are drawn from.
Delete(continuation)
ReplyDeleteThe following text is an excerpt from Rutherford’s Noble Lecture after winning the Noble Prize in Chemistry. Although he is not discussing his model of the adom and its composition of subatomic particles, we can still see that he is challenging pre-existing scientific notions and putting forth a new theory. Here he discusses the chemical nature of the alpha particles from radioactive substances.
The study of the properties of the α-rays has played a notable part in the development of radioactivity and has been instrumental in bringing to light a number of facts and relationships of the first importance. With increase of experimental knowledge there has been a growing recognition that a large part of radioactive phenomena is intimately connected with the expulsion of the α-particles. In this lecture an attempt will be made to give a brief historical account of the development of our knowledge of the α-rays and to trace the long and arduous path trodden by the experimenter in the attempts to solve the difficult question of the chemical nature of the α-particles. α-rays were first observed in 1899 as a special type of radiation and during the last six years there has been a persistent attack on this great problem, which has finally yielded to the assault when the resources of the attack seemed almost exhausted.
Shortly after his discovery of the radiating power of uranium by the photographic method, Becquerel showed that the radiation from uranium like the Röntgen-rays possessed the property of discharging an electrified body. In a detailed investigation of this property, I examined the effect on the rate of discharge by placing successive layers of thin aluminium foil over the surface of a layer of uranium oxide and was led to the conclusion that two types of radiation of very different penetrating power were present. The conclusions at that period were summed up as follows:
"These experiments show that the uranium, radiation is complex and that there are present at least two distinct types of radiation - one that is very readily absorbed, which will be termed for convenience the α-radiation, and the other of a more penetrative character, which will be termed the β-radiation."1 When other radioactive substances were discovered, it was seen that the types of radiation present were analogous to the β- and α-rays of uranium and when a still more penetrating type of radiation from radium was discovered by Villard, the term γ-rays was applied to them. The names thus given soon came into general use as a convenient nomenclature for the three distinct types of radiation emitted from uranium, radium, thorium, and actinium. On account of their insignificant penetrating power, the α-rays were at first considered of little importance and attention was mainly directed to the more penetrating β-rays. With the advent of active preparations of radium, Giesel in 1899 showed that the β-rays from this substance were easily deflected by a magnetic field in the same direction as a stream of cathode rays and consequently appeared to be a stream of projected particles carrying a negative charge. The proof of the identity of the β-particles with the electrons constituting the cathode rays was completed in 1900 by Becquerel, who showed that the β-particles from radium had about the same small mass as the electrons and were projected at a speed comparable with the velocity of light. Time does not allow me to enter into the later work of Kaufmann and others on this subject, which has greatly extended our knowledge of the constitution and mass of electrons.
In the meantime, further investigation had disclosed that the α-particles produced most of the ionization observed in the neighbourhood of an unscreened radioactive substance, and that most of the energy radiated was in the form of α-rays. It was calculated by Rutherford and McClung in 1901 that one gram of radium radiated a large amount of energy in the form of α-rays.
ReplyDeleteThe increasing recognition of the importance of the α-rays in radioactive phenomena led to attempts to determine the nature of this easily absorbed type of radiation. Strutt (Lord Rayleigh) in 1901 and Sir William Crookes in 1902 suggested that they might possibly prove to be projected particles carrying a positive charge. I independently arrived at the same conclusion from consideration of a variety of evidence. If this were the case, the α-rays should be deflected by a magnetic field. Preliminary work showed that the deflection was very slight if it occurred at all. Experiments were continued at intervals over a period of two years and it was not until 1902, when a preparation of radium of activity 19,000 was available, that I was able to show conclusively that the particles were deflected by a magnetic field, though in a very minute degree compared with the β-rays. This showed that the α-rays consisted of projected charged particles while the direction of deflection indicated that each particle carried a positive charge. The α-particles were shown to be deflected also by an electric field and from the magnitude of the deflection, it was deduced that the velocity of the swiftest particles was about 2.5 x 109 cm per second, or one-twelfth the velocity of light, while the value of e/m - the ratio of the charge carried by the particle to its mass - was found to be 5,000 electromagnetic units. Now it is known from the data of the electrolysis of water that the value of e/m for the hydrogen atom is 9,650. If the α-particle carried the same positive charge as the unit fundamental charge of the hydrogen atom, it was seen that the mass of the α-particle was about twice that of the hydrogen atom. On account of the complexity of the rays it was recognized that the results were only approximate, but the experiments indicated clearly that the α-particle was atomic in mass and might prove ultimately to be either a hydrogen or a helium atom or the atom of some unknown element of light atomic weight. These experiments were repeated by Des Coudres in 1903 with similar results, while Becquerel showed the deflection of the α-rays in a magnetic field by the photographic method.
In what way does Rutherford announce the on coming of a great, new discovery and in some ways the start of a new era in science?
What is the effect of Rutherford citing many other scientists, taking into account that he based his Rutherford model of the atom off correcting the mistakes of Thomson’s model? How does looking to past and contemporary research help Rutherford make all these revolutionizing theories?
Primary Source:
"Nobel Lecture." Ernest Rutherford -. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
Other Sources:
"Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment." Creating Atomic Theory /. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
"Atomic Theory." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
"Rutherford - Atomic Theory." Royal Society of Chemistry. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
"Rutherford Atomic Model." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
"Ernest Rutherford." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
Badash, Lawrence. "Ernest Rutherford, Baron Rutherford of Nelson (British Physicist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
Part 1: Introduction of the Individual’s Main Idea:
ReplyDeleteCharles-Édouard Jeanneret also known as Le Corbusier (1887-1965) was a design pioneer. He was a Franco-Swiss architect, designer, urbanist and writer, who had a strong influence on evolving building designs, which he documented in his book Towards a New Architecture in 1923. He was one of the greatest supporters of modern architecture and advocated functionalism. The design style of functionalism was new and promoted the idea that buildings should be designed in a way to best serve their functional purpose. The introduction of Modernism, and its search for new styles, supported Le Corbusier in his desire to change the style of architecture more easily to a new style that focused on new machines that focused on simple and clean design. He emphasized the importance of functionality and the simplicity of construction utilizing newly available machinery. He looked at things very functionally and considered a house as “a machine for living in”. The buildings that were created according to Le Corbusier’s beliefs were known as “international style” composed of symmetrical rectangles made out of different materials (concrete, steel and glass). This was different from earlier building design styles, which had been decorated ornately. He was very different in his belief of the uselessness of decorations. He believed that the object should just serve the purpose it was made for in the easiest way possible. Le Corbusier challenged the previous desire that decorations served a purpose.
Part 2: Primary Source:
This is the link to the primary source:
http://www.gwu.edu/~art/Temporary_SL/177/pdfs/Corbu.pdf
Read from “The engineer’s aesthetic and architecture” to “Regulating lines”.
Part 3: Comprehension Questions:
1) What is Le Corbusier’s sense of beauty in architecture and what do you think inspired him?
2) Le Corbusier reminds other architects of three key elements (Mass, Surface and Plan) why do you think he focuses on those?
3) Based on your reading of the primary source of Le Corbusier’s style, do you think he would be a fan of Frank Geary (he’s an architect who designs contemporary architecture with many curves).
Part 4: Source(s):
For part 1:
1) Encyclopedia of World Biography. "Le Corbusier." Encyclopedia.com. Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2004. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
2) "Le Corbusier." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
3) McKay, Hill, Buckler, Croston, Wiesner-Hanks, and Perry. McKay, A History of Western Society. Chapter 27: Age of Anxiety p. 861. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
This excerpt from Henri Bergson’s 1889 essay Time and Free Will challenges many prior assumptions and general beliefs regarding the human psyche. One of the main distinctions between Bergson’s claim and previous claims is that he speaks more of perceptions than of actual states of mind. Instead of referring to clear distinctions between thoughts and moods, he presents a rather muddled vision of the human mind that seems neither structured nor reliable. Previous generations (especially those of the Enlightenment period) had delighted in a rational, organized view of the world, which included human psychology. Though some mystics had evaluated the more unconscious areas of the mind, most professional psychologists were under the impression that humans were generally rational beings whose conscious thoughts were logical and coherent. Bergson, however, whose ideas bear a certain resemblance to those of Sigmund Freud, another popular 19th century psychologist, contended that intuition and unconscious thoughts held more importance than rational thinking and more directly influenced our actions. He analyzed and discussed dreams (another similarity with Freud), claiming that they were more appealing to people than reality because within them there were endless possibilities, unlike stunted reality. He believed our minds are affected by deep-seeded passions above our rational control, as shown when he says, “some objects no longer impress you in the same manner”: through this expression, he insinuates that it is not us who choose to view something differently, but our psyche that affects us so as to make something have a different effect on us. He also expresses a contrast between the conscious and unconscious mind that would have seemed baffling and unusual to earlier thinkers. The conscious self enjoys “clean cut distinctions” and “well-defined outlines,” whereas the unconscious self is more dominated by vague feelings and perceptions. This nebulous concept is explained when Bergson states that an image or thought pervades the unconscious by altering “a thousand perceptions or memories, and that in this sense it pervades them, although it does not itself come into view.” Unseen emotions and feelings seem to be of the most importance, piled together in a “confused heap of co-existing psychic states.” Thus Bergson’s essay on free will was revolutionary in that it highlighted differences between conscious and unconscious thinking in a vague, disorderly vision of the human mind.
ReplyDeleteDiscussion questions:
1) How does Bergson show the difference between the conscious and unconscious sections of the mind? In what way do his ideas resemble those of Sigmund Freud?
2) How does Bergson portray the hope and endless possibilities of the future? Do you agree with him when he states that unconscious mental action such as dreams and musings about the future are more enjoyable or appealing that reality?
PRIMARY SOURCE:
DeleteFor example, an obscure desire gradually becomes a deep passion. Now, you will see that the feeble intensity of this desire consisted at first in its appearing to be isolated and, as it were, foreign to the remainder of your inner life. But little by little it permeates a larger number of psychic elements, tingeing them, so to speak, with its own colour and lo! your outlook on the whole of your surroundings seems now to have changed radically. How do you become aware of a deep passion, once it has taken hold of you, if not by perceiving that the same objects no longer impress you in the same manner ? All your sensations and all your ideas seem to brighten up: it is like childhood back again. We experience something of the kind in certain dreams, in which we do not imagine anything out of the ordinary, and yet through which there resounds an indescribable note of originality. The fact is that, the further we penetrate into the depths of consciousness, the less right we have to treat psychic phenomena as things which are set side by side. When it is said that an object occupies a large space in the soul or even that it fills it entirely, we ought to understand by this simply that its image has altered the shade of a thousand perceptions or memories, and that in this sense it pervades them, although it does not itself come into view. But this wholly dynamic way of looking at things is repugnant to the reflective consciousness, because the latter delights in clean cut distinctions, which are easily expressed in words, and in things with well-defined outlines, like those which are perceived in space. It will assume then that, everything else remaining identical, such and such a desire has gone up a scale of magnitudes, as though it were permissible still to speak of magnitude where there is neither multiplicity nor space. But just as consciousness (as will be shown later on) concentrates on a given point of the organism the increasing number of muscular contractions which take place on the surface of the body, thus converting them into one single feeling of effort, of growing intensity, so it will hypostatize under the form of a growing desire the gradual alterations which take place in the confused heap of co-existing psychic states. But that is a change of quality rather than of magnitude.
What makes hope such an intense pleasure is the fact that the future, which we dispose of to our liking, appears to us at the same time under a multitude of forms, equally attractive and equally possible. Even if the most coveted of these becomes realized, it will be necessary to give up the others, and we shall have lost a great deal. The idea of the future, pregnant with an infinity of possibilities, is thus more fruitful than the future itself, and this is why we find more charm in hope than in possession, in dreams than in reality.
SOURCE:
Delete"Time and Free Will." Henri Bergson: Time and Free Will: Chapter 1: The Intensity of Psychic States. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
“Grace is obedience. To understand this, we must understand what is meant by the whole conception of Resurrection. The obedience of Grace is that being and having and doing of men which is related to their former being and having and doing, and indeed to every human possibility, as life is related to death. Our present existence is brought within the realm of its final and impossible possibility, and there it is met by an inexorable and predetermined ‘either-or’. Grace is the relation of God to man, which admits of no compromise. God is not mocked. Already the Victor, he enters the conflict as a consuming fire. In the presence of his ‘Yes’ and his ‘Amen’, our stammering ‘as if’, our muttered ‘Yes and No’, cannot stand. Upon the threshold of my existence there appears, demanding admittance – the new man of the new world, the new man in Christ Jesus, justified and redeemed, alive and good, endowed with attributes which are not mine, have not been mine, and never will be mine. This new man is no visible figure, in history, no metaphysical phantom of my imagination; he is no other, second person, with whom I may be compared; he claims to be me myself, my existential, unobservable, EGO. In God I am what I am; I cannot therefore wait to be what I am. Under Grace, and aware of the message of Christ, I am exposed to the full and unavoidable earnestness of his demand, claim, and promise; I am subjected to a vast and vehement pressure. To be a Christian is to be under this pressure … Grace is the unobservable and incomparable achievement of the freedom of God, and it can be found and sought, conceived and apprehended, only as a Miracle, Beginning and Creation.”
ReplyDeleteKarl Barth (May 10, 1886 – December 10, 1968) was a Swiss “Reformed” theologian considered to be one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the twentieth century. Beginning with his experiences as a pastor, Barth came to reject his training in the predominant liberal theology typical of 19th century European Protestantism and embarked on a new theological path known as dialectical theory, in which he emphasized the paradoxical nature of divine truth. Barth's theological thought also put great emphasis on the sovereignty of God, particularly through his interpretation of the Calvinistic doctrine of election; in his controversial theory, Barth concluded that only through a lengthy introspection could an individual come to know whether God had elected or rejected him.
In this excerpt, taken from the seventh chapter, Freedom, of his work The Epistle to the Romans, Barth defines the relation between human nature and divine grace. Here, Barth asserts that Christians must live in obedience of religious laws in order to receive a fundamentally unknowable and mystical grace. In front of the divine, humans are powerless and insignificant, and must unconditionally accept God’s moral guidance and their responsibility to follow it. In this sense, Barth responds to early nineteenth-century philosophical currents, such as logical positivism or even existentialism, which rejected the existence of a God which could not be rationally or scientifically proven and asserted that humans alone held responsibility for their actions. According to Barth, Grace was the achievement of the “unobservable and incomparable … freedom of God”, a divine revelation which had no similarities whatsoever to the ‘rational’ human world and which was entirely unreachable to man save through a complete acceptance of divine laws and values. For Barth, the unconditional acceptance and even submission to God is a spiritual and intellectual medium through which an individual can gain greater comprehension of themselves and their environment.
Questions
1. Using examples from the text, describe how Barth defines the relationship between man and God.
2. What is Barth’s approach to human freedom in this text?
3. How does Barth correlate the concepts of obedience and divine Grace?
Bibliography:
ReplyDeleteBarth, Karl, and Edwyn Clement Hoskyns. The Epistle to the Romans,. London: Oxford UP, H. Milford, 1933. Print.
For some elements of Barth's biography:
"Kar Barth." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. .
And of course, my own insight on Barth's work.