aesthetics:a philosophy of art / the recovery of virtues and principles -introduction

a e s t h e t i c s / a p h i l o s o p h y o f a r t

( t h e r e c o v e r y o f v i r t u e s a n d p r i n c i p l e s )

derek dey Ⓒ 2012

Saturday, February 23, 2013

deep ecology-principles-cosmology-aesthetics

Our starting point for aesthetics lies in the created universe and principles of organization which lie beyond. This question fascinates scientists and theologians alike. As we proceed philosophers both east and west have, and still do, ponder this same question. The particulate history is based on the atom - hydrogen and helium, followed by heavy elements generated in supernovas. What about intelligence and consciousness?

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timeline

10-43 sec 10-6 sec 3 mins 300,000 yrs.100 million300 million

galaxies1 billion yrs.

4.6 billion yrs. ago

3.8 billion yrs. ago

inflation+ / -

cooling quarks

atoms/Higgs no electrons/

nucleosynthesis

atoms - H He / light /

consciousness

stars -supernova

heavy elements.

milky way +sun

micro-life on earth

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Higgs field: self-organizing principles ?The design and organizational principles are still questions concerning the created order. Peter Higgs proposed the boson as a design element but it is not yet fully explained. Sang Hun Lee, C.G. Jung, A.N. Whitehead, Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose all introduce the idea of protoconsciousness. This states, the universe is not simply matter but also a broader field of universal consciousness - field consciousness in which we participate at a cellular level. In all probability the Higgs field holds to mind-like properties.

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The universe displays a particulate history but Platonic ideas have been placed at the Planck level by Roger Penrose (from Whitehead) and emergent complexities akin to consciousness are located in the period of cosmic inflation by Paola Zizzi. This, form-dynamics and unification model, emerges in the quantum field, nature, and consciousness. Patterns of dual characteristics and unification, define the solar system (systems - networks) the new biology, family, and socio-political structures. Duality and syntheses describe the Dao. These constellations appear in various theories of growth complexities and psychological mechanisms. In this view all things posses mind or a mind-like quality. - Panpsychism.

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deep symetries /panpsychic philosophy / protoconsciousness.


early markers

A history of consciousness emerges and is defined as culture

Venus - Chauvet 40 - 32,000 yrs. Altamira Lascaux

Neolithic - domestication / farming / first cities 10,000 approx. Çatalhöyük - 7,500 BC to 5,700 BC.

Egypt - 3,150 BC (cosmology)

Greco-Roman and Oriental worlds (philosophy)

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philosophers-insightsJulian Jaynes, Jean Gebser and Karl Jaspers comment on a hugh shift in human consciousness running from Hesiod through Socrates, Christ, and Buddha. Other shifts in consciousness appear as in the Renaissance. Spiral dynamics, a psychological model, confirms history developing in epochs. Two fields of experience open to us variously called by different names but they carry a transcendent-immanent framework. By the 18th Century Burke, Baumgarten, Kant, and others discussed universals, particulars, and some categories describing art. These are extracted from the field of mind and nature.

Kant - “the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”

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Panpsychism


schiller - jungIn our study Hegel, Kant, Schiller, Goethe, and Jung, become significant for their impact on aesthetics and art. A N Whitehead similarly held to ideas about protoconsciousness. Weimar Classicism, shares concepts embracing a mental-physical universe both inseparable and intertwined. The sum total of these two worlds become simply ‘nature.’ Schiller states cultural crises destroys our perceptions of nature and principles. We therefore become separated from the moral order of things, and from participation in the source of creativity. Therefore self, aesthetic education, and a homogeneous culture are essential components of a healthy culture. C.G. Jung adds ‘Aion’-the Self, as an archetype emerging from the quantum field. This is the fulcrum, for conscious and unconscious realities. We are connected to field consciousness via the cell. He states, “consciousness recedes into carbon.” - here is a link to protoconsciousness.

Goethe & Schiller8.


hegel / end of art?

Hegel defined 3 eras of art -1830. By the Romantic era challenges in photorealism had been overcome and complex issues regarding emotions and psychology were successfully embedded into the human form as depicted in art. Hegel’s historical periods were: 1. symbolic (Egyptian - inadequate) 2. classical (Greece - adequate) 3. Romantic (psychological - emotional - complete). Arthur Danto, a contemporary philosopher, picked up on Hegel’s idea but opens the end of art to further developments. - “An end to art?” = the new pluralism / The Renaissance and Romantic traditions were transformed in the 20th Century - but what now? freedom or license - chaos or concern?

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the relational field-the web of life

The work of Jung / Whitehead / panpsychism / myth / biology /psychology / principles / deep-ecology / economies / internet /consciousness, all point to one thing. Jean Gebser, and spiral dynamics, suggests evolutionary stages - an ascent in consciousness. He proposed archaic, magical, mythical, mental, and integral, phases of development. Our times suffer from tension because the old ways have become redundant. Old solutions no longer serve us. the idea of ‘integral,’ points to questions concerning emerging relational ethics. Integral thinking is embraced by Gebser, Wilber, Graves, Tarnas, Skrbina, and others.

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nature / nurture

how might this theory work on the ground? “I don't know how you were diverted you were perverted too.” G. Harrison

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sublimation to aesthetics

1. a secure base

2. psycho-‐social needs

3. character + calling self actualization

physiological

safety -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐

love-‐belonging-‐

esteem-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐

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Freudians like Klein and Segal moved against the the negative ego image which repressed aggression and sexual fantasy. Freud saw these traits inhabiting the unconscious. Freudian psychology moves from repression to creativity and design - a different ego. Erikson and Maslow proposed ego stages of growth and creativity. Libido became sexual/non sexual depending on where and how energy was directed. Others followed, moving towards healthy growth described by Bowlby; a foundation requiring a ‘secure base’ - attachment.

Creative Flow -Csikszentmihalyi


stadial / spiral / comparisons

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Stages of growth seem to indicate a ‘by design’ parameter - archetypal.

Spiral or integral psychology is somewhat more fluid and allows for increasing complexity. Most theories embrace archaic stages and reveal a creative impulse generated from the

unconscious. Following from Jean Gebser the integral model opens to current thinking of a holistic nature.


neuro-psychologyNeuropsychology reveals early infant development operating from the emotional brain, the area involving attachment, from 0-3 yrs. This early narrative influences emotions, virtues, and creativity. Early language acquirement begins at 6 months-2yrs. - Language, intellect, science and math are emerge mostly from left brain functions. Montessori - Steiner - Piaget - used methods of understanding actual growth stages successfully. Neurons are trimmed at 7-8th grade-the brain shrinks / a refocusing takes place towards the frontal lobes - the executive mind and adult functionality. Mirror neurons help acquire behaviors. Neuroplasticity offers us change at any age.

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Protoconsciousness

the cell is a porous bridgefield participationelectro-chemical deep field consciousnessPlato-Aristotle - resolved

Descartes mistake / Pauli and Jung; “Atom and Archetype”-‐a psychic and material matrix / consciousness recedes into carbon / A.N. Whitehead-‐protoconsciousness / Sang Hun Lee-‐protoconsciousness / Hameroff-‐Penrose-‐protoconsciousness / Sole and Goodwin-‐complexity and biology 15.

(eidos and hyle)field and network


a philosophy of seedJames Hillman proposed the self emerges from seed. The development of the self contains an innate drive towards fulfilling character and calling - our identity. John Bradshaw lists numerous examples of this innate drive including the appropriation of virtues. Ellen Dissanayake claims art and culture are not only innate but hard wired - a biological necessity for adaption. A recent study by the National Academy of Sciences involving the Mundurucu tribe revealed math is an innate acquirement. Studies by Slavin and Kriegman show developmental psychology and evolutionary biology moving to reveal a ‘true self’ - an architecture of an innate, creative identity or ‘genius.’ Genius - the self and character is also formed within the family and in educational processes - it needs recognition, it requires appropriate nurture.

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hagman’s theory

John Bowlby, George Hagman and others hold to the idea of “a secure base” - attachment theory and empathy which then opens to self and aesthetic theory. Simply put, the infants relationship with the parents generates a protoaesthetic mold, a template for future creativity by experience and design.

The mother and child experience = beauty. The father and child experience = the sublime.

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george hagmannA journey from Freud’s pessimism to Hagman’s aesthetics.

Mother - the root: “Mother’s beauty goes beyond her physical appearance. It includes all aspects of mother/child interaction, such as rhythm of breathing, shared warmth, quality of touch and facial responsiveness ... The child experiences a confluence of interaction that possesses formal qualities such as temporal sequencing, vocal pitch, visual balance and vibrancy ... profoundly meaningful ... felt to be perfect ... a protoaesthetic form of a template which becomes the individuals formal experience of the world ... at the heart of aesthetic experience is the infants interaction (play) with the mothers face and body that symbolizes the primordial processes of multimodal communication. The inchoate and inert reality is invested with feelings of form.

and value.” - indirect quote: Aesthetic Experience, Beauty, Creativity, and the Search for the Ideal. p37. 18.


beauty

• archaic memory- a template for art• mother child enfoldment• empathy-entrainment-aesthetic virtues • rhythm texture form sound color, - artistic forms emerge•object relations are formed - idealism, values are established 19.


beauty in art

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Father / sublime“In the course of normal development the father enters into the aesthetic space that the mother and infant have created and cultivated. Traditionally this is viewed as occurring later than the infants analogous experience of the mother but it may be more accurate to say it is simultaneous and only partially differentiated from her. From the child's perspective this experience is characterized by immense size, extraordinary power, obscurity, formlessness, intense affects such as fear danger or awe - all characteristics of the sublime.” ‘Hagman, Aesthetic Exp.’ (failure here = terror, rage, aggression)

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Longinus > Edmund Burke

Baumgarten > Kant

German Idealists

Wagner-Mahler

Ruskin-Turner

Edwin Church

Albert Bierstadt


the sublime in art

Albert Bierstadt

Edwin Church J. M. W. Turner

Mark Rothko

Gabriel DaweJohn Martin:

wrath/dread - idealism collapses

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the child (an additional proposition)

Stage 1: marked by innocence, naivety, innate joy, fun, - Dissanayake’s first stage of creativity - ‘making special - a found object.’ / ‘a participation mystique.’

Stage 2: ritual-control of nature / empathy with nature may then emerge.

Stage 3: The literal age, fables, tales, myth, symbols, and meaning follows.

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the solar hero

Erich Nuemann / myth - consciousness and self: all culture flows from the Solar Hero. (Osiris, killed by his brother Set, recovers with sisterly help - Isis / a model of masculine-feminine cooperation / creativity emerges from a ‘solar hero’

electra

icarus

aeneas / latinus

aeneas shipwrecked

osiris isis

isis

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aeneas: - journey


turner and picasso

The dark clue - turmoil and creativity in the arts. Both creativity and dysfunction lie extant in the arts. Turner reveals a - cyclical profile /

Picasso - a terminal profile.

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spiral - a compositional device

vortex -a compositional device

the inner demon - dysfunction and dissolution


the unconscious

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Turner’s “dark clue” buried in the depths of his psyche


turner - picasso pros and consturner

light colorfreedom and the

unconsciousabstraction

synthetic

unifyingfield

proto - impressionist

turner

genetic-insanity?

dissolutionof self

unmet needs /

empathic failure

spiral Vs vortex

cyclical

Aeneas -journey of a

hero ?sustained creativity

picassocubism

motionplay color

freedomor

license

inter-cultural

abstraction

inter-discipline

picasso

self absorbed - narcissism (mother -

father)

rage -enablement

sadism and perversion

materialism dissolution a dying god

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the relational field

The web of life / deep ecology / universals / economics / internet - principles for our times? - A philosophy which emphasizes growth - the interdependence of human / non-human life, ecosystems and all natural processes. How will we relate ? How will we create? What do we value? (integral / holistic consciousness )

28.

Virtues?


empathy / socialization /culture

3 essential keys for the recovery of virtue: They are systemic / organic and can not be considered independently. These virtues are culled from panpsychic philosophies, biology, transpersonal psychology, spiritual and contemporary studies. With self and growth, the aesthetic apprehension of principles create a global culture of universal themes. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. personality - (growth - character and calling - the self)2. family - (commitment empathy warmth humor - protoaesthetics)3. education - (growth stages- excellence, genius - mastery/discipline - social)

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Li Chi, Logos, and Panta rhei - a synthesis

Li - Chi (yang-yin) / Chu-Hsi: heaven/heart

Logos - Panta rhei / Heraclitus to Plato and Aristotle: Eidos[idea] - Hyle[matter]

A new definition of Li-Chi, Logos-Panta rhei: Inner base (unchanging) outer base (developmental) are a - perpetually moving, perpetually present set of patterns which flow without cessation through all of nature, in our perceptions of the world, and in our very consciousness - inseparable patterns observable in nature at her deepest level. Anton Erhenzweig - ‘The Hidden order of Art’ says much the same.

Heart - Principles of Relational Organization:

Dynamic Interactivity - Self Organization- Complexity-

Participation in Quantum Reality

East and West are in basic agreement

Achieving a state of balance / refining one's moral self / a reflection of the Dao

(Way). - Manifesting virtues / aesthetics

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logos / e = Mc2

pre planpre energy

emotion intellect

will

conceptsideas / plans

principlesmath

heart purposeinherent directive natureuniversal prime energy

protoconsciousness

LiYang

LogosKarya

ChiYinPant rheiKarana

Principles Process

atommind<>body

cellprotoconscious

mind and nature - consciousnesssummary:


quadruple base / eidos-hyle / logos-panta rhei / yang-yin / li-chi“from deep quantum levels: form dynamics

unification”

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by design

33.Saturday, February 23, 2013

proposal: the recovery of virtues

There is a Harmonious co-relative law of likeness and harmony - Heart and culture = “Heart is the core of the creation. Heart is the core of the original human being.” - heart lies at the core of Logos and creativity. Heart and principles form culture

The Quadruple Base: the Inner Identity-Maintaining Quadruple Base - Outer Developing Quadruple Base, - form dynamics and unification = the pattern of creativity. (a synthetic dialectic) - “an advance into novelty.” -

Sungsang, Yang or Li as Mind - refers to the faculties of emotion, intellect and will - a universal architecture.

Hyungsang, Yin or Chi as Body - elements of universal forms. i.e. ideas, concepts, blueprints, laws, math, and geometry, support developmental structures. - quantum, creation, and nature.

The outer body develops, based on the inner core. In this developmental theory of resemblance / participation, universal prime force moves to field energy then mass / existence. The self in participation, forms an inner template for aesthetics / virtues . Li-Chi / Yang-Yin.

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areas of interaction

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For further information, inquiries and bookings for

visiting lectures:

contact Derek Dey

E- mail: derekdey@gmail

call: +45 - 77 41 40 61


aesthetics:a philosophy of art / the recovery of virtues and principles -introduction

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Transcript of aesthetics:a philosophy of art / the recovery of virtues and principles -introduction