My name is?

Aristotle, oh and the shadows

When Aristotle isn't being praised as God himself, he gets beaten around a bit.  So does Plato but mainly Aristotle. Here's something interesting that I found when going through my old files:

"If there is a philosophical Atlas who carries the whole of Western civilization on his shoulders, it is Aristotle. He has been opposed, misinterpreted, misrepresented, and—like an axiom—used by his enemies in the very act of denying him. Whatever intellectual progress men have achieved rests on his achievements.

Aristotle may be regarded as the cultural barometer of Western history. Whenever his influence dominated the scene, it paved the way for one of history’s brilliant eras; whenever it fell, so did mankind. The Aristotelian revival of the thirteenth century brought men to the Renaissance. The intellectual counter-revolution turned them back toward the cave of his antipode: Plato.

There is only one fundamental issue in philosophy: the cognitive efficacy of man’s mind. The conflict of Aristotle versus Plato is the conflict of reason versus mysticism. It was Plato who formulated most of philosophy’s basic questions—and doubts. It was Aristotle who laid the foundation for most of the answers. Thereafter, the record of their duel is the record of man’s long struggle to deny and surrender or to uphold and assert the validity of his particular mode of consciousness."

- Review of J.H. Randall’s Aristotle, The Objectivist Newsletter, May 1963, 18

Musical history tour

Google research has created an amazing history of music timeline.  It's really fun to play around with.

Questions 67 and 68

How Literate Are You by 1918 Standards?

Woody Allen's Universe

I was feeling a little our of sorts after reading a little bit of astrophysics.  It wasn't serious, just a bit of Bill Bryson, which was surprisingly disorientating. Just feeling very small in this gigantic universe(s?).  And then I remembered Woody Allen, of all people, and this cheered me up.

Unfortunately, it won't embed here, but here's the link to YouTube, click it, click it!

Handy dandy

While doing my danish homework today, we read an online student discussion about their idols.  Along with learning a lot of new words, like "coolest" (which Pete advised me to not use), I also learnt about danish artist Michael Kvium for the first time:

This painting. Is. Hah. I want to own this so much!

Don't you feel me?

The art of persuasion, explained in 59 seconds

It's called "the foot in the door" effect. Amazingly true.

The seeming and the meaning

"Every American student, is regarded as just someone out to make a lot of money. Really 16% of these students regard it as their main goal and concern in life to make a lot of money. And you know what the top category was among students? … 78% of these American youngsters were concerned as they expressed it themselves, with finding a meaning and purpose in their lives.

… If you take man as he really is, we will make him worse but if we overestimate him, if we seem idealist, overestimating, overrating man, and looking at him that high (pointing upwards), here above, you know what happens? We promote him to what he can really be. So we have to be idealist in a way because then we wind up as the true, the real realists.

And do you know who said this? This was Goethe. He said this verbally and now you will understand why in one of my writings I said that this is the most apt maxim and motto for psychotherapeutic activity.

So if don’t recognise a young man’s way to meaning, a man’s search for meaning, you make him worse. You make him dull. You make him frustrated. You contribute to his frustration, while if you presuppose in this man, this so called criminal or juvenile delinquent or drug abuser, there must be a spark of search for meaning. Let’s recognise this. Let’s presuppose this and then you will elicit this from him and you will make him become what he in principle is capable of becoming.”

NOTE | This video is from a 1972 lecture in Toronto, Canada; this and other full-length recordings of him can be seen: here

Mainly I'm a fan of Goethe.

Gatsby

"There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired."

- Nick, The Greak Gatsby

{ Robert Redford in the Great Gatsby (1974) }

Let's go, let's get moving

Billy don't be a hero

Bill Murray cartesian plane style ...

 

Music from Curfew (2012)

This evening I went to the Danish Cinematek and saw all the of live action shorts that were nominated for an Oscar on the big screen. My favourite was 'Curfew' (2012), which I found out afterwards won for the category. The music was exceptional, (along with the acting, script, pace, cinematography) truly rad - here are some favourites:
 
Parallels - "Dry Blood"
 


Avec Pas D’Casque - "Si on change les équipes ce n’est plus une revanch"
 


Adam & The Amethysts - "Prophecy"

 


Boy Friend - "Lazy Hunter"
 


Vera Lynn - "We'll meet again"
 


Alexander - "Truth"

The film is available on iTunes for just $3 - definitely worth taking a look.

Oh, you know, Beck, Philip Glass

Assortment

This article in the New Yorker asks the question: what happened to all the variety in movies? Serious dramas? Gone. It argues that the six major studios have shrunk their repertoire to three kinds of movies: 1. blockbusters, 2. animated features for families, and 3. genre movies—thrillers, chick flicks, romantic comedies, weekend-debauch movies and horror movies. "Studios play for a series of small and medium-sized winners rather than constantly trying for the big killing; they could reduce costs by paying stars and directors minimal amounts up front and dividing all revenues at the back end by fixed percentages—that would bring the initial costs way down and allow them to greenlight more daring projects." Read it!

Thirty-seven photos show East Germany's remarkable transformation from a miserable anti-capitalist environment to an attractive free enterprise environment.  Capitalism might not be perfect, but it's glossier.

How interesting that Ronald Reagen was supposed to play the lead in Casablanca instead of Humphrey Bogart, but was forced to turn it down as he had been called up for service in the American army.  An article from The Atlantic, on the 70th anniversary of the film, discusses a story where "every character, it seems, could be the subject of a movie just as compelling as Casablanca".