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| Google Images |
Well, this is again
wishful thinking, for I do wish I could help my readers find their
way through ideas, and notions, and concepts, and lay everything neat and clean
in a sentence. And the sentence would be as well-constructed and comprehensive as
an aphorism.
But aphorisms – principles expressed in just a few words – are sharply defined
sentences relating to abstract truth. So far so good, but what is
truth? And, if we really were able to define truth, would that be the
truth,
that is, only one? And then again, whose truth would that be – mine, yours,
someone else’s? Who would lay claim of authorship upon that all-comprising
sentence, and could it, for that matter, have an influence on the rest of the
people? What kind of influence would that be, positive, or negative? Are positive and negative straightforward terms, or are they, too, liable of
interpretation?
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| Google Images |
No need to count the
questions in the previous paragraph. There’s not even a shade of a doubt that
others would emerge, following the same line of thought in pursuit of a
pattern. The pattern. In the end, another affirmation finds its way in
the argument: trying to keep such profound concepts from possible biased interpretations proves to be an
insurmountable difficulty, for the more we try to unify our convictions,
beliefs, and values, and make them produce harmony, the more elusive the
outcome.
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| Google Images |
Let’s take for granted
that at least some of the readers of this post belong to that category whose
natural tendency is to attain harmony in their lives. Whoever has undertaken the
quest for harmony knows what it takes to find that state of steadiness and keep it
despite the fluctuations of events occurring during their existence. Are we the
only ones to doubt about our decisions, to seek the truth, to waver about the very values that have been
transmitted to us through upbringing, institutionalized education, or about the
theories we have adhered to along our lives? Surely not. How many of us are in search of a role model,
someone whose wisdom, inner balance, and strong will surpass our own and so are able to come to our rescue when we
are in need of certainty – a voice that could show us
the way?
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| René Magritte, La Recherche de l'Absolu |
It seems that this
happens to human beings precisely when they are called upon to face important
events which demand a course of action. Indeed, only then do we realize that all that has already been
experienced before; what’s needed then is either to try and find out on one’s
own, or else listen to the voice of wisdom.
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| Kandinski, ParisArt |
Harmony may take the
form of the music of the spheres – an ancient philosophical concept
that regards the movements of the Sun, the Moon, and the planets as
mathematical relationships which express qualities or ‘tones' of energy
manifesting through numbers, visual angles, shapes and sounds – all connected
within a pattern of proportion. Pythagoras, the first man to call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom, identified that the pitch of a musical note is in
proportion to the length of the string that produces it, and that intervals
between harmonious sound frequencies form simple numerical ratios. Pythagorean
ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato, and through him, on all of Western
philosophy.
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| Plato's Theaetetus: the roots of knowledge |
And so time has come to
turn our gaze to philosophy for a while: it is highly probable that we will
find answers to such problems as those connected with
existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.
Undoubtedly, the
following video will bring more ideas to the fore, and will clarify them. They
are all meant to introduce the domain of our special guest, to whose work I am looking forward to dedicating the next two posts.
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