Can art be a channel of understanding? Does it have a claim to truth, to knowledge? What comes first, understanding or knowing? Does art have a part to play in our processes of meaning-making? These are just some of the fascinating and stimulating questions explored in the video I share with you today. It is …
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What connects art, science, education, and nature? Watch this video where a visual artist, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, and an educator discuss what I would call the human experience. Perhaps unsurprisingly, communication in its various forms is at the heart of our meaning-making. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R11FofCPoQ4 Keeping up the "Spreading the Word" tradition, I hope to …
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Quotes about art as an act of increased being by the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer from his magnum opus, Truth and Method.
What is art? Is it art when AI generates it? What does it mean for us, humans, and for our creativity?
Have you ever felt bewildered when looking at contemporary art? I know I have. Sometimes it is even difficult to understand what is art anymore. Maybe such musings are part of art's genius. So imagine what it is like for an AI to 'interpret' contemporary art. How would an algorithm go about recognising art and …
This is the final part of the 3-part series on the art of thinking and pratice of persuasion as gathered from Plato's dialogue Phaedrus (a version of its translation available here). So far I have concluded that Socrates had the following goal in this dialogue: to demonstrate that no practice deserves to be called art if its practitioner does …
Continue reading Socrates and Phaedrus: Art of Thinking and Practice of Persuasion (Part 3 of 3)
Last week I published the first part of this 3-part series. This is the second part of the article where I continue by exploring in more detail the ideas that can be gathered from Plato's dialogue Phaedrus (a version of its translation available here). Of course, there are many insights that can be gleaned. The one I …
Continue reading Socrates and Phaedrus: Art of Thinking and Practice of Persuasion (Part 2 of 3)
In Plato's dialogue Phaedrus (a version of its translation available here), Socrates discusses the merits of rhetoric as the art of speaking. He wants to establish whether rhetoric, as practised and taught in Athens by the orators at the time and understood as "a way of directing the soul by means of speech" (we could say - …
Continue reading Socrates and Phaedrus: Art of Thinking and Practice of Persuasion (Part 1 of 3)
This Friday I share with you a highly interesting article on the meaning of hidden detail in Raphael's spectacular work The School of Athens. You will notice that I have chosen a picture of this masterpiece as my blog's theme. To me, the article was a fascinating read. It is truly remarkable how we humans …
This Friday I share with you a fascinating video -"Social disorder in Shakespeare's England". It is a lecture by Oxford University's Dr Healey who specializes in this period of British history. Besides being an interesting historical overview, it also helps to form a better understanding of the social and cultural context in which Shakespeare lived …
Continue reading Spreading the Word: Life in Shakespeare’s England
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