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| The Fall of Phaeton, c. 1604/1605
The hero archetype is as old as storytelling itself. Although the culture and time period varies myth to myth, heroes are subject to recurring themes such as, departure, facing trials, maturation, and returning triumphant and restoring or creating a new—better ideal. The mythic heroes Perseus and Buddha will be presented then analyzed to see how the two myths are similar and differ. The closure will concern with how George Washington became a factual hero. This essay was written to give insight into Greek and Indian cultures using myth as mirror, to answer why cultures in general produce similar heroes, and argue that actual, historical people can fulfill heroic qualities.
The heroic figure Perseus is of the oldest Greek heroes recorded. Like most all
When Perseus is born, the king, unwilling to commit the terrible sin of fratricide, releases his grandson and daughter to the sea, cradled within a chest. Zeus guides the two to safety at Seriphus, a small island where they are found by a local fisherman. It is here where Perseus grows into a young man and experiences his first trial. The trial is a response to the demands of the local king. Being so beautiful, the king wants Danae as his own. Perseus stands in defence, offering any other gift besides his mother. So, the task of slaying the snake-human hybrid Medusa is set before him by the local king. It is seen as an impossible task wherein the king would benefit from both the success and failure of Perseus. If Perseus dies then the king is rid of him and takes Danae as a prize. If Perseus perseveres then the vile creature Medusa is discarded from the world.
Perseus, of course, succeeds—but not without the help of Zeus’ daughter Athene. She told him to visit the sisters of the Gorgon called the Graie. These creatures have only one eye and tooth to share among them. Perseus steals their eye, forcing them reveal where magical weapons are that will help him kill Medusa. The weapons foreshadow his ascent to full divinity, allowing him to fly and become invisible, powers reserved for gods.
Past the petrified remains of men and sleeping Gorgons, Perseus sneaks to Medusa’s chamber with his hat of invisibility. He walks backwards while looking indirectly through shield-mirror lest he be turned to stone. When he decapitates Medusa, the winged horse called Pegasus emerges out of the wound; he escapes upon it.
For Perseus, the ever-present ‘descent into the underworld’ theme is expressed in his journey deep into the Gorgon cave. The descent proves that he is indeed no average mortal. Perseus varies from other Greek heroic figures in that Perseus coexists with the feminine aspect of the human being. Perseus is aided by the female deity Athena and uses clever maneuvering rather than blunt physical strength that may be attributed to Heracles and Theseus. His trial is also spurred by the direct protection of his mother. Such concern for the feminine aspect suggests the culture of the early Greeks or Minoans/Mycenaeans at one point held high respect for women and may have been a matriarchal society.
Unlike Perseus, Siddhārtha Gautama or Buddha is accepted by most as being an actual person of history. His factual life is subject to debate, but he is thought to have lived during the sixth to fourth century in Nepal. His departure began when he realized the suffering of the lower class citizens. His father, a king, had hid the deprived nature of his peasant subjects from his son. Striving to understand why life is full of strife, Buddha rejects his princely life and wealth in pursuit of enlightenment.
Like Perseus, Buddha is believed to be conceived by a god. The conception though occurs different sense—in that a divine being incarnated into a prenatal infant in a queen’s womb; or, Buddha’s soul existed prior to conception. Perseus is not held to be Zeus in human form. They exist as two separate entities. And all the reproductive energies were produced by the god Zeus within Danae, leaving no room for mortal germination. Buddha is birthed by two mortal parents and seen as having an advanced soul encapsulated inside a mortal body.
So, just in the beginnings of the two heroes, a stark contrast of how the two different cultures’ conception of life after death can be observed. The Indian conception of afterlife is that of a passing stage. The actions one takes produce either a positive or negative impact upon the soul and govern how the proceeding life may take place. In the Greek works by Hesiod and Homer, the soul was destined to an afterlife of shadow and agony in the underworld called Tartarus. This gloomy fate could only be circumnavigated by being a favored war-hero—then an afterlife at the Elysian Fields, a heaven-like place that was a subsection of Tartarus, would be granted. (a similar concept of reincarnation does emerge later with Plato, however) As the poet Anacreon puts it death was seen as a permanent fixture for the soul.
“For the lightless chasm of death is dreadful and the descent appalling: once cast down into Hades, there is no return.”
The question of death and the processes that go about life after death are problems that all humans must face. Too, all cultures are subject to night and day, passions to reproduce, the necessity to eat and so on. Cultural myths share similarities because the human being is subject to these encompassing facts. The heroes’ departure, trial, and return are integral themes in myth because it alludes to the fact that human life is split to the same degree. At some point the human must leave behind their family and go off on their own. The middle stage of life is the trial, and it is here the human gathers knowledge. Upon return the human gives back to society what he or she has learned. Of course some people never grow up, challenge themselves, or return to society something of value; sometimes only one or two of the stages are completed. Such an occurrence results in stagnation of development and is not the ideal of society.
So in a way all humans have potential to become a hero. The life of George Washington is a display of herodom. He did not start life by any fantastic means, nor did he attain enlightenment or slay mythical monsters. But Washington did successfully complete the three stages of the hero. During the vigor of his twenties he departed to the battlefield of the French and Indian war. There he faced the trials of combat and strategy. And after he returned matured with experience of war. This act of warfare served as legitimacy for his future command.
Yet if a step back is taken and one imagines Washington’s whole life on a time line, the French and Indian war serves merely as a token for what is to come. He experiences long years of civil life before his final call to action. The excessive taxes enacted by the of the far off king George III were ignoble in the eyes of these ambitious colonists, ultimately erupting in the Boston Tea Party and later the Revolutionary War. Because of his proven capabilities and social status, Washington was chosen by the senate to be commander-in-chief. Again he departs from home, enters the trials of war, and returns triumphantly. This time he is raised to heights of sublime authority for, in a sense, he fulfills the heroic role of ‘redeemer of humanity’ by freeing the American people from the constraints of Britain.
In conclusion, heroes become heroes by being an outstanding member of society. Perseus removed the sinister snake-humanoid Medusa from the world, and returned to father a large family whose descendants would later become heroes themselves. Siddhārtha Gautama gave society Buddhism. Or at least revitalized loose information about the understanding of becoming enlightened. His teaching were a great value to the society of the time and still is today. And Washington provided the cohesive substance for the colonies to align with and form the United States. His leadership was so valued that his contemporaries persuaded him to leave behind his civilian life and assume the position of President. The life of George Washington is a demonstration of how fantastic faculties such as magic shoes or supreme knowledge of existence are not required for one to ascend to herodom. Although only a chosen few are fated to experience a life like Washington, an average person who strives deeply will naturally fulfill heroic qualities. For in growing as a being, overcoming obstacles, and then creating and giving value to society through knowledge obtained from the trials of life, one becomes a hero.
Wordcount: 1527
Anacreon of Teos (582-485 B.C.) Translated by Willis Barnstone in Greek Lyric Poetry p. 127
Irving, Washington. The Crayon Miscellany. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1835. Print.
Harris, Stephen L., and Gloria Platzner. Classical Mythology: Images and Insights. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Print.
Brookhiser, Richard. Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington. New York: Free, 1996. Print.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Hero Archetype Free Essay Perseus, Buddha, and George Washington
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Excerpt from Robert Greene's book "Mastery"
This is an excerpt from the book entitled, 'Mastery' by Robert Greene. This is for promotional use only. I do not take credit for any of the following content. The following passage can be found on page 255 - 262
Cook Ting was cutting up an ox for Lord Wen-hui . . . "Ah, this is marvelous!" said Lord Wen-hu. "Imagine skill reaching such heights!" Cook Ting laid down his knife and replied, "What I care a out is the Way, which goes beyond skill. When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox itself. After three years I no longer saw the whole ox. And now, now I go at it by spirit and don't look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants.
- Chuang Tzu
Throughout history we read of Masters in every conceivable form of human endeavor describing a sensation of suddenly possessing heightened intellectual powers after years of immersion in their field. The great chess Master Bobby Fischer spoke of being able to think beyond the various moves of his pieces on the chessboard; after a while he could see"fields of forces" that allowed him to anticipate the entire direction of the match. For the pianist Glen Gould, he no longer had to focus on notes or parts of the music he was playing, but instead saw the entire architecture of the piece and could express it. Albert Einstein suddenly was able to realize not just the answer to a problem, but a whole new way of looking at the universe, contained in a visual image he intuited. The inventor Thomas Edison spoke of a vision he had for illuminating an entire city with electric light, this complex system communicated to him through a single image.
In all of these instances, these practitioners of various skills described a sensation of seeing more. They were suddenly able to grasp an entire situation through an image of an idea, or a combination of images and ideas. They experienced this power as intuition, or a fingertip feel.
Considering the power such intelligence can bring us, and the tremendous contribution to culture made by Masters who possess it, it would seem logical that such high level intuition would be the subject of countless books and discussions, and that the form of thinking that goes with it would be elevated into an ideal for all of us to aim at. But oddly enough, this is not at all the case. This form of intelligence is either ignored, relegated to the inexplicable realms of the mystical and occult, or ascribed to genius and genetics. Some even try to debunk this type of power in general, claiming that these Masters are exaggerating their experiences, and that their so-called intuitive powers are nothing more than extended forms of normal thinking, based on superior knowledge.
The reason for this overall disregard is simple: we humans have come to recognize only one form of thinking and intelligence—rationality. Rational thinking is sequential by nature. We see a phenomenon A, and we deduce a cause B, and maybe anticipate is reaction C. In all cases of rational thinking, we can reconstruct the various steps that were taken to arrive at some kind of conclusion or answer. This form of thinking is extremely effective and has brought us great powers. W develop it to help make sense of our world and to gain some control over it. The process that people that people go through when they arrive at an answer through rational analysis can generally be examined and verified, which is why we esteem it so highly. We prefer things that can be reduced to a formula and describe in precise words. But the types of intuitions discussed by various Masters cannot be reduced t a formula, and the steps they took to arrive at them cannot be reconstructed. We cannot go inside the mind of Albert Einstein and experience his sudden grasp of the nature of relativity of time. And because we recognize rationality as the only legitimate form of intelligence, these experiences of "seeing more" must either be forms of rational thinking that just happens faster, or are simply miraculous by nature.
The problem we are facing here is that high-level intuition, the ultimate sign of master, involves a process that is qualitatively different from rationality, but is even more accurate and perceptive. It accesses deeper parts of reality. It is a highly legitimate type of intelligence, but one that has to be understood in its own right. And in understanding it, we can begin to see that such power is not miraculous, but intrinsically human and accessible to us all.
Let us try to make sense of this form of thinking by examining how it might operate in two very different forms of knowledge—the life sciences and warfare.
If we were to study a particular animal in order to understand it, we would break up our analysis into several parts. We would study its various organs, brain, and anatomical structure in order to see how it has adapted differently from other animals to its environment. We would study its behavior patterns, how it gathers food, and its mating rituals. We would look at how it functions within an ecosystem. In this way, we would be able to piece together an accurate picture of this animal, covering it from all angles. With warfare, we would go through a similar process, breaking it up into parts, field maneuvers, weaponry, logistics, strategy. Having deep knowledge of these subjects, we could analyze the results of a battle and come to some interesting conclusion; or, with some field experience, we could lead an army into battle and do an effective job.
In taking these analyses as far as possible, however, something is inevitably missing. An animal is not merely the sum of its parts that we can understand by adding them up. It has its own experience and emotions, which play an enormous role in its behavior, but which are elements we can not see or measure. It has its own highly complex interactions with the environment that becomes distorted when we break them up into parts. The animal's continuously fluid, dimensional interaction with its environment is also something that is not visible to our eyes. With warfare, once battle is engaged, we become susceptible to what is known as the fog of war--the highly unpredictable element that comes into play when two opposing forces square up and nothing can be precisely anticipated. The situation is continuously fluid, as one side reacts to the other and the unexpected intervenes. This battle in real time has an interactive, changing element that cannot be reduced to its parts or to simple analysis, and is not something we can see and measure.
This unseen element that constitutes the animal's entire experience, and that makes battle a fluid, organic entity, can be called various things. To the ancient Chinese, who understood this very well, it was known as the Tao or Way, and this Way inhabits everything in the world and is embedded in the relationships between things. The Way is visible to the expert—in cooking, carpentry, warfare, or philosophy. We shall call it the dynamic, the living force that inevitably operates in anything we study or do. It is how the whole thing functions, and how the relationships evolve from within It is not the moves of the pieces on the chessboard but the entire game, involving the psychologies of the players, their strategies in real time, their past experiences influencing the present, the comfort of the chairs they are sitting in, how their energies affect each other—in a word, everything that comes into play, all at once.
Through intense absorption in a particular field over a long period of time, Masters come to understand all of the parts involved in what they are studying. They reach a point where all of this has become internalized and they are no longer seeing the parts, but gain an intuitive feel for the whole. They literally see or sense the dynamic. In the living sciences, we have the example of Jane Goodall, who studied chimpanzees in the wilds of East Africa for years as she lived among them. Interacting with them constantly, she reached a point where she began to think like a chimpanzee, and could see elements of their social life that no other scientist had come close to fathoming. She gained an intuitive feel for not only how they functioned as individuals but as a group, which is an inseparable part of their lives. She made discoveries about the social life of chimpanzees that forever altered our conception of the animal, and that are no less scientific for depending on this deep level of intuition.
In warfare, we can pint to the great German general Erwin Rommel, who was said to possess the highest form of the fingertip feel ever chronicled in the history of battle. He could sense exactly where the enemy was thinking of striking and foil their plans; he could launch an offensive at precisely the weak point of their lines of defense. He seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, and oracular powers to reading the future. He did all of this in the deserts of North Africa where it was nearly impossible to get any clear sense of the terrain. Rommel's power, however, was not occult in nature. He simply had a much deeper knowledge than other generals of the aspects of battle. He constantly flew over the desert in his own plane, gaining a bird's-eye feel for the terrain. He was a trained mechanic, and so had a complete knowledge of his tanks and what he could expect of them. He studied in depth the psychology of the opposing army and its generals. He interacted with almost all of his soldiers, and had a clear sense of how far he could push them. Whatever he studied, he did so with incredible intensity and depth. A point was reached where all of these details became internalized. They fused together in his brain, giving him a fell for the whole picture an a sense of this interactive dynamic.
The ability to have this intuitive grasp of the whole and feel this dynamic is simply a function of time. Since it has been shown that the brain is literally altered after approximately 10,000 hours of practice, these powers would be would be the result of a transformation that happens in the brain after 20,000 hours and beyond. With this much practice and experience, all kinds of connections have been formed in the brain between different forms of knowledge. Masters thus have a sense of how everything interacts organically, and they can intuit patterns or solutions in an instant. This fluid form of thinking does not occur through a step-by-step process, but rather comes in flashes and insights as the brain makes sudden connections between disparate forms of knowledge, causing us to sense the dynamic in real time.
Some people like to imagine that such intuitions do operate sequentially, but simply happen to fast for the thinker to see the steps. This reasoning comes from the desire to reduce every form of intelligence to the same rational level. But with a discovery like the theory of simple relativity, if Albert Einstein himself could not begin to reconstruct the steps in retrospect that led to his insights on the relativity of time, then why should it be imagined that such steps exist? We must trust the experience and description of these Masters, all people with higher levels of self-awareness and analytic skills.
It would be a misconception, however, to imagine that Masters are simply following their intuitions and moving beyond rational thinking. First, it is through all of their hard work, the depth of their knowledge, and the development of their analytic skills that they reach this higher form of intelligence. Second, when they experience this intuition or insight, they must work out the ideas that come to them intuitively and rationally shape them into a form. This is hard for us to imagine, because we find intuition and rationality mutually exclusive, but in fact at this high level they operate together in a seamless fashion. The reasoning of Masters is guided by intuition; their intuition springs form intense rational focus. The two are fused.
Although time is the critical factor in attaining Mastery and this intuitive feel, the time we are talking about is not neutral or simply quantitative. An hour of Einstein's thinking at the age of sixteen does not equal an hour spent by an average high school student working on a problem in physics. It is not a matter of studying a subject for twenty years, and then emerging as a Master. The time that leads to mastery is depend on the intensity of our focus.
The key, then, to attaining this higher level of intelligence is to make our years of study qualitatively rich. We don't simply absorb information—we internalize it and make it our own by finding some way to put this knowledge to practical use. We look for connections between the various elements we are learning, hidden laws that we can perceive in the apprenticeship phase. If we experience any failures or setbacks, we do not quickly forget them because they offend our self-esteem. Instead we reflect on them deeply, trying to figure out what went wrong and discern whether there are patterns to our mistakes. As we progress, we start to question some of the assumptions and conventions we have learned along the way. Soon, we begin to experiment and become increasingly active. At all points in the various moment leading to mastery we attack with intensity. Every moment, every experience contains deep lessons for us We are continuously awake, never merely going through the motions.
The person who best exemplifies this usage of time for master is Marcel Proust, whose great novel, In search of Lost Time, concerns this very subject. In French the word for "lost" is Perdu, which equally means "wasted." And to Proust, and to many of those who knew him a s a young man, he seemed the least likely person ever to attain master, because on the surface he appeared to waste so much valuable time. All he ever seemed to do was read books, take walks, write interminable letters, attend parties, sleep during the day, and publish frothy society articles. When he finally applied himself to translating Ruskin, he took an incredibly long time and involved himself in seemingly irrelevant tasks, like traveling to locations Ruskin described, something no other translator would think of doing.
Proust himself complained endlessly about the time that he had wasted as a young man and how little he had accomplished, but these complaints cannot be taken at face value, because he never gave up. Despite his physical weakness and bouts of depression, he continued to try new endeavors and kept widening the scope of his knowledge. He was tireless and tenacious. These moments of self-doubt were his way of propelling himself forward and reminding himself of the short amount of time remaining to him. He had a deep awareness of a sense of destiny, of an overall purpose for his strangeness, that he was called to fulfill through his writing.
What made those twenty years qualitatively different from those of an ordinary person was the intensity of his attention. He did not simply read books—he took them apart, rigorously analyzed them, and learned valuable lessons to apply to his own life. All of this reading implanted in his brain various styles that would enrich his own writing style. He did not merely socialize-he strained to understand people at their core and to uncover their secret motivations. He did not just analyze his own psychology, but went so deeply into the various levels of consciousness he found within himself that he developed insight about the functioning of memory that foreshadowed many discovers in neuroscience. He did not merely translate, but trove to inhabit the mind of Ruskin himself In the end, he even used the death of his mother to intensify his development. With her gone, he would have to write himself out of his depression, and find a way to re-create the feelings between them in the book he was to write. As he later described it, all these experiences were like seeds, and once he had started his novel he was like a gardener tending and cultivating the plants that had taken root so many years before.
Through his own efforts, he transformed himself from an apprentice to a mature writer and translator, and from there to a novelist who figured out what to write about, which voice to assume, and how to attack his subject. At some point after he began writing his novel, he underwent a third transformation. Memories and ideas came flooding into his mind. Even as the book kept expanding, he could intuit its overall shape and the relationships between many tiles of the mosaic. This immense novel had a living, breathing dynamic that was now completely alive within him. He was inside his characters and the whole slice of French society he was writing about. More important, he was completely inside the narrator ( who is Proust himself), and in his novel it's as if we are literally, from the inside, experiencing the thoughts and sensations of another person. He was able to achieve this effect through the intuitive powers he had gained from close to thirty years of perpetual work and analysis.
Like Proust, you must also maintain a sens of destiny, and feel continuously connected to it. You are unique, and there is a purpose to your uniqueness. You must see every setback, failure, or hardship as a trail along the way, as seeds that are being planted for farther cultivation, if you know how to grow them. No moment is wasted if you pay attention and learn the lessons contained in every experience. By constantly applying yourself to the subject that suits your inclinations and attacking it from many different angles, you are simply enriching the ground for these seeds to take root. You may not see this process in the present, but it is happening. Never losing your connection to your Life's Task, you will unconsciously hit upon the right choices in your life. Overtime, mastery will come to you.
The high-level intuitive powers we are talking about have roots in our development as the thinking animal; they have an evolutionary purpose that is extremely helpful to understand, and one that is highly relevant to the times in which we live.
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Here is a pdf of the first twenty or so pages of the book.
If you enjoyed this article tell Google you did as well and +1 it. Or give it an upvote if your from Reddit. Also check out Robert Greene's other books. He is a terrific writer.
Here is a link to my website: austinmunday.com
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- Chuang Tzu
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| The Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu Translated by Burton Watson |
Throughout history we read of Masters in every conceivable form of human endeavor describing a sensation of suddenly possessing heightened intellectual powers after years of immersion in their field. The great chess Master Bobby Fischer spoke of being able to think beyond the various moves of his pieces on the chessboard; after a while he could see"fields of forces" that allowed him to anticipate the entire direction of the match. For the pianist Glen Gould, he no longer had to focus on notes or parts of the music he was playing, but instead saw the entire architecture of the piece and could express it. Albert Einstein suddenly was able to realize not just the answer to a problem, but a whole new way of looking at the universe, contained in a visual image he intuited. The inventor Thomas Edison spoke of a vision he had for illuminating an entire city with electric light, this complex system communicated to him through a single image.
In all of these instances, these practitioners of various skills described a sensation of seeing more. They were suddenly able to grasp an entire situation through an image of an idea, or a combination of images and ideas. They experienced this power as intuition, or a fingertip feel.
Considering the power such intelligence can bring us, and the tremendous contribution to culture made by Masters who possess it, it would seem logical that such high level intuition would be the subject of countless books and discussions, and that the form of thinking that goes with it would be elevated into an ideal for all of us to aim at. But oddly enough, this is not at all the case. This form of intelligence is either ignored, relegated to the inexplicable realms of the mystical and occult, or ascribed to genius and genetics. Some even try to debunk this type of power in general, claiming that these Masters are exaggerating their experiences, and that their so-called intuitive powers are nothing more than extended forms of normal thinking, based on superior knowledge.
The reason for this overall disregard is simple: we humans have come to recognize only one form of thinking and intelligence—rationality. Rational thinking is sequential by nature. We see a phenomenon A, and we deduce a cause B, and maybe anticipate is reaction C. In all cases of rational thinking, we can reconstruct the various steps that were taken to arrive at some kind of conclusion or answer. This form of thinking is extremely effective and has brought us great powers. W develop it to help make sense of our world and to gain some control over it. The process that people that people go through when they arrive at an answer through rational analysis can generally be examined and verified, which is why we esteem it so highly. We prefer things that can be reduced to a formula and describe in precise words. But the types of intuitions discussed by various Masters cannot be reduced t a formula, and the steps they took to arrive at them cannot be reconstructed. We cannot go inside the mind of Albert Einstein and experience his sudden grasp of the nature of relativity of time. And because we recognize rationality as the only legitimate form of intelligence, these experiences of "seeing more" must either be forms of rational thinking that just happens faster, or are simply miraculous by nature.
The problem we are facing here is that high-level intuition, the ultimate sign of master, involves a process that is qualitatively different from rationality, but is even more accurate and perceptive. It accesses deeper parts of reality. It is a highly legitimate type of intelligence, but one that has to be understood in its own right. And in understanding it, we can begin to see that such power is not miraculous, but intrinsically human and accessible to us all.
Let us try to make sense of this form of thinking by examining how it might operate in two very different forms of knowledge—the life sciences and warfare.
If we were to study a particular animal in order to understand it, we would break up our analysis into several parts. We would study its various organs, brain, and anatomical structure in order to see how it has adapted differently from other animals to its environment. We would study its behavior patterns, how it gathers food, and its mating rituals. We would look at how it functions within an ecosystem. In this way, we would be able to piece together an accurate picture of this animal, covering it from all angles. With warfare, we would go through a similar process, breaking it up into parts, field maneuvers, weaponry, logistics, strategy. Having deep knowledge of these subjects, we could analyze the results of a battle and come to some interesting conclusion; or, with some field experience, we could lead an army into battle and do an effective job.
In taking these analyses as far as possible, however, something is inevitably missing. An animal is not merely the sum of its parts that we can understand by adding them up. It has its own experience and emotions, which play an enormous role in its behavior, but which are elements we can not see or measure. It has its own highly complex interactions with the environment that becomes distorted when we break them up into parts. The animal's continuously fluid, dimensional interaction with its environment is also something that is not visible to our eyes. With warfare, once battle is engaged, we become susceptible to what is known as the fog of war--the highly unpredictable element that comes into play when two opposing forces square up and nothing can be precisely anticipated. The situation is continuously fluid, as one side reacts to the other and the unexpected intervenes. This battle in real time has an interactive, changing element that cannot be reduced to its parts or to simple analysis, and is not something we can see and measure.
This unseen element that constitutes the animal's entire experience, and that makes battle a fluid, organic entity, can be called various things. To the ancient Chinese, who understood this very well, it was known as the Tao or Way, and this Way inhabits everything in the world and is embedded in the relationships between things. The Way is visible to the expert—in cooking, carpentry, warfare, or philosophy. We shall call it the dynamic, the living force that inevitably operates in anything we study or do. It is how the whole thing functions, and how the relationships evolve from within It is not the moves of the pieces on the chessboard but the entire game, involving the psychologies of the players, their strategies in real time, their past experiences influencing the present, the comfort of the chairs they are sitting in, how their energies affect each other—in a word, everything that comes into play, all at once.
Through intense absorption in a particular field over a long period of time, Masters come to understand all of the parts involved in what they are studying. They reach a point where all of this has become internalized and they are no longer seeing the parts, but gain an intuitive feel for the whole. They literally see or sense the dynamic. In the living sciences, we have the example of Jane Goodall, who studied chimpanzees in the wilds of East Africa for years as she lived among them. Interacting with them constantly, she reached a point where she began to think like a chimpanzee, and could see elements of their social life that no other scientist had come close to fathoming. She gained an intuitive feel for not only how they functioned as individuals but as a group, which is an inseparable part of their lives. She made discoveries about the social life of chimpanzees that forever altered our conception of the animal, and that are no less scientific for depending on this deep level of intuition.
In warfare, we can pint to the great German general Erwin Rommel, who was said to possess the highest form of the fingertip feel ever chronicled in the history of battle. He could sense exactly where the enemy was thinking of striking and foil their plans; he could launch an offensive at precisely the weak point of their lines of defense. He seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, and oracular powers to reading the future. He did all of this in the deserts of North Africa where it was nearly impossible to get any clear sense of the terrain. Rommel's power, however, was not occult in nature. He simply had a much deeper knowledge than other generals of the aspects of battle. He constantly flew over the desert in his own plane, gaining a bird's-eye feel for the terrain. He was a trained mechanic, and so had a complete knowledge of his tanks and what he could expect of them. He studied in depth the psychology of the opposing army and its generals. He interacted with almost all of his soldiers, and had a clear sense of how far he could push them. Whatever he studied, he did so with incredible intensity and depth. A point was reached where all of these details became internalized. They fused together in his brain, giving him a fell for the whole picture an a sense of this interactive dynamic.
The ability to have this intuitive grasp of the whole and feel this dynamic is simply a function of time. Since it has been shown that the brain is literally altered after approximately 10,000 hours of practice, these powers would be would be the result of a transformation that happens in the brain after 20,000 hours and beyond. With this much practice and experience, all kinds of connections have been formed in the brain between different forms of knowledge. Masters thus have a sense of how everything interacts organically, and they can intuit patterns or solutions in an instant. This fluid form of thinking does not occur through a step-by-step process, but rather comes in flashes and insights as the brain makes sudden connections between disparate forms of knowledge, causing us to sense the dynamic in real time.
Some people like to imagine that such intuitions do operate sequentially, but simply happen to fast for the thinker to see the steps. This reasoning comes from the desire to reduce every form of intelligence to the same rational level. But with a discovery like the theory of simple relativity, if Albert Einstein himself could not begin to reconstruct the steps in retrospect that led to his insights on the relativity of time, then why should it be imagined that such steps exist? We must trust the experience and description of these Masters, all people with higher levels of self-awareness and analytic skills.
It would be a misconception, however, to imagine that Masters are simply following their intuitions and moving beyond rational thinking. First, it is through all of their hard work, the depth of their knowledge, and the development of their analytic skills that they reach this higher form of intelligence. Second, when they experience this intuition or insight, they must work out the ideas that come to them intuitively and rationally shape them into a form. This is hard for us to imagine, because we find intuition and rationality mutually exclusive, but in fact at this high level they operate together in a seamless fashion. The reasoning of Masters is guided by intuition; their intuition springs form intense rational focus. The two are fused.
Although time is the critical factor in attaining Mastery and this intuitive feel, the time we are talking about is not neutral or simply quantitative. An hour of Einstein's thinking at the age of sixteen does not equal an hour spent by an average high school student working on a problem in physics. It is not a matter of studying a subject for twenty years, and then emerging as a Master. The time that leads to mastery is depend on the intensity of our focus.
The key, then, to attaining this higher level of intelligence is to make our years of study qualitatively rich. We don't simply absorb information—we internalize it and make it our own by finding some way to put this knowledge to practical use. We look for connections between the various elements we are learning, hidden laws that we can perceive in the apprenticeship phase. If we experience any failures or setbacks, we do not quickly forget them because they offend our self-esteem. Instead we reflect on them deeply, trying to figure out what went wrong and discern whether there are patterns to our mistakes. As we progress, we start to question some of the assumptions and conventions we have learned along the way. Soon, we begin to experiment and become increasingly active. At all points in the various moment leading to mastery we attack with intensity. Every moment, every experience contains deep lessons for us We are continuously awake, never merely going through the motions.
The person who best exemplifies this usage of time for master is Marcel Proust, whose great novel, In search of Lost Time, concerns this very subject. In French the word for "lost" is Perdu, which equally means "wasted." And to Proust, and to many of those who knew him a s a young man, he seemed the least likely person ever to attain master, because on the surface he appeared to waste so much valuable time. All he ever seemed to do was read books, take walks, write interminable letters, attend parties, sleep during the day, and publish frothy society articles. When he finally applied himself to translating Ruskin, he took an incredibly long time and involved himself in seemingly irrelevant tasks, like traveling to locations Ruskin described, something no other translator would think of doing.
Proust himself complained endlessly about the time that he had wasted as a young man and how little he had accomplished, but these complaints cannot be taken at face value, because he never gave up. Despite his physical weakness and bouts of depression, he continued to try new endeavors and kept widening the scope of his knowledge. He was tireless and tenacious. These moments of self-doubt were his way of propelling himself forward and reminding himself of the short amount of time remaining to him. He had a deep awareness of a sense of destiny, of an overall purpose for his strangeness, that he was called to fulfill through his writing.
What made those twenty years qualitatively different from those of an ordinary person was the intensity of his attention. He did not simply read books—he took them apart, rigorously analyzed them, and learned valuable lessons to apply to his own life. All of this reading implanted in his brain various styles that would enrich his own writing style. He did not merely socialize-he strained to understand people at their core and to uncover their secret motivations. He did not just analyze his own psychology, but went so deeply into the various levels of consciousness he found within himself that he developed insight about the functioning of memory that foreshadowed many discovers in neuroscience. He did not merely translate, but trove to inhabit the mind of Ruskin himself In the end, he even used the death of his mother to intensify his development. With her gone, he would have to write himself out of his depression, and find a way to re-create the feelings between them in the book he was to write. As he later described it, all these experiences were like seeds, and once he had started his novel he was like a gardener tending and cultivating the plants that had taken root so many years before.
Through his own efforts, he transformed himself from an apprentice to a mature writer and translator, and from there to a novelist who figured out what to write about, which voice to assume, and how to attack his subject. At some point after he began writing his novel, he underwent a third transformation. Memories and ideas came flooding into his mind. Even as the book kept expanding, he could intuit its overall shape and the relationships between many tiles of the mosaic. This immense novel had a living, breathing dynamic that was now completely alive within him. He was inside his characters and the whole slice of French society he was writing about. More important, he was completely inside the narrator ( who is Proust himself), and in his novel it's as if we are literally, from the inside, experiencing the thoughts and sensations of another person. He was able to achieve this effect through the intuitive powers he had gained from close to thirty years of perpetual work and analysis.
Like Proust, you must also maintain a sens of destiny, and feel continuously connected to it. You are unique, and there is a purpose to your uniqueness. You must see every setback, failure, or hardship as a trail along the way, as seeds that are being planted for farther cultivation, if you know how to grow them. No moment is wasted if you pay attention and learn the lessons contained in every experience. By constantly applying yourself to the subject that suits your inclinations and attacking it from many different angles, you are simply enriching the ground for these seeds to take root. You may not see this process in the present, but it is happening. Never losing your connection to your Life's Task, you will unconsciously hit upon the right choices in your life. Overtime, mastery will come to you.
The high-level intuitive powers we are talking about have roots in our development as the thinking animal; they have an evolutionary purpose that is extremely helpful to understand, and one that is highly relevant to the times in which we live.
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Here is a pdf of the first twenty or so pages of the book.
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Here is a link to my website: austinmunday.com
Friday, February 13, 2015
Israeli sculptor Dror Heymann discusses his creative process.
My work is about people. It can be a smile. It can be a moment. It can be a wrinkle. It can be a line or it can be a broken piece. Or just a moment that I don't know how I got there but I found it and then I... the sculpture start to grow from there. Usually I leave those moments there and I build everything around it.
Its like I'm building and breaking and building, breaking, until I see something that I feel is precious and then I let it grow from there.
I believe in work directly from life and from imagination.
When you do something your drawing or writing or your singing that you have actually, your not in a particular time zone, you just sinking into your activity.
When your doing a head that is exact life size it feels smaller and I wanted it to be monumental to be bigger, Ive found it is a very good scale. You can still believe it is a person even though it is over sized. When you look at it you think its big but you get used to it very quick.
Lots of time I work on something and I find something that is familiar, something that is not a particular person that I sculpt, its a global feeling or effect that people can recognize everywhere in any person.
The beginning was supposed to be the sketch for the modern Moses. It has changed to become...
I like it how you have different kind of mood. From one side he's smiling. From one side he is upset. A bit in the dream world.
It could be that it started as a bit of a rebellious way that a lot of artists use life as their medium, they dont appreciate it or can not sculpt with their hands and don't understand actually you transform something of you into the piece.
If you have the confidence and you believe in what your subconscious tell you and that your not going to fuck it and its going to be beautiful. You just flow with it. Its like your going to feel it before you understand it.
Lady 1: "I want to say some words about Dror. What I first experienced when seeing these extraordinary pieces in the gallery. You feel in theses amazing busts the profound intelligence of the people who are being portrayed, you feel the death, the magnitude of who Moses actually was.
Lady 2: "Your in the presence of something really deep and real and... you know you see a great play or—its a great work of art."
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| Here is Dror Heymann's WordPress |
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Thursday, February 12, 2015
New England Man creates automated Aquaponics system.
An automatic feeder distributes fish food at predetermined times throughout the day. The fish produce waste and excrete ammonia into the water. The nutrient rich water is pumped from the tank into the surrounding plants. A naturally occurring bacteria converts the ammonia into nitrites and nitrates. And then the nitrates are absorbed by the plants as a fertilizer.
This process cleans the water and is pumped back into the fish tanks.
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| Click here for more information about the Nitrogen Cycle |
Greenhouses austinmunday.comOn Point with Tom Ashbrook: Justice, Race And Municipal Courts - Stenography
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| On Point with Tom Ashbrook: Justice, Race And Municipal Courts |
Ashbrook: Municipal courts which are jailing residences, many poor, many black for unpaid tickets. How they are using those fines and a threat of what can look like debtors prison as a big part of their revenue stream for their communities. Now those courts are in the spot light. Lawsuits talk of reform and its not just in Missouri. This hour on point american justice and a debtors prison problem.
People paying attention to this may remember in may 2013 Ronnie Tucker was taken to the Ferguson jail after failing to pay speeding tickets, failing to appear in court. Last weekend he spoke to NPR about what conditions were like in that jail,
“So when I got caught I had to sit in jail for like 14 or 15 days with no shower, no change of clothes, dirty cells, we've been treated like dogs.”
Not just him Tanya Deberry was pulled over by Saint Louis county police officer over a year ago. She was handcuffed and arrested when the officer saw that she had an arrest warrant for unpaid traffic tickets in fergeson. She told NPR her arrest was unfair
“Just traffic tickets no criminal act, nothing. Just traffic tickets. If you have the money you will never go through that type of situation. If you don’t have the money its jail, jail.”
A republican state senator in Alabama Cam Ward talking to PBS news-hour in December saying that he is concerned about the return of what can effectively be or look like debtors prison.
“What is currently in existence is almost like the wild west. There is no regulation. If your going to create a “debtors prison” all your doing is inviting yourself to a federal lawsuit.”
Joining me now from Saint Louis is Brendan Roediger, professor of law at Saint Louis University. One of the plaintiff attorneys in a class action lawsuits against authorities in Ferguson and near by Jennings Missouri, for jailing hundreds of residences for unpaid debts.
And with us from us from New York is Alec Karakatsanis, cofounder of the national civil rights organization of equal justice under law, brought similar lawsuits in Montgomery Alabama last year. The city agreed to reforms to its municipal court.
Do we have a national problem here Alec or is this just something that is very localized?
Karakatsanis: We do have a national problem. I think is what we are seeing is the rise of modern debtors prison. I think it is impossible to understand that phenomena without understanding the context ... We have seen the rise of courts trying to fund municipalities through generating revenue of the backs of the very poor through traffic tickets.
When you start to conceive of your court as a mechanism for revenue generation rather than a dispenser of justice, we have a real problem at hand.
… We have over two and a half million beings in cages every day in the United States, if you include immigrant detention centers. This mass incarceration which has been unseen in modern recorded world history and certainly in the history of the United States changes the way we think about human beings and human bodies. When you have to transfer that many people from their homes and families into cages, it changes the way you think about them.
We have to develop processes to make it more efficient. So you stop providing them lawyers. You start putting them in jail for really minor things like what Ms. Deberry was talking about, traffic tickets. You lose any sense of what kind of a brutal thing it is to put a human being in a cage. So what we have seen is traffic debtors throughout Saint Louis county and Alabama and throughout many other states being thrown in jail by these mass assembly line court hearings…
... We are putting them in cells that are caked in feces and blood and mucous. No shower no toothbrush for weeks and days. No medical care, no mental health care. These are the kinds of things our society has started doing to people because, in my view, we have lost any sense of what a brutal thing caging another person is. That is the context in which all of this needs to be understood on a national level.
Ashbrook: Brendan … If your looking from the outside ... some people could look on and say, ‘Look, we need public order. You break the law you pay the fine. Whats the problem?’
Roediger: There are over four hundred thousand outstanding warrant in Saint Louis county. I refuse to believe that this is just the capital of irresponsibility. The system is designed to make it easy to fall out of the bottom for one mistake. These prisons are far worse than what debtor's prisons were historically. Historically debtors prisons were places that allowed you to go to work and get out of debt. This is really just incarceration in terrible conditions and when you leave you still owe the debt.
Ashbrook: Describe how this system works. I have been reading stories out of Saint Louis this month. You got a law that is supposed to cap the amount of a community's revenue that comes from the municipal courts. But here on community Calverton park reported it has two thirds of all city revenue from municipal court fines and fees. I would say that is pretty dependent on this. I am looking at Ferguson itself a population of just twenty-one thousand, has the highest number of arrest warrants in the state relative to its size, fifteen hundred warrants per one thousand people. Now, Brendan, are residences of Ferguson more lawless than elsewhere? Or are they under a different kind of law enforcement regime?
Roediger: Well certainly they are not more lawless. The reality is that these municipalities they prospectively budget for these increases. So they will decide at the end of a year, ‘we want to make two hundred thousand more off traffic ticket fines or half a million more off of traffic. This sends a message. It encourages local level policing. It changes the dynamic of community policing. It is absolutely controlled by the top.
Ashbrook: It can look like we are farming fines out of these communities and these tend to be low income communities where the consequences can be quite enormous that a few hundred dollars may be just an unreachable sum to pay. Then they end up in jail. Then they lose their job. Then they lose their licenses. You're in this cycle and its hard to get out of.
Roediger: Absolutely. One mistake could change everything. I would add that wealthier municipalities prey on poor people just as much as some of these poor communities. Its easier to hide that money it may not show up as such a large percentage of annual revenue. It absolutely occurs.
Ashbrook: What do you want out of this lawsuit? These two suits against Ferguson and Jenning.
Roediger: The lawsuits are about compensating our plaintiffs and those individuals who have been subject to these debtors prisons and also about getting the court to order that some of these things fundamentally change…. I do believe that it is very difficult to imagine reforming this systems… Abolition may actually be the simplest and the best solution. It is a solution that many places historically have gone with.
Karakatsanis: ...I have to tell you that one of the most heartbreaking things that I have experienced over the past year or so that I have been really investigating this issue in depth is I’ve done hundreds of interviews with people all over the place trying to get the core of the problem. When you sit there with someone and you hear about the despair of these people feel when they just do not see away out they are being told by police and court that unless they pay us we will jail you. In Saint Louis you could be having seven or eight different municipalities telling you this at once. Who do you pay first? They are all going to jail you.
This notion that they can’t get their licence back so they can get a job so that they can get the money to pay it back. It is this never ending cycle. It is why in the past five months we have seen four suicides or attempted suicides in these jails by people who could not afford to buy their way out. The city that we sued, Jennings, a very small town about half the size of Ferguson. We have seen two suicides in the past two years by people who were held there solely because they could not pay a few hundred dollars to get out. This is the kind of thing we are seeing throughout the country.
The other point is that these arrest warrants Brendan mentioned that there are four hundred thousand in the county. Ferguson averages 3.6 arrest warrants per household. When you have that many arrest warrants, a lot of police citizen interaction is created that would otherwise be unnecessary. So you're encouraging the police to check everyone's ID, to stop people and ask them questions, to arrest them for something very minor or owing a debt. This leads to many potential situations where excessive force could be used or there could be a misunderstanding…
People are tired of being constantly stopped and forced to explain themselves to police. The accumulation of those little daily indignities of having to show your ID every time you leave the house is something we have seen a lot in Ferguson.
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More information on what a Debtor prison is
Google News Search: Debtor prison
The link to the show was provided in the caption of the Image. Here it is again.
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Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Impact of Science on Society Essay - Free
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The world we live in today is directly influenced by the progression of science. Without the study and effort from previous generations of scientists, the technology that we enjoy (or dislike) would not be here. From ancient to modern times, the role of science has always been to further the development of society. Various societies have made contributions to collective knowledge throughout history, and each have advanced the sciences in their own unique way. Through the study of Mathematics, Agriculture, Astronomy, and Medicine, civilization has evolved ways to expand food production, understand phenomena, create communicative systems, and increase survival.
The earliest records of scientific influence comes from an ancient Mesopotamian city called Sumer. The Sumerians were among the first civilizations to benefit from scientific innovation. Their agriculture system unlocked the potential for thinking on a deeper level. With the implementation of irrigation, ox-plows, and mono-cropping, the population flourished. The paradigm of hunter gather fell. The Sumerians no longer had to worry about hunting and gathering food.
In order to keep track of all the food, a cuneiform writing system emerged (3000-3500 BC). This system developed to accommodate higher mathematics and an alphabet capable of describing their life and gods. The method was simple and effective: tablets were formed of moist clay, impressed upon by a pencil-like wedge, and then baked in an oven, thus creating a permanent record. The epic of Gilgamesh, a poem considered the world's first great piece of literature, was written in this form. Since farming did not require the vast majority of the populace, Sumerians were able to specialize in alternative professions like writing. This epic would not have been possible if not for the technological advancements in agriculture.
It is important to note, however, that these systems arose out of necessity. They arose to solve a problem. Lets take a look at science that came to be by human curiosity.
In order to keep track of all the food, a cuneiform writing system emerged (3000-3500 BC). This system developed to accommodate higher mathematics and an alphabet capable of describing their life and gods. The method was simple and effective: tablets were formed of moist clay, impressed upon by a pencil-like wedge, and then baked in an oven, thus creating a permanent record. The epic of Gilgamesh, a poem considered the world's first great piece of literature, was written in this form. Since farming did not require the vast majority of the populace, Sumerians were able to specialize in alternative professions like writing. This epic would not have been possible if not for the technological advancements in agriculture.
It is important to note, however, that these systems arose out of necessity. They arose to solve a problem. Lets take a look at science that came to be by human curiosity.
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| Present day Northern Iraq, known in classical antiquity as Mesopotamia |
Humans have an innate desire to look to the heavens above for answers. This study of celestial cycles predates human history. Early civilizations attributed the stars and planets above as gods; the study was considered holy and done primarily by priests. Today modern science calls this Astrology. Although Astrology is considered pseudoscience, it provided the medium for modern Astronomy to take root. The first civilizations to study the cycles were of Mesopotamia. They understood the cyclical nature of the Earth and from this were able to determine when to plant crops and approximate year lengths. The Babylonian civilization developed the first scientific contribution to Astronomy. By years of observation they discovered the cyclical pattern of lunar eclipses. This observational mode study was furthered significantly by the Greeks in the 3rd century BC and again in the 9th century by Muslims astronomers. Since the scientific revolution, our knowledge of the cosmos has increased vastly. The study of Astronomy has given humanity definite understanding of something that has mystified our ancestors.
The advancement of medical science has always influenced mankind. From the Druidic herbalists of the Celts to the bloodletting humorists of the Greeks and Romans, medical ideology has encompassed many forms. Throughout history, each society asks different questions about Medicine. Each society goes about answering them in different ways. Until the scientific method, the sciences have been performed based on a mix of superstition and first-hand experience. However, the reason why society studies Medicine has always been the same: decrease suffering and increase lifespan. Due to the accumulation of knowledge by our ancestors, we have been able to do just that. The ailments and diseases that were considered fatal in the past are easily treated today. On average, the productive members of society will live longer. These people can thus, make more economic contributions, be around for their families, and share more wisdom.
The accruement of collective medical knowledge started in ancient times. Ancient Egyptians had both practical and spiritual knowledge of Medicine, and along with the Babylonians are the first to write down their knowledge. The Edwin Smith Papyrus (1500 BCE) is of the oldest medical scripts and states in detail various surgery complications and solutions without any fantastic or spiritual aid (Zimmerman 6). The Greeks, however, have contributed to the advancement of medical science more so than any ancient culture. Hippocrates (460 – 370 BCE) was a medical practitioner of Greece whose finding
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| For more info on Hippocrates |
Science builds on itself over time, each period gives its own contribution. Sometimes the knowledge is not true, but it is in the act of trying that leads to success. This accumulation of medical knowledge over time has allowed society to advance health care to where it is today.
The collective understanding of Chemistry developed over the centuries is responsible for a wide array of useful substances. The products produced by Chemistry have altered societies minds, bodies, and warfare. The study of chemical reactions allows us to recognize how molecules and atoms work upon each other. Since most everything perceptible to the senses are made up molecular compounds, this study is greatly
important for further development of technology and science. Societies have practiced Chemistry before the term existed, before even its proto-science, alchemy, existed. According to an article entitled, ”Fermented Beverages of Pre-and-Proto Historic China.” the chemical process of fermentation to create alcohol has been documented to as early as the seventh century BC. The article goes further to state that the alcohol was more than just a mind altering drug, that it also served practically as a disinfectant. With development of metallurgy, a branch of Chemistry that deals with the production of metals, society harnesed the ability to craft stronger weapons and tools. This branch lead to the discovery of alloys and the start of the Bronze Age (3500 BC).
The ambiguity of Alchemy became apparent in the middle ages. The alchemical works were encrypted in symbolism and subject to fantastic ideas, there were no exact measurements being recorded. Chemistry emerged when the practitioners began applying the scientific method to their research and left superstitious notions behind. The first prime example of this can be found in the Islamic figure Jābir ibn Hayyān (721 - 815 AD). He was a scholar of many sciences and translated Greek and Roman texts to Arabic. Jābir is credited by some as the father of Chemistry because of his implementation of systematic, categorical, and clear descriptions of alchemical processes. Since this shift from Alchemy to Chemistry, society has benefited from the substances created by practical chemical knowledge of the elements, compounds, and molecules.
In conclusion, the sciences emerged from human curiosity and ingenuity because of the questions and problems the environment has thrust upon us. The progression is cumulative and builds from our ancestors knowledge. The information gained is not always equitable but does serve as a medium for correct sciences to appear. Thus, if history repeats itself, the road ahead for science will be intermittently rewritten to serve the future needs of both scientific communities and society at large.
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The collective understanding of Chemistry developed over the centuries is responsible for a wide array of useful substances. The products produced by Chemistry have altered societies minds, bodies, and warfare. The study of chemical reactions allows us to recognize how molecules and atoms work upon each other. Since most everything perceptible to the senses are made up molecular compounds, this study is greatly
The ambiguity of Alchemy became apparent in the middle ages. The alchemical works were encrypted in symbolism and subject to fantastic ideas, there were no exact measurements being recorded. Chemistry emerged when the practitioners began applying the scientific method to their research and left superstitious notions behind. The first prime example of this can be found in the Islamic figure Jābir ibn Hayyān (721 - 815 AD). He was a scholar of many sciences and translated Greek and Roman texts to Arabic. Jābir is credited by some as the father of Chemistry because of his implementation of systematic, categorical, and clear descriptions of alchemical processes. Since this shift from Alchemy to Chemistry, society has benefited from the substances created by practical chemical knowledge of the elements, compounds, and molecules.
In conclusion, the sciences emerged from human curiosity and ingenuity because of the questions and problems the environment has thrust upon us. The progression is cumulative and builds from our ancestors knowledge. The information gained is not always equitable but does serve as a medium for correct sciences to appear. Thus, if history repeats itself, the road ahead for science will be intermittently rewritten to serve the future needs of both scientific communities and society at large.
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Sources
Bendick, Jeanne. Galen and the Gateway to Medicine. Bathgate, ND: Bethlehem, 2002. Print.
Hippocrates, Francis Adams, Arthur John Brock, and Galen. Hippocratic Writings. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 1955. Print.
McGovern, Patrick E., Juzhong Zhang, Jigen Tang, Zhiqing Zhang, Gretchen R. Hall, Robert A. Moreau, Alberto Nuñez, Eric D. Butrym, Michael P. Richards, Chen-shan Wang, Guangsheng Cheng, Zhijun Zhao, and Changsui Wang. "Abstract." Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China U.S. National Library of Medicine, 08 Dec. 2004. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.
Zimmerman, Leo M., and Ilza Veith. Great Ideas in the History of Surgery. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1961. Print.
Word count: 1301
Bendick, Jeanne. Galen and the Gateway to Medicine. Bathgate, ND: Bethlehem, 2002. Print.
Hippocrates, Francis Adams, Arthur John Brock, and Galen. Hippocratic Writings. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 1955. Print.
McGovern, Patrick E., Juzhong Zhang, Jigen Tang, Zhiqing Zhang, Gretchen R. Hall, Robert A. Moreau, Alberto Nuñez, Eric D. Butrym, Michael P. Richards, Chen-shan Wang, Guangsheng Cheng, Zhijun Zhao, and Changsui Wang. "Abstract." Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China U.S. National Library of Medicine, 08 Dec. 2004. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.
Zimmerman, Leo M., and Ilza Veith. Great Ideas in the History of Surgery. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1961. Print.
Word count: 1301
Conflict Between Science and Religion Essay - Free
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The Catholic church has been a grand patron in the advancement of science as a whole. The institute is responsible for founding a number of schools, hospitals, and universities. During the middle ages the monastery monks kept alive the dwindling practice of reading and writing in Europe. Moreover, several Catholic priests are credited with the discoveries of various sciences. Georgius Agricola founded Geology and methods of extracting minerals. This work inspired others to further his research into the subject. And Gregor Mendel discovered the science of Genetics with by his observations and research into pollination process. Astronomy was kept alive with the help of the Catholic church. The Gregorian calendar was a product of the church, enacted after the Julian calendar started falling out of cycle. All this work was funded by the church and would not have been possible without. Yet subjects that did not fall into the religious paradigm were (and mostly still are) off limits.
Perhaps the most well known example of conflict between science and religion comes from Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). He was persecuted for supporting the Heliocentric model of the universe. This challenged the accepted scriptures of Aristotle’s geocentric ideas and as deemed heresy.
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Galileo was not the only scientist condemned for controversial new theories. The struggle between science and religion further escalated in the 19th century with the works put forth by Charles Darwin. His book, On the Origins of Species, gives a contrary explanation of mans creation. Rather than an omnipotent being creating the universe instantaneously ten thousand years ago, Darwin suggests man and the world is much older and evolved by natural selection over thousands of years. Darwin’s research was worked out over the course decades and did not formed spontaneously by high revelation. Instead, he spent an extensive amount of time cataloging species and geological formations on his five year campaign to the South American coast. The finding on the Galapagos Islands proved critical for his fledgling understanding of evolution. Here he observed species like no other. They evolved uniquely to their habitat and were significantly different than their brethren on the nearby islands. To Darwin, these subtle changes he observed meant species evolved over time and continue to do so. Not everyone could see this as clearly when he published his work. The notion of man evolving from ape was cast as heresy amongst religious groups. Still, this conflict is still relevant today. There is a large pool of people who refuse to acknowledge this theory as viable means to understand human the origins of man.
In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein more off limits science comes out with the notion of man playing God appears. Traditional religious thought believes man should not tamper with such matters. Practically, this notion has hindered scientific investigation into stem cell research. Throughout the Bush Administration time in power, stem cell research struggled to find adequate funds. The basis of this problem came from the religious views of President Bush and his administration. He is quoted saying “My position on these issues is shaped by deeply held beliefs, I also believe human life is a sacred gift from our creator.” Further, policies of abortion are continually protested in the sake of religious ideology. The pursuit of stem cell research and abortion would likely not have been obstructed if not for the religious ideology.
Most religions have a canon by which their moral code is derived. The beliefs gained from these books often times conflicts with scientific pursuit. From a scientific vantage point these religious views look illogical. During the era of the film Kinsey, American society was more so than today influenced by the traditional Christian theology. The film shows he was eventually cut off from funding as his research into sex became too overbearing for the majority. Kinsey’s rejection demonstrates the discrepancy between the influence of religion and scientific pursuit.
His argument was that society made certain sexual behaviors off limits, but that it is human nature to indulge in sexual activities outside of what is considered normal.
A look into the sexual history of mankind shows evidence of this. An example can be found in the the Ancient Greeks. The Spartans ‘knew’ each other, it was said this made the warrior bond stronger among them. Further, Alexander the Great was known to have sexual relations with one of his officers named Hephaestion. Not all of the men participated in this, but those that did were neither gay nor straight, the terms did not exist. It was not seen as taboo but rather normal instead. Kinsey’s findings on human sexuality, however, were treated as sacrilegious.
Antiquity was not devoid of religious-scientific strife either. A prominent figure in Ancient Greece, Socrates, challenged the prevailing status quo of Athens society. His punishment is stark in contrast to Galileo's house arrest punishment, Socrates was put to death over his criticisms. He was charged with ‘corrupting the youth’ and denouncing the gods. His philosophical and political ideas were annoying to his contemporaries, so much so that Plato refers to him as a ‘gadfly’, spurring Athens into action like a gadfly to a horse. Although his death was untimely, he still lived to be around seventy years old and inspired the progress of the science of philosophy.
In conclusion, religion and science have played important roles in the history of mankind. Religion has furthered science, but it’s ideology has also hindered the advancement and acceptance of select ideas. These scientific ideas are always challenging what is considered normal in society. Thus, if history repeats itself, scientific ideas will continue to cause friction against the traditional morality of religion.
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This is an essay I wrote for a film class around 10/19/2014. I received a 93/100. The word count is around 1130.
Antiquity was not devoid of religious-scientific strife either. A prominent figure in Ancient Greece, Socrates, challenged the prevailing status quo of Athens society. His punishment is stark in contrast to Galileo's house arrest punishment, Socrates was put to death over his criticisms. He was charged with ‘corrupting the youth’ and denouncing the gods. His philosophical and political ideas were annoying to his contemporaries, so much so that Plato refers to him as a ‘gadfly’, spurring Athens into action like a gadfly to a horse. Although his death was untimely, he still lived to be around seventy years old and inspired the progress of the science of philosophy.
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| Socrates about to drink Hemlock |
In conclusion, religion and science have played important roles in the history of mankind. Religion has furthered science, but it’s ideology has also hindered the advancement and acceptance of select ideas. These scientific ideas are always challenging what is considered normal in society. Thus, if history repeats itself, scientific ideas will continue to cause friction against the traditional morality of religion.
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If you enjoyed this article tell Google you did as well and +1 it. Or give it an upvote if your from Reddit.
This is an essay I wrote for a film class around 10/19/2014. I received a 93/100. The word count is around 1130.
Source:
Park, Alice. "George W. Bush and the Stem Cell Research Funding Ban | ‘Legitimate Rape’? Todd Akin and Other Politicians Who Confused Science | TIME.com." Time. Time, 20 Aug. 2012. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
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