To sum it up, it was love from the first sight. I will never forget the ringing of the bells of Santa Maria Maggiore at 9 P.M. If you ask me, I am virtually certain that this Mysterious Sound really is the Essence of the Roman Spirit.
Literary Essay I
It is undeniable that Ancient Philosophy has had a tremendous impact on Western Culture. Since Socrates, Plato and Aristotle lived before Christianity and could not enter Paradise, Dante had nothing to do but put them in Limbo, which is the first circle of Inferno in The Divine Comedy. And even there they were having a perpetual seminar and discussing their works with each other.
Some may argue that Ancient Philosophers were not always right (for example, Ptolemys Geocentric model of the Universe has become obsolete), but the fact that they were trying to find out the First Principle of All Things or Arche is awesome.
It is no wonder that artists tend to insert quotations from Ancient sources in their paintings. Let us have a look, for example, at The Spinners by Diego Velázquez where he combines two subjects one from Classical Mythology and the other from the era in which he lives. That is to say, in the background we can see Jupiters Rape of Europa waved by Arachne who was turned into a spider by Minerva since she could not find any flaws in Arachnes carpet. While in the foreground there are real women from Velázquezs time involved in tapestry manufacturing.
There is the Crown Fountain in the Summer Gardens in Saint Petersburg surrounded by busts of Ancient Philosophers Diogenes, Heraclitus, Democritus, Aristotle, etc. So that people wandering around in search for some shade could stop for a moment and admire their dedication and commitment in the pursuit of knowledge. Surprisingly enough, Ancient method of thinking while walking has not lost its effectiveness nowadays. I practice it all the time especially when I am writing an article or a book since it helps me to concentrate and organize my thoughts.
In the famous Allegory of the Cave Socrates tells us about prisoners who live under the earth and can see nothing but shadows projected on the wall from objects being carried along in front of a fire. What I am trying to say is that in order to gain freedom we need to break the chains and walk towards the Light. It may hurt our eyes at first, but we will get used to it in the end.
Philosophical Issues I
Pre-Socratic philosophers were asking questions about the nature of things. And their answers were really amazing, for example, the qualitative monism of the Milesians who believed that everything could be reduced to, derived from, one or several elements (water Thales; air Anaximenes; fire Heraclitus; water, air, fire, earth Anaximander, etc.). According to the double-aspect theory of Pythagoras and Heraclitus, everything is in the process of change and, at the same time, everything is in order which, by the way, could be of different kinds mathematical order (Pythagoras) or Logos (Heraclitus). Moreover, there was the absolute monism of the Eleatics, the pluralism of Democritus (Mechanism) and Anaxagoras (Teleology), etc. In other words, Pre-Socratics were formulating the philosophical agenda that Western Philosophy has worked with ever since.
While the Sophists were skeptical of the possibility of knowing the truth about reality and turned from the pursuit of knowledge to the practice of Rhetoric trying to persuade people by non-logical means, Socrates, on the contrary, was interested in the cultivation of souls and developed his own method of achieving this result which was called Dialectic. The way in which Dialectic uncovers the truth is very much like the way in which we recollect something. And the object of knowledge is not the world of Particulars (the world of time and change), but rather the reality of Forms, the first patterns that everything else follows.
In The Symposium Plato suggests that since Forms are universal an unchangeable and Particulars are always changing and temporal, we should distinguish between the essence of the Ideal Beauty which could be grasped only with the eye of the mind and particular beautiful things. We should begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these as steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last knows what the essence of beauty is.
Earthly life ought to be harmoniously ordered and unified following the example of the Cosmos, including a human individual who is a microcosm, a part of the whole. Society should encourage the development of the capacity of mind to love and know the ideal order, especially when the training of heroes is concerned. Socrates asks in The Republic And what shall be their education? Can we find a better than the traditional sort? and this has two divisions, gymnastic for the body, and music for the soul. True. Shall we begin education with music, and go on to gymnastic afterwards? By all means. Besides, Plato writes that musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful; and also because he who has received this true education of the inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art and nature, and with a true taste, while he praises and rejoices over and receives into his soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he will justly blame and hate the bad, now in the days of his youth, even before he is able to know the reason why; and when reason comes he will recognize and salute the friend with whom his education has made him long familiar. And yet, adding that the musician is wise, and he who is not a musician is foolish, he excludes harmonies expressive of sorrow (Lydian), softness and indolence (Ionian) from the educational process and advises to use Dorian and Phrygian harmonies since they stimulate courage and temperance.
Aristotle is a follower of Plato and he is also quite critical of Plato. For instance, Plato believes that Art should imitate transcendent Forms, hence Art that imitates Particulars is twice removed from Reality. As far as Aristotle is concerned, Art is not an imitation of Forms but a representation of life and characters with their emotions and actions. And a good tragedy must be such as to produce Catharsis through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions (Poetics).
Being more down to earth, Aristotle suggests that we do not have to think of transcendent Forms but of imminent forms since forms are the forms of Particular things. And any Particular is a composite of form and manner (Hylomorphism); it has an inherent Potential that can be Actualized. Natural potential is in everything and what an artist does is not to create but to Discover natural potentials in the physical elements of this world. That is to say, a sculptor does not create sculptures he Discovers the possibilities of wood or stone (in this sense, Michelangelo in his David managed to actualize the potential of the block of marble abandoned by his predecessor), whereas a musician Discovers potential in the physical sounds. For from the potentially existing the actually existing is always produced by an actually existing thing, e.g. man from man, musician by musician; there is always a first mover, and the mover already exists actually, says Aristotle in Metaphysics.
Moreover, Plato writes dialogs, tells stories, while Aristotle is more like an objective scientist analyzing and systematizing facts. As we have mentioned before, Plato thought that certain knowledge is innate. Aristotle, on the contrary, says that thinking processes correlate with the nature of reality and mind contributes to knowledge since it brings a capacity to organize, to structure nature and get the unchanging truth of it. For example, in Metaphysics he says that the white is musical and the latter is white, only because both are accidental to man. But Socrates is musical, not in this sense, that both terms are accidental to something else. Since then some predicates are accidental in this and some in that sense, those which are accidental in the latter sense, in which white is accidental to Socrates, cannot form an infinite series in the upward direction; e.g. Socrates the white has not yet another accident; for no unity can be got out of such a sum. Nor again will white have another term accidental to it, e.g. musical. For this is no more accidental to that than that is to this; and at the same time we have drawn the distinction that while some predicates are accidental in this sense, others are so in the sense in which musical is accidental to Socrates; and the accident is an accident of an accident not in cases of the latter kind, but only in cases of the other kind, so that not all terms will be accidental.
To sum it up, we have mentioned several conceptions introduced by Ancient Philosophers. And yet, the question Whether or not this Quest for Certainty is ever going to be satisfied? remains open.
Dialog of Arts I
The Greco-Roman civilization extended from the glorious Age of Pericles when Greek Culture reached its height, witnessed the expansion of Greek settlements under Alexander the Great, saw the Rise of Roman Power and the grandeur of the Roman Empire and concluded with its decline and fall in 476.
Greek and Roman traditions are completely different, suffice it to mention the Venus of Tauris and Roman Portrait Sculpture executed in realistic manner. The Greeks with their city-states, meetings at Agora, philosophical discussions at the Platonic Academy and Classical Orders have been considered as an example to be followed. The Romans adopted their ideas (for instance, they used to gather at the Forum located at the intersection of the two main roads Cardo and Decumanus), and yet, they were more interested in technical developments and built a lot of roads and aqueducts bringing water into cities and towns (Devils Bridge at Tarragona). Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in his Lectures on Architecture says that The genius of the Roman people differs materially from that of the Greeks. The Roman is essentially an administrator and a politician; he is the founder of the Modern Civilization: but is he, like the Greek, an Artist? Certainly not. The Romans erected temples on artificial hills made of concrete, whereas the Greeks were fond of Nature and tried to find special places for their structures (the Temple of Segesta in Sicily). Moreover, columns were no longer used as constructive elements and became purely decorative (the Colosseum). Greek architecture may be best compared to a man strip of his clothes, the external parts of whose body are but the consequence of his organic structure, of his wants, of the framework of his bones, and the functions of his muscles. The man is so much the more beautiful as all the parts of his body are in harmony with their purpose, and, with nothing superfluous, they yet suffice for their functions. Roman architecture, on the other hand, may be compared to a man clothed: there is the man, and there is the dress; the dress may be good or bad, rich or poor in material, well or ill cut, but it forms no part of the body.
The Greeks and the Romans were not satisfied with white color, on the contrary they used to paint their sculpture and architecture so as to accentuate their Beauty. Viollet-le-Duc writes that So necessary was this application of color to the exterior of the buildings in a country where the atmosphere is of marvelous transparency, that if we view the Temple of Theseus at Athens (for instance) in full sunshine, now that it has lost its paintings, we shall find it impossible to distinguish the lights of the columns from those shed of the walls of the cellar; these lights on different planes mingle together and appear as if thrown upon one single surface.
Life and thought in those days were bound up with the Arts and the Greeks were very well-rounded people. The great Philosophers were men of action who serve Athens at battlefields as well as in public places and Theaters since one of the main responsibilities of a citizen was to foster the Arts. Art in Greece became a generating force by which the Athenians identified themselves with their fellow-citizens and with the entire rhythm of life around them. And through Art human experience has been raised to its highest level. Not only did they use Music in their system of Public Education, but they also incorporated it in their incredible Dramas and Tragedies (let us mention, for example, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles one of the most successful playwrights of the time). Aristotle in his Poetics says that Be that as it may, Tragedy as also Comedy was at first mere improvisation. The one originated with the authors of the Dithyramb, the other with those of the phallic songs, which are still in use in many of our cities. Tragedy advanced by slow degrees; each new element that showed itself was in turn developed. Having passed through many changes, it found its natural form, and there it stopped. Comedy is, as we have said, an imitation of characters of a lower type, not, however, in the full sense of the word bad, the Ludicrous being merely a subdivision of the ugly. It consists in some defect or ugliness which is not painful or destructive. To take an obvious example, the comic mask is ugly and distorted, but does not imply pain.
Not only did they believe that Poetry and Music are the same, but they also had the Chorus that often put interesting commentaries on the drama and unified it. Friedrich Nietzsche writes that If music, as it would seem, was previously known as an Apollonian art, it was, strictly speaking, only as the wave-beat of rhythm, the formative power of which was developed to the representation of Apollonian conditions. The music of Apollo was Doric architectonics in tones, but in merely suggested tones, such as those of the cithara. The very element which forms the essence of Dionysian music (and hence of music in general) is carefully excluded as un-Apollonian; namely, the thrilling power of the tone, the uniform stream of the melos, and the thoroughly incomparable world of harmony. According to this view, we must understand Greek tragedy as the Dionysian chorus, which always disburdens itself anew in an Apollonian world of pictures. The choric parts, therefore, with which tragedy is interlaced, are in a manner the mother-womb of the entire so-called dialogue, that is, of the whole stage-world, of the drama proper. In several successive outbursts does this primordial basis of tragedy beam forth the vision of the drama, which is a dream-phenomenon throughout, and, as such, epic in character: on the other hand, however, as objectivation of a Dionysian state, it does not represent the Apollonian redemption in appearance, but, conversely, the dissolution of the individual and his unification with primordial existence. Accordingly, the drama is the Apollonian embodiment of Dionysian perceptions and influences, and is thereby separated from the epic as by an immense gap. The chorus of Greek tragedy, the symbol of the mass of the people moved by Dionysian excitement, is thus fully explained by our conception of it as here set forth (The Birth of Tragedy).