Category: Epistemology and Method

AESTHETICS TRUTH (via negativa) AND EXPERIENCE (via positiva) You know, my education is in fine art. I see the history of man in my mind through the record of his arts. I feel the beauty of those works in every dimension man has made them. I can stand in the sandals of those who made them, and close my eyes and walk among the people who enjoyed and celebrated them. I can feel the stories they told themselves. I can look at a landscape, and in particular, layers of sediment and rock, and feel the passage of time as if it were an extension of my own memory and part of my own body. I can look to the heavens and experience the time and wonder of the formation of all that has come to be. I can understand a wolf’s passion, a raven’s curiosity and an insects mindlessness. I can find beauty in the curve of a woman’s hair, the laughter of a child, the champion of small troubles, and the tragedy of war. One can both feel the range of experience yet at the same time understand their geometry and calculus of existence. Including the geometry and calculus of the human mind. Which, while capable of vastness that we feel as wonder, is as understandable as is the periodic table of elements: reducible to causes deflated of experience, and inflated to the causes of a mother’s love. Nothing is lost in truth. That which we fear to lose is merely lie.

AESTHETICS TRUTH (via negativa) AND EXPERIENCE (via positiva) You know, my education is in fine art. I see the history of man in my mind through the record of his arts. I feel the beauty of those works in every dimension man has made them. I can stand in the sandals of those who made them, and close my eyes and walk among the people who enjoyed and celebrated them. I can feel the stories they told themselves. I can look at a landscape, and in particular, layers of sediment and rock, and feel the passage of time as if it were an extension of my own memory and part of my own body. I can look to the heavens and experience the time and wonder of the formation of all that has come to be. I can understand a wolf’s passion, a raven’s curiosity and an insects mindlessness. I can find beauty in the curve of a woman’s hair, the laughter of a child, the champion of small troubles, and the tragedy of war. One can both feel the range of experience yet at the same time understand their geometry and calculus of existence. Including the geometry and calculus of the human mind. Which, while capable of vastness that we feel as wonder, is as understandable as is the periodic table of elements: reducible to causes deflated of experience, and inflated to the causes of a mother’s love. Nothing is lost in truth. That which we fear to lose is merely lie.