“The pain of the mind is worse than the pain of the body” Publilius Syrus (Roman author, 1st century B.C.)
"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” M. Kathleen Casey (Canadian Speaker of the Legislative Assembly)
To fear pain indicates at the least a tendency to avoid pain. To welcome it is to welcome balance, not for promise of comparative lack of pain but the existence of pain in itself. “Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain” - William Faulkner (American Nobel Prize winner for Literature 1897-1962)
Strength is to strive for, not hardness for hardness can break while strength can understand and adjust yet stand steadfast. So pain should not be sought out, nor be a fixation of interest any more than the achievement of happyness for either are but by products and should be taken as such. “We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” Kenji Miyazawa (Japanese poet and author of children's literature 1896 - 1933)
In doing so, they will gain the appreciation, that is the embrace of their existence, as they deserve without needing the strength that are to be spent on tangible goals, whichever they may be. Pain doesn't need to be enjoyed, merely embraced. Strength and indeed contentment can be achieved by acknowledging the existing social stigma of fear from pain and greed for joy and adressing that by embracing both as they come as an enriching and equally essential limb of life. “Pain and death are part of life. To reject them is to reject life itself.” Havelock Ellis (British psychologist and author 1859-1939) "Life without pain is meaningless." Arthur Shopenhauer (German Philosopher, 1788-186)
To be aware of death is to respect life. However, the embracement of that awareness void of fear will ensue in the elimination of pain connected to said fear. There is no pain in death, so there is no need to imagine, and therefore search out pain in fearing what is not. "When we exist death is not, and when death exists we are not. All sensation and consciousness ends with death and therefore in death there is neither pleasure nor pain. The fear of death arises from the belief that in death there is awareness." Epicurus (Greek philosopher 341 BCE – 270 BCE)
The concious perception of pain alters the depth of it to levels of acceptance. “Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.” Arthur Schopenhauer (German Philosopher, 1788-1860) That distinction is brought by the differentiation between the perception of inevitability and therefore acceptance and embracement and that of rejection. "He who has a why can endure any how.” Friedrich Nietzsche (German philosopher and classical philologist 1844 – 1900)
With a certain disposition toward pain and pleasure, namely that of embracing said reactions, one can influence suffering and happiness.
There are no facts, only interpretations.
Friedrich Nietzsche (German philosopher and classical philologist 1844 – 1900)
Showing posts with label philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label philosophy. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Knowledge vs intelligence - The conflict of the saint and the artist
In the past couple of weeks or so I have gone through an emotional upheaval quite fitting in juxtaposition to the euphoric beginnings and sunny introduction to the fantastical reality of beginnings. If 'fantastical reality' is wanting to let you shout 'oxymoron', you'd be quite right. However, not in the sense of contradicting understandings for as you shall see during the course of my argument, it is truly real, but in the original portmanteau of the Greek words sharp and dull. In fact, in it's sourced meaning, I could argue the juxtaposition to be based on the oxymoron of reality of beginnings in that it is painfully sharp yet dull.
The sharpness derives, in this procession of events related to my own experience, from the affinity and taking a shine to the sense of importance and discovery, a sense of importance in uniqueness, appreciation of not the work or object but the concept of being first, that of discovery and merit based on discovery rather than what fills said discovery. I suggest that even more so than happiness, it is greatness, which drives great minds. For we remember many great authors, scientists and philosophers for being the first to publicize a point made, no matter how that same apple may have fallen upon a thinker setting in motion similar thoughts centuries after. The knowledge and drive for genius and to be known stretches beyond the mere contentment with goodness or even greatness of craftsmanship, intelligence or beauty, it strives for individuality, differentiation, and most of all, for being first.
Naivety of knowledge and conceptualization of such knowledge can be truly liberating in the process of thought and creation. It matters not how many generations of humans have learned to grasp the conceptualization of self, for instance, every time it is discovered new, without outside help, almost as a switch of connections of neurons. That, I believe, cannot be dismissed as a lesser discovery for lack of timely births and century choices of sperms and eggs to create, that is, for lack of control over which century one is born in as well as the unfortunate coincidence that one has thought thus before. One should not dismiss the naivety of unknown historical or literate knowledge at the presence of intelligent thought. I have discussed this previously in closer proximity to fashion in my article "Knowledge vs Intelligence - Defining expertise in the world of fashion".
Naivety is an interesting word and an interesting concept. One might quite like to decide that naivety is an attribute unwished for, but I have come to realize that depends on what kind of picture you'd like yourself to be painted in.
In the contextualization of the dualistic view of tough vs. soft, me desperately avoiding the latter, naivety seems to evoke a reaction of protectionism, motherhood and general puppy-with-three-legs-reaction that is extremely unappreciated despite its well meaning intentions. The concept of naivety does not seem, as it should, to create the realization of sharp, unadultered interpretation of, may I suggest, an intelligent observer, but is merely belittled to that of lacking knowledge of what is perceived as reality and in the worst yet most caring cases, in need of protection when reality is often clearer to the naive than it is to the knowledgeable.
On another note, creativity derives from naivety with a much stronger sense of conviction and drive as it does from that of tutored and shaped mind. In fact, creativity in par with productivity is best observed in the reclusion of the creator, the insolvency of interaction or interference. Surely it must be understandable that to interfere a sensation of discovery, genius and uniqueness with an unnecessary and uncalled for tutorial of historical knowledge is hindering in the productivity of creation. The afterthought, dare I suggest the portmanteau afterknowledge, may have to be professionally derived from historical and contextualized fact, however, it should, in the best of circumstances, not appear in the process of creation as a catalyst force of unproductivity and negative stimulus. The easiest, and often most naturally adapted form I have observed in the greatest minds and creators, is that of necessity for loneliness. And that, in turn, requires a necessity to abandon the want to be good to others. Creativity requires for one to be truly selfish in the process of creation, to believe in the possibility of greatness in order to achieve the highest possible form of drive and productivity.
As Iris Murdoch points out in relation to her book "Under the Net", the want to be good and the nesessity to be creative is in recurrent conflict. I thoroughly identify with the statement that there is a conflict between the artist and the saint and I believe it is so because of our necessity for loneliness in order to avoid the negative stimulus of historically contextualized knowledge helping screen the brakes of production and creativity.
Images are snapshots from the BBC program "In their own words: British Novelists - 2. The age of Anxiety (1945 - 1969)
The sharpness derives, in this procession of events related to my own experience, from the affinity and taking a shine to the sense of importance and discovery, a sense of importance in uniqueness, appreciation of not the work or object but the concept of being first, that of discovery and merit based on discovery rather than what fills said discovery. I suggest that even more so than happiness, it is greatness, which drives great minds. For we remember many great authors, scientists and philosophers for being the first to publicize a point made, no matter how that same apple may have fallen upon a thinker setting in motion similar thoughts centuries after. The knowledge and drive for genius and to be known stretches beyond the mere contentment with goodness or even greatness of craftsmanship, intelligence or beauty, it strives for individuality, differentiation, and most of all, for being first.
Naivety of knowledge and conceptualization of such knowledge can be truly liberating in the process of thought and creation. It matters not how many generations of humans have learned to grasp the conceptualization of self, for instance, every time it is discovered new, without outside help, almost as a switch of connections of neurons. That, I believe, cannot be dismissed as a lesser discovery for lack of timely births and century choices of sperms and eggs to create, that is, for lack of control over which century one is born in as well as the unfortunate coincidence that one has thought thus before. One should not dismiss the naivety of unknown historical or literate knowledge at the presence of intelligent thought. I have discussed this previously in closer proximity to fashion in my article "Knowledge vs Intelligence - Defining expertise in the world of fashion".
Naivety is an interesting word and an interesting concept. One might quite like to decide that naivety is an attribute unwished for, but I have come to realize that depends on what kind of picture you'd like yourself to be painted in.
In the contextualization of the dualistic view of tough vs. soft, me desperately avoiding the latter, naivety seems to evoke a reaction of protectionism, motherhood and general puppy-with-three-legs-reaction that is extremely unappreciated despite its well meaning intentions. The concept of naivety does not seem, as it should, to create the realization of sharp, unadultered interpretation of, may I suggest, an intelligent observer, but is merely belittled to that of lacking knowledge of what is perceived as reality and in the worst yet most caring cases, in need of protection when reality is often clearer to the naive than it is to the knowledgeable.
On another note, creativity derives from naivety with a much stronger sense of conviction and drive as it does from that of tutored and shaped mind. In fact, creativity in par with productivity is best observed in the reclusion of the creator, the insolvency of interaction or interference. Surely it must be understandable that to interfere a sensation of discovery, genius and uniqueness with an unnecessary and uncalled for tutorial of historical knowledge is hindering in the productivity of creation. The afterthought, dare I suggest the portmanteau afterknowledge, may have to be professionally derived from historical and contextualized fact, however, it should, in the best of circumstances, not appear in the process of creation as a catalyst force of unproductivity and negative stimulus. The easiest, and often most naturally adapted form I have observed in the greatest minds and creators, is that of necessity for loneliness. And that, in turn, requires a necessity to abandon the want to be good to others. Creativity requires for one to be truly selfish in the process of creation, to believe in the possibility of greatness in order to achieve the highest possible form of drive and productivity.
As Iris Murdoch points out in relation to her book "Under the Net", the want to be good and the nesessity to be creative is in recurrent conflict. I thoroughly identify with the statement that there is a conflict between the artist and the saint and I believe it is so because of our necessity for loneliness in order to avoid the negative stimulus of historically contextualized knowledge helping screen the brakes of production and creativity.
Images are snapshots from the BBC program "In their own words: British Novelists - 2. The age of Anxiety (1945 - 1969)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
