Angels Sleep Two LO27567

From: AM de Lange (amdelange@gold.up.ac.za)
Date: 11/20/01


Replying to LO27521 --

Dear Organlearners,

Andrew Campbell < ACampnona@aol.com > quotes
Stiener who wrote on Goethe:

>The time must come when our observation
>of nature sets itself free from the dry, prosaic,
>non-human method pursued in the laboratories
>and clinics of today.

Greetings dear Andrew,

It strikes me what this sentence actually entails. In laboratories and
clinics mainly information gets produced, wrapped up in a paper. The
researcher must have the expertise needed to produce the information. But
this expertise should never be confused with the knowledge of nature as a
whole. The kernels of this wholesome knowledge emerges when a person makes
contact with all of nature through all the sense organs. After- terwards
these kernels will feed on the information produced by the experts.

Andrew, imagine the following set-up. A person wears a safety helmet like
a race driver. On top of the helmet a self-foccusing video camera is
fitted. In front of the eyes a LCD video screen is fitted, showing what
the camera is detecting. The person can see only the video screen. This
person then walks around in nature, turning head, helmet and thus camera
to whatever object he/she wants to see on the screen. Furthermore, the
person's ears and nose are plugged while the hands are isolated in thick
gloves. The only sense organs allowed to work are the eyes. What a "dry,
prosaic, non-human method" to experience nature.

Another thing which strikes me is that measuring equipment and support
equipment are the two standard features of laboratories and clinics. The
measuring equipment reduce the 7Es to one of them:- spareness
("quantity-limit"). Show me an instrument how to measure for example
wholeness ("unity-associativity")!! The support equipment are needed to
keep whatever organism alive since removing it from nature destroyed its
capacity to live spontaneously. In other words, the support equipment
sustains non-spontaneous living.

>Beethoven said the same " It takes spiritual
>[geistigen] rhythm to grasp music in its essence
>....all genuine musical invention is moral progress.
>To submit to its inscrutable laws, and by the
>virtue of these laws, to overcome and control
>ones own mind, so it shall set forth the revelation;
>that is the isolating principle of (all) art...

What a beautiful and thought provoking quote! Let me warn you that the
translator probably translated "moralisch" into "moral". Beethoven's
parents moved from Belgium to Austria In the Lowlands region (Belgium,
Netherlands and north Germany) the word moral ("moralish", "moreel") had
two distinctively different meanings -- the typical meaning of rightful
conduct with all its variations and also the meaning of innate or
intrinsic forming ("innerliche Bildung"). (Winfried can help us out if
German in general has this second meaning.) Moral in English does not have
this second meaning.

Which meaning had Beethoven in mind -- rightful conduct or innate forming?
I personally think he had the second one in mind. Thus I would have
translated the sentence as "...all genuine musical invention is progress
in innate forming"

The second word which strikes me is "revelation". I wonder what German
word the translator had to translate -- "Entfaltung"=emergence or
"Offenbarung"=revelation? I wonder which word Beethoven used and what
meaning he had actually in mind?

As I understand it, a revelation concerns a sequence of bifurcations. Each
bifurcation becomes either a constructive emergence or a destructive
immergence. Forms emerge into a new complexer form or they disintegrate
into older less complex forms. The awareness to a future bifurcation and
even a revelation of a sequence of them depends on all the bifurcations
experienced in the past.

However each past immergence had to be attempted again and again until it
becomes an emergence. For what we need to have is the unbroken chain of
past emergences to prepare us for the next successful emergence in the
future. Goethe called this chain "Steigerung". The synthesis of a complex
natural substance by several dozens of linked chemical reactions beginning
with simple inorganic compounds is called a synthon. Goethe's "Steigerung"
and chemistry's synthon are virtually the same, the one belonging to the
physical world and the other one to the spiritual world.

For me this synthon-"Steigering" and the relevation flowing forth from it
is the characterising principle of all art. It is the one clear difference
for me between angels and humans. Angels are mere messengers -- those that
tell lies have become the devils. But humans can become more than angels
or devils because humans can create art. God's Creation is the greatest
work of art which I know. Therefore, I think that to help another human
how to create art is to help that person to reveal the divine in him/her.

Last night a fellow church member and I had a deep dialogue on how our
society destroys step by step the divine in our children so that as adults
they are fit only to be messengers and slaves of their masters. This is
evident in the indifference of society to characteristic art as well as
the conflict which artists have with the values of society.

>Art cannot lie ;-)

Andrew, I think we ought to remember that art has a characteristic
principle, namely "Steigerung" and the revelation flowing forth from it.
It is easy to spot imitated art. Imitations do not have this
characterising principle so that they tell a lie. The lie which they tell
is that art need not have its characterising principle. Thus they merely
carry false messages with no future.

A thought which haunted me the past couple of months is that each Learning
Organisation is a unique work of art. One LO cannot imitate another LO
because then it would be without its charaterising principle. It is not
possible to live as an LO with such a lie.

With care and best wishes

-- 

At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa

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