Intellectual Passions LO28964

From: AM de Lange (amdelange@postino.up.ac.za)
Date: 08/07/02


Dear Organlearners,

Greetings to all of you.

In "Instructional Design and Learning LO28954" Terje Tonsberg quoted my
reply to his question

>>>But why is there pleasure in discovery? One part of it
>>>could be genetic, but there is also the element of feeling
>>>of accomplishment.
>>
>>A deep question which I will answer to next time. I now
>>have to rush.

to which he then replied:

>I'll be at the edge of my seat for this one...

Rather fasten your seat belt Terje with this essay dedicate to you.

All discoveries involve the intellect.

I hear or read almost every day the phrase "intellectual capital" in the
academical environment. Although it is a metaphor, it makes me sick. What
has become of our intellectual passions? Has the greed for money become
such an overriding force that even the virtues of mind have to be replaced
by it? Can we still think without seeking maximum financial profit?

What is an intellectual passion? There are several of them. Let us begin
with the passion for science. Copernicus had a passion for science. All
people thought of the moon and the sun as passing over the earth. Good,
solid earth which itself cannot be moved by anything. But Copernicus
discovered and thus knew by his own stellar observations that the sun is
different from the moon. Like the moon orbited around the earth, the earth
orbited around the sun. The position of the sun and the stars remained
fixed. (In those days an expanding universe was not yet known since
observation in specific colours was not done.)

Copernicus could not convince the clergy who thought otherwise. They based
their claim on information from the past which they believed to be
infallible. They never observed the stars, the sun and the moon as closely
as he did. They did not know the difference between self-observation and
information canonised by tradition. For them organisational learning ruled
over individual learning. Copernicus called his insight a "sacred fury".
But for the clergy who administered the sacred, the sacred has become
regular business. They had nothing to gain from Copernicus' insight and
the passion it generated. Their own zeal for power blinded them to the
passion of Copernicus.

Copernicus's insight has been an unprecedented exercise in sureness
("identity-context"). The "identity" in this case is an orbiting celestial
body while the context is the fixed position of the stars relative to
themselves. Observation made from an orbiting celestial body (like Earth)
or upon an orbiting celestial body (like Venus) would exhibit cyclic
displacements in their positions relative to the stars.

Sureness is one of the 7Es (seven essentialities of creativity). We may be
tempted to conclude that the passion for science involves only sureness.
But almost half a millennium later Einstein taught us another lesson. His
passion for wholeness ("unity-associativity") and thus the unification of
Newtonian mechanics and Maxwellian electrodynamics enabled him to discover
the principle of relativity. >From this he deduced some remarkable
properties of nature which afterwards became empirically verified.

Planck's slightly earlier discovery of the quantum effect involved the
essentiality otherness ("quality-diversity"). He passionately tried to
understand how electromagnetic radiation and not merely molecular
mechanics contributed to thermal energy and thus entropy. He never
expected to discover the quantum effect. Both relativistic mechanics and
quantum mechanics have changed the way we look at the world. The
scientific passion of a few altered the course of events for billions of
humans.

Today we can conclude safely that each major discovery in science involved
tacitly one of the 7Es. This increased tacit awareness of many people to
the 7Es. But is the passion for science equal to the scientific discovery
in terms of one of the 7Es? No, not at all. Sharing the passion of past
scientists made such profound discoveries possible. Likewise such new
discoveries fired own passion as well as the passion of future scientists.
The passion is not the discovery, but activates it. The discovery is not
the passion, but generates passion. This push-pull interaction is the
source of great mental pleasure. In days of a more expressive mood I call
it this pleasure a mental orgasim.

The passion for science is a necessary condition for a profound scientific
discovery, but not a sufficient condition. Many others had a passion like
the passion of Copernicus, Newton, Faraday, Planck or Einstein. Even
though they had the passion as necessary condition, they failed the
sufficiency condition for making such major discoveries themselves.

What is the sufficiency condition? Goethe articulated it that the mind
should seek wholeness and thus become well experienced in "Steigerung".
Pasteur said that the mind should become prepared by exercising it
profoundly. Feynman stressed that the mind should always enquire even the
obvious as well as the imperceptible. I myself think that the mind should
grow in each of the 7Es: liveness, sureness, wholeness, fruitfulness,
spareness, otherness and openness.

The passion for science focussed on so many diverse topics in nature and
culture that it seems difficult to identify any other intellectual
passions. Yet all sciences have one thing in common -- the exploring of a
phenomenon in its many manifestations in such a manner that it can be
understood better than what mere observations of it afford. Thus
exemplar-exploring is essential to all science and thus the passion for
science.

Through the years I identified five ESCs (Elementary Sustainers of
Creativity). An ESC has to be practised by humans of all ages or any other
characteristic. An ESC also has to be practised by at least one kind of
animal. The ESCs which I have identified so far are:- exemplar-exploring
art-expressing game-playing problem-solving thoughts-exchanging (dialogue)
Since science has to do with exemplar-exploring, the four other ESCs
suggest four additional intellectual passions.

Let us think of the passion for art. An art addresses any one or more of
the five sense organs -- seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching.
It presents those sense organs with such an organisation of signals that
the spirit gets positively moved by it. Respect replaces contempt, wonder
replaces profanity and love replaces hate. Think of the passion of painter
like Michelangelo, a play writer like Shakespear, a composer like
Beethoven or a sculptor like Rodin. Their works, one after the other,
witness to their passion.

Technology of the twentieth century opened up a new form of artistry --
the movie with computer animation as a bonus. It makes possible the
combination of all the previous forms of art into one complex whole. A
movie created with artistic passion is capable of generating passion in
more people than all the other arts combined together.

Just like a passionate scientist, a passionate artist does not produce
trumpery work. A passionate artist reaches into the depths of the human
spirit rather than into the human's pocket. This is done by evoking
emotions so exquisitely that whoever shares in that art discovers new
frontiers of the human spirit.

The third ESC "game-playing" suggests an intellectual passion for sport.
Some would argue that any bodily sport cannot allow an intellectual
passion for it, but involves rather a carnal pleasure. But phenomenal
sports people, whether a wrestler, a golfer, a cyclist or a marathon
runner have demonstrated time and again that bodily performance and
intellect goes hand in hand. A mind which does not know the body or puts
the body under stress by wandering away from the sports event at hand
causes an inferior performance. But a mind which calls the body to follow
its passion often leads to awesome performances.

Give me a team of passionate sports people and with correct training they
will outclass any similar professional team who desire only to make money.

The passion for problem-solving of intellectuals like Fermi and Gordon is
legendary.

The passion for dialogue led in Internet to phenomenon of E-mail lists.

But do only the ESCs lead to passionate behaviour? No. Wherever there are
emergences in intellectual activities, passion may also be manifested for
such activities. Think, for example, of the passion of a person who has
experienced a religious emergence. Such a person may do things which
transcends the logic of non-religious people. Almost four centuries ago
the outstanding mathematician, scientist and philosopher Pascal noted in
his strange work Pensees that although religious thinking is often not
rational, this does not make it less intellectual. A passion for the
religious may often over shadow the rational.

A most important passion is that for the well being of fellow humans. It
develops within what has been called humanism and often has been named
philanthropy ("philos"=love, "anthropos"=human). It is the passion of
someone who cares for others through love. Such a person accomplishes
things which astounds others or the person bears hardships as if they did
not exist at all.

On a similar standing is the passion for the well being of nature and its
creatures. From time immemorial humankind assumed that nature could look
after itself. But since industrialisation and its outcomes such as
massively scaled farming, mining and pollution, some humans became
gradually aware that nature itself is suffering increasingly, even to the
detriment of humankind. This led to the passion for nature conservation.
In the first half of the 20th century national parks and wildernesses were
proclaimed. In the second half this passion deepened pro-actively into
stopping the plunder or pollution of nature and restoring it -- the
unprecedented Green-Peace movement.

One great danger in any kind of intellectual passion is that it may
displace or neglect intellectual activities which could have lead to other
kinds of intellectual passion. How often had a blind passion not been
responsible for ghastly miseries? To prevent this we ought to cultivate
more than one passion by sharing different passions like the scientific,
artistic, etc. This happens by participating compassionately in what
somebody with a different passion says and does. Passions are not
barriers, but bridges. Passions are not idiosyncrasies, but
"idiosynchronates". One kind of passion should never exclude any other
kind of passion because ultimately they drink from the same fountain --
the emergence.

Another intricate issue is to confuse a passion with an ambition. It is
easy for me to distinguish between a passion and opportunism, but far more
difficult between a passion and an ambition. Both involve a profound
advancement. Both look back upon accomplishments of others in the past.
Both serve as future examples. Both involve the activities of unique
individuals. Yet there are differences which I find difficult to
articulate. One difference is that an ambition is self-referential whereas
a passion transcends the self. Another is that ambition follows a plan
well designed in advance whereas passion follows a fractal course like a
butterfly visiting flower upon flower. A last one is that ambition deals
with what is possible whereas passion will even explore the impossible.

What is the dynamics of passion, whether a person shows it by vigorous
behaviour or firm determination? I think it all has to do with available
spiritual free energy of that person and how intense it can be put to
action. Nothing can happen spontaneously without free energy to drive it.
The free energy of any system, even the intellect, has to lower for a
spontaneous activity (process) to happen within the system. Such a
spontaneous activity can be considered passionate when the ratio of the
decrease in free energy to the total free energy available is very high.
It is like what adrenalin does to the body -- burning free energy much
faster than in normal conditions. It is what a turbo charger does to an
engine -- forcing it to optimum performance much sooner. Passion is the
ultimate in spontaneous behaviour.

Passion is irreversible. This means that while free energy is used up,
entropy gets produced. All spontaneous activities lead to an increase in
entropy. But in a passionate activity that increase is rapidly. Passion
may be depicted on an entropy landscape as the ability to overcome a very
steep, even vertical, slope towards an entropy ridge. A passionate person
is like spiderman climbing up against a wall. Herein lies the great
difference between a passionate and an ambitious person. An ambitious
person will seek the lift to get to the top of the building.

Intellectual passions are not always for the better. Think of developing
scientifically a nuclear bomb or a microbe to wipe out as many people as
possible. (Fermi was the main intellectual force in developing the nuclear
bomb, thinking of it as a profound problem to solve rather than as an
instrument for mass destruction.) Think of a passionate artist delving in
the dungeons of human existence, the sports person ready to maim a fellow
competitor or the orator willing to defame a fellow speaker. Think of the
religious fundamentalist willing to do even what that religion actually
forbids.

Intellectual passions need to be managed. They cannot be controlled
effectively from the outside by similar passions to subdue them. It is
like trying to extinguish a fire with fuel. The effective control of a
passion is by the passionate person self. The person has to learn what
makes the outcome of any passionate venture constructive.

As for myself and my own passions, I have found in the 7Es such a control.
To follow a passion, but to impair, for example, wholeness leads to untold
destructions with the associated injury and pain. To deprive somebody else
with what they need, is to strangle them into death, suffocating them with
the lack of openness. Any intellectual passion without the 7Es to steer it
is destined to hurt other humans rather than to benefit them.

Intellectual passions are not a trait which some have from birth and
others not. We all can develop intellectual passions. The first
requirement is to cultivate spontaneous behaviour in the intellect. There
is not a thing such as a non-spontaneous passion. People who are forced to
perform intellectual activities will never become passionate about them.
Likewise, people who depend on external support systems to perform
intellectual activities will also never develop passion.

The second requirement is to focus on such spontaneous behaviour that it
proceeds intensely. There is not such a thing as a complacent passion. It
is here where a learner needs to know the difference between passion and
ambition. In a passion all is given to reach the limit, but in an ambition
there is always a reservation.

The third requirement is to awaken passions by authentic learning. There
is not such a thing as a dumb passion. It is also here where a learner
needs to know the difference between authentic learning and rote learning
which depends on external support systems. The road which humankind took
the past six millennia was determined by the passionate persons among
them. Along that road the outcry "wow!" or "eureka" was often heard -- the
birth of an intellectual passion!

Not as an after thought, but as the ultimate exclamation. The passion for
learning is for me the mother of all passions. Search for any organisation
in which there is profound and profuse passion for learning and you will
have found the Learning Organisation.

With care and best wishes,

-- 

At de Lange <amdelange@postino.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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