Intro and Conclusion~

Mini Midterm Pre-write

Art itself can act as a biography for an entire civilization and its’ development. (T) As we follow through each individual era of Christin rule, we see the prominent philosophy during the time portrayed through the art. (MS1) During the Dark Ages, St. Augustine’s concept of an ugly, sinful, physical world was portrayed through the architecture of religious buildings such as Old St. Peters Basilica. (MS2) This concept was overturned with the ride of Neo Platonism during the Middle Ages, which triggered the birth of Gothic architecutre that mainly focused on light. (MS3) Finally in the Renaissance period, we begin to see the borrowing of Islamic ideas, which presents us with more advanced tools to make better art with.

The math skills that were introduced by the Muslims will contribute to the intricate beauty of architecture. Brunelleschi was able to take in Giotto’s concept of linear perspective and perfect it with math. The combination of linear perspective and perfect math produced the most realistic art, which many artists strived to attain during the time. Unfortuantely, he did not publish his findings and both artists and audience would have to be patient for Alberti until the combination of art and math arose once again. Alberti managed to do what Brunelleschi had done but this time he published these findings and distributed it to all artists so that everyone could do this mathematically correct art. Applying math to art resulted in the construction of multiple amazing building structures such as the Great Mosque of Samara. It has a proportional minaret that is 52 meters tall, which requires precise calculations or else it would collapse most likely after the first couple meters. As a mosque, it was a religious place for prayer bu structurallly, it was built with the breakthrough of precise mathematics. Another example of the bomination of art and precise calculations is the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. The focal point is Jesus’ head within the center and all lines point to his face. The architecutre all point to this central point and the middle door acts like an architectural halo around Jesus Christ. A majority of buildings constructed during the Renaissance is a perfect blend of religioin and mathematics.

STILL EDITING

Nano Midterm Outline :I

Philosophy/Art history Outline
1) Dark Ages
a) St. Augustine
i) Introspection-Looking inward
(1) Only through introspection can one achieve salvation and happiness
(2) Inner experience was the only way to get a divine revelation
(3) He believed in only philosophies and science that were by the Church doctrine
(a) If they contradicted, then the science or philosophy was wrong by default
(4) He believed that the outside world was ugly/sinful and was in need of saving by God specifically
(a) This idea is portrayed during the architecture of the time, such as Old St. Peters.
b) Romanesque-
i) Old St. Peters
(1) C 320 CE, Rome
ii) Augustine’s view of the world
(1) This building was fort like, boring, plain…
(a) Symbolic of the evil, ugly, sinful outside world
(2) The interior however, was beautiful and a sanctuary from the outside world
(a) It represented the heavens
iii) The building of these Christian basilicas represented the destruction of old Greek pagan ideas and using them to build upon Christian worship
c) Rise of Neo-Platonism
i) Transition-
(1) Year 1033
(a) The thousandth anniversary of Jesus’ crucifixion
(i) People realize Jesus is not coming back
1. They begin to start observing the world
a. Which was originally looked down upon because the world was seen as sinful
2) Middle Ages
a) Rise of Neo-Platonism
i) Jesus is not coming back
ii) St. Augustine’s philosophy changes
(1) Neo Platonism
(a) The body is the prison of the soul
(b) A piece of God’s soul lies within us
(i) A divine spark; a small piece of God’s soul lies within us and that is the one universal good that allows happiness.
iii) Allegory of the Cave
(1) Bound by chains=sins
(2) Only sacrifice of Jesus and revelation through the bible can break your chains
(3) Find the divine spark within you
b) Abbot Suger
i) Neo-Platonist
ii) Didn’t believe that reading the Bible alone could allow one to reach divine revelation
(1) Due to the fact that a majority of the population during the time were illiterate
(a) He decided that one could use art to allow everyone to reach divine revelation
(b) Designed Gothic architecture
c) The Abbey Saint-Denis
i) 1140-1144
ii) Divine revelation through the interior of the church
(1) Main idea= use of light
(a) Rose windows= illustrated with biblical stories
(i) When the light hits at the right angle the inside of the church is such a divine experience
(ii) God’s Grace
(b) Flying buttresses- extra support to make larger clerestory windows
(i) More windows= more art= more divine revelation
(c) Vaults-More support
d) Thomas Aquinas
i) Transition
(1) Reintroduce science and using logic to explain why to have faith
3) Renaissance
a) Thomas Aquinas
i) Reintroduces Science and Logic
ii) Active pursuit of Science
iii) New philosophy of embracing science and logic as long as it doesn’t contradict the Church
(1) Uses Islamic scholars to justify use of science and logic
(a) Averroes
(b) Avicenna
iv) Science and Logic is used in architecture
b) Muslims-Quotes from the Quran
i) Quotes from Mohammed
(1) “The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of martyrs.”
(2) “Seek knowledge, even if it be in China”
ii) Shows how seriously they took it
iii) Believe that to know the world would bring them a step closer to God
c) Islamic Art: Geometry (I-Search Architecture)
i) Logic
(1) Islamic artists combined geometry with traditional art to create a new form of art
(2) Islamic philosophers embraced Greek philosophy and mathematics such as works of Euclid and Pythagoras
(a) Study of geometry eventually led to the study of astronomy
(3) Geometric motifs used for decorating all surface area
(a) This art expressed the logic and order inherent in the Islamic version of the universe
d) Renaissance Art
i) Leonardo Da Vinci
(1) Linear Perspective
(a) Giotto originally thought of it
(b) Brunelleschi displayed it in his works
(c) Alberti wrote it down for all artists to comprehend
(d) Leonardo perfected it
(2) The mathematical system for projecting a three-dimensional world onto a two dimensional surface/plane.


HELP!

Bacon's 4 Idols

{pfft}

Galileo's Daughter

Galileo's daughter, Maria Celeste, was not only essential to his writings but more importantly, for his survival. She was a dutiful Italian daughter who did all the chores such as cooking and laundry for Galileo. Not only did she supply her ill father with his medication but she hand-made it herself. Without her, Galileo would probably have passed on much earlier and begin to rot within his working quarters. And the amazing part is, she managed to care for her elderly father in addition to fulfilling all her duties to the Church. She lived in poor conditions yet her main concern was the well-being of Galileo. In addition to this, she was the editor of Galileo's manuscript. She took the time to edit it in order to make it publishable. Galileo would send her portions of his manuscript and once she had edited them she went send them back. She continued to spend her spare time working on this manuscript until it was finally completed. And during this time she continued to send Galileo food/medication and do his laundry and such.

Once Galileo had published his book, it did not receive good feedback. It actually angered the Church since it conflicted with their beliefs of the Sun and the Earth. Even his good friend Pope Urban VIII was angered and discontinued to support Galileo's discovery. Therefore, Galileo was brought before the inquisition. If Maria had not given her father advice to just accept what the church says for the time being, he may possibly have been sentenced to death. She was the reason why Galileo managed to change science and physics for the better.

Five Ways~

Looking at Thomas Aquina's Five Ways, his First Way: the arguement from motion is the worse. I believe this is the wort of the five not only because it could be easily disproved but because all the other ways are based on this first one. If the first way proved to be wrong, that would prove that the remaining four are wrong as well by default. His way states that nothing can move itself. Like a set of dominoes set up, there must be a force that moved it in the first place and then the dominoes will fall in order. It also states that if every object in motion ha da mover, then the first object in motion needs a mover or a force. According to Aquinas, the first mover was God. In his arguement, he titles God as the Unmoved Mover. However, the components of this arguement contradict each other. I mean, how could you say, "Oh everything has a mover EXCEPT God." So God is the only exception from this set of rules that applies to the entire universe? This arguement is begging the question, he is assuming that God is unmoved without the proper evidence.



OTL....

Gothic Architecture & St. Augustine

St. Augustine was no "Saint" during his early life. He was sinful and did rather idiotic things just for the pure pleasure and the thrill of it. Then during his quest for answers such as "Why do we sin if we know we should not do it?", he came across the Manicheans. The Manicheans believed that all humans have a pure soul composed of light that is trapped within our bodies composed of darkness. Therefore, in order to achieve happiness and salvation, one must look deep within their bodies to view their divine souls. This concept was applied to the design and construction of Gothic Architecture. Gothic churches all have an immense contrast of light and darkness. The exterior was gloomy and obscure whereas the interior was illuminated with the gothic trademark, glass windows. These glass windows had illustrations of biblical stories and once the Sun shined its rays at the right angle of the window, the church was illuminated with different colors and Bible stories. Once you entered the church, it was like you could actually feel God's immense power and that you were going through a divine experience. This use of imagery also allowed for the illiterate to experience this. Through St. Augustines philosophy with the combination of architecture, everyone could achieve happiness and salvation.

Be Mein

Well to start off...Happy belated Valentines Day~

Today we read a small portion of Chapter 11 of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kamf. Hitler writes, "Every animal mates only with a member of the same species". Most people would assume he's referring to animals, like actual animals in the wild. However, he's actually talking about races and how one should not marry or mate outside of their own race. He even goes to the extent of refering to us as "animals" and races as different species. Not very surprising. This claim is an example of false analogy, which is when an analogy is descriptive but does not offer proof of a connection between the two things being compared. He compares species to humans but the fault of this claim is that there are no subspecies of humans. Human is just one species and Hitler is trying to prove to us that there are inferior and superior "species" of humans without even supplying any evidence. Racial categories are NOT species, that's a given. Hitler assumes that the crossbreeding of races may mess up the gene pool; he's basically just attempting to form boundaries between races.