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Dear All, I’ll go with the simple elegance of the Aquinas conception of beauty: “…pulchrum dicuntur quae visa placent.” “Let that be called beauty, the very perception of which pleases.” (Summa Theologica I-a IIae, q.27) The response, full of affect, is not however shut out to reason and runs “from raw emotion to intellectual delight.” And isn’t it elegantly and beautifully put? Jerry > On Sep 11, 2018, at 5:34 AM, Susan Hagan <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > Dear Ken, > > I’m sure I’ve missed part of a thread. My apologies if I have. > > I agree with you. Feynman’s right. And at the same time, it made me wonder. I think that Feynman’s statement implies that what’s at stake isn’t the nature of beauty, but the nature of invention and how it is linked to perspectives on beauty. Invention is powerful, but human limitations linked to imagination can make individuals feel under attack when science offers a perspective on beauty that is not shared, for example, by a subset of poets. In other words, the scientist threatens the inventive core. > > In coming to that conclusion, I’m remembering back to a course I took in grad school on the philosophy of art. It’s been a long time, and my understanding is sophomoric at best, but perspectives offered by the art critcs/historians/philosopers Gombrich and Greenberg stand out for me. > > Gombrinch, while an insightful art historian, was left unable to see the beauty/art when the plane of the canvas became more important than breaking it. His philosophy had boundaries. It took Greenberg to see the value in Abstract Expressionism. > > As I see it, we move forward, but always within our limited boundaries, not wanting others to change the locks on our keys to invention. > > Offered a bit sheepishly, knowing that I have to jump back out because of work deadlines. > > All the best, > > Susan > > > On Sep 10, 2018, at 10:31 PM, Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>> wrote: > > Dear All, > > It seems odd to suggest that scientists do not understand beauty. > Beauty and elegance have long been criteria for scientific theory. > > Other criteria are also important if our statements about the world > are to be both true and meaningful. Nevertheless, it seems to me > mistaken to say that scientists fail to understand beauty. > > I’ll end here, and finish this note by letting a scientist speak > on beauty. Richard Feynman’s comments appear below. > > Ken Friedman > > “Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars - mere > globs of gas atoms. I, too, can see the stars on a desert night and > feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens > stretches my imagination — stuck on this little carousel, my little > eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern — of which > I am part... What is the pattern. or the meaning, or the why? It does > not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more > marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. > Why do poets of the present not speak of it? What men arc poets > who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense > spinning sphere of methane must be silent?” > > — Richard Feynman > > Quoted in: Gleick, James. 1993. Genius: Richard P. Feynman and > Modern Physics. London: Abacus, p. 373. > > -- > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>> > Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design > Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design <https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design> > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> > Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design > Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design <https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design> > ----------------------------------------------------------------- Jerry Diethelm Architect Landscape Architect Planning & Urban Design Consultant Prof. Emeritus of Landscape Architecture and Community Service • University of Oregon 2652 Agate St., Eugene, OR 97403 • e-mail: [log in to unmask] • e-mail [log in to unmask] • web: http://pages.uoregon.edu/diethelm/ • https://oregon.academia.edu/JerryDiethelm • 541-686-0585 home/work • 541-346-1441 UO • 541-206-2947 work/cell ----------------------------------------------------------------- PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design -----------------------------------------------------------------