Frontispieces in Blake’s Songs of Innocence & of Experience
This week in Arts One we discussed Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake. We only had one seminar meeting discussing this week because there were no classes yesterday, Remembrance Day. In our one class we focused in part on considering, based on the poems in Innocence and Experience, what “innocence” and “experience” […]
Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality: Is Progress Worth It?
In his Discourse in Inequality, Jean-Jacques Rousseau describes the stage in society known as nascent man to be the “golden mean” (115) between primitive and civilized humans, portraying it as the “happiest epoch” of human history. But what about nascent man makes him happier than all others, if we look at the seemingly endless luxuries that … Continue reading Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality: Is Progress Worth It?
Galileo, The Bible, and Friedrich Nietzsche
I’m not intending to have this blog post come to a coherent conclusion because what I’m currently typing is really just a stream of consciousness… After reading Kurt’s essay on Galileo, it got me thinking about how objective is the Bible if it were considered a gateway to understanding the knowledge of truth, as well […]
Galileo
Through the reading of Galileo “The Starry Messenger”, and “Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina”, I wanted to look further into two questions. The questions are, to what extent is it more effective to understand sacred scriptures through the book of nature as suggested by Galileo, and How do we distinguish between what is recognised […]
Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
I really enjoy reading Rousseau’s works—he is such a gifted writer with beautiful images in his words and cutting digs that are barely below the surface. Here are some I just happened to open up to recently, among many passages I think are great. From towards the end of Part One of A […]
Sights, Sounds and Words in Shakespeare’s The Tempest
In Arts One this week we discussed Shakespeare’s The Tempest. I just noticed that I have two other blog posts on this book from Arts One as well: see here for a post on the play and on the film Forbidden Planet, and here for one on how to interpret Prospero’s “magic” or “art” and […]
The Tempest: Shakespeare’s Dynamic Duos
It’s no secret that Shakespeare favours the dynamic duos: From Benvolio & Mercurio (Romeo and Juliet), to Antonio & Bassanio (Merchant of Venice), to even Rosencrantz & Guildenstern (Hamlet), Shakespeare continually strives to break up tension in his tragedies by providing comedic relief. One unique example of this rule: The Tempest. Though The Tempest is traditionally considered a comedy rather […]
Reality, Metaphysics, Imagination and Everything in Between
The Tempest’s fantastical elements simultaneously make the play riddled with mystic magic and ambiguity. This opens the text up to…
Hildegard of Bingen: the Opening Shot
Many film critics believe there is a strong importance in the opening shot of a film; that unbeknownst to the audience, it tells them everything they need to know about what they are about to see. Good film openings are rich in symbolism and set the mood and tone of the plot of the film. … Continue reading Hildegard of Bingen: the Opening Shot →
The Ox and the Executioner
One of the most interesting and widely discussed stories in The Essential Mengzi is the story of Mengzi’s meeting with king Xuan. It goes more or less as follows. When Mengzi met king Xuan, he recounted this story of the king to remind him of his compassion. Servants led an ox […]