Tag Archives: Aristotle

young copernicus: the heavens can wait

Posted on December 27, 2012 by Dave

The Copernican revolution. Displacing man from the center of the universe… …But other things preoccupied him as well. In 1497 his uncle had succeeded in obtaining his election as canon of Frauenberg Cathedral, one of the chapter of ecclesiastics who, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Aristotle, Chris Sedgwick, geocentric universe, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Nicholas Copernicus, Nicolaus Copernicus, Ptolemy, Teutonic Knights, Tycho Brahe | Leave a comment

beginning with the happy ending

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Dave

The essence of comedy is the triumph of “la forza di natura,” nature over intellect. And the happies tale of all is the odyssey that ends with…Laughter in the house… …Homer’s Iliad concludes with a funeral, the initial event in … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Aristotle, Daniel Rabel Sketches, Homer The Iliad, Homer The Odyssey, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Orestes and Aegisthus, Petronius Satyricon, Robert Smirke paintings, Shakespeare Falstaff, Shakespeare Hotspur | Leave a comment

“something sweet about life”

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Dave

An argument in favor of reviving common sense…. Someone once mentioned to Dr. Samuel Johnson a certain person who claimed to see no distinction between virtue and vice. To which Johnson replied: “If he does really think that there is … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Aristotle, Dame Julie Andrews, David Bowie, Dr. Samuel Johnson, George Orwell, Homer The Odyssey, Hunter Sales, Iggy Pop, Jackie Gleason, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Tony Sales | Leave a comment

magneto and titanium men

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Dave

Now Alexander was in Corinth to take command of the League of Greek States which after conquering them, his father Philip had created as a disguise for the New Macedonian Order. He was welcomed and honored and flattered. He was … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Alexander the Great, Aristotle, Aristotle and Alexander the Great, Diogenes and Alexander, League of Greek States, Lovis Corinth, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, New Macedonian Order, Plato and Diogenes | Leave a comment

diogenes: a dog’s life

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Dave

Diogenes. And so he lived. Like a dog some said, because he cared nothing for privacy and other human conventions, and because he showed his teeth and barked at those whom he disliked. Now he was lying in the sunlight, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Alexander the Great, Aristotle, Diogenes, diogenes of sinope, Gaspard de Crayer, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Plato, raphael sanzio | Leave a comment

between empathy and illusion

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Dave

…Brecht began to contrive an elaborate complex of stage techniques to produce the celebrated alienation effect, which was designed to stir audiences without exhausting them. He employed many varieties of the play within a play convention to keep the narration … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Modern Arts/Craft | Tagged Aristotle, Bertolt Brecht, Charlie Chaplin, Donald Kuspit, edward kippers, georg baselitz, german neoexpressionism, Kurt Weill, martin esslin brecht, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Wassily Kandinsky | Leave a comment

common non-sensical: count your spoons

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Dave

Common sense is usually said to be sturdy, but in fact it has been faring badly ever since the scientific revolution began. It is plain, common sense declared in those days, that the sun revolves around the earth. Wrong said … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Aristotle, Cervantes, Don Quixote, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Gustave Dore, Hegel Philosopher, Honore Daumier, James Boswell, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Rowlandson | Leave a comment

desert getaway

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Dave

The Thebaid, a fourteenth-century painting attributed to Gherardo Starnina depicts the Egyptian desert around Thebes as teeming with anchorites. The body of Saint Paul, the first Christian hermit and a contemporary of Saint Anthony , is shown in repose at … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Aristotle, Edward Gibbon, gherardo starnina, Hieronymous Bosch, martin schongauer, Saint Anthony, saint anthony hermit, Samuel Beckett, Socrates, the anchorites, the stylites, Theodore Roszak, Tom Lubbock | Leave a comment

the un-hero: theme & subject

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Dave

It was a “monstrous plan.” The birth of the confessional form of writing. It was to essay something quite new: It was to look into the heart and write with, as it were, his life’s blood. A shared carnival of … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word | Tagged Aristotle, bernard levin, cannibalism, charles hose, Francis Bacon, jane kramer, jane kramer the new yorker, Ludwig von Mises, Michel de Montaigne, Montaigne, murray n. rothbard, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, sarah bakewell, Sir Francis Bacon, Stoic Humanism, Virginia Woolf | Leave a comment

king for a day: take a pass on the cake

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Dave

All the king’s men and women. Indeterminancy and inevitability, fortuity and fate.Sacred geometry and secret recipes. The chance of being king. Or is it chance? The chance of being king is charged with multiple and contradictory associations among of which … Continue reading →