Introduction to Humanities II

Today the theory we explored was Structuralism and some of its variants up to Post Modernism. After the organic paradigm replaced the mechanistic one (a gradual process of course) the problem of relativity reared its ugly head. How could there be truth if everything was relative? But even Einsteinian Relativity holds that within systems there are structures - truths, the relativity comes into play between systems. This is a point I have emphasized earlier as well. But are the truths in systems explained? What are they based on? Structuralism attempts to answer this question in lots of fields especially linguistics. I mentioned the conflict between Noam Chomsky and Daniel Everett in this regard when discussing the Sapir-Worf hypothesis. So we looked at some examples of art to try to see how the over arching structure of a culture could be reflected in art work itself. As you see in the text there is an emphasis on the eyes, thin light figures, rich drappery, none of which looks realistic. Notice especially the baby Jesus looks like a 40 year old man. (Ugly baby). But contrast that art with still life paintings of fruit. Or even further, still life paintings of food including game. In the Byzantine Christian art the emphasis is on the abstract and the story is the narrative of Jesus. In the fruit we have an emphasis on the pleasures of life. I also pointed out the art on campus: Openheim Image Intervention and asked what that represents? Another I mentioned on campus in the Art Building is in the lobby. (And see the bottom of the page.) Clearly cultural changes effect the structure of the narrative and that affects the art. What about natural human characteristics? For example, differences between men and women? We are all people but we also notice differences between people as well. I argued referencing Daniel Dennett's concept of a super stimulus that art depicting women in Japanese Anime images are using a hyper stimulus set very much like Chocolate Cake (not a real food) to depict girls (not real!) but that demonstrably stimulate male viewers. So this much of physical structure must be accounted for. Nietzsche represents the advent of the post modern which in at least one interpretation is a rebellion against the structures imposed on us by metanarratives taught by authorities. To be truly free of those you must become an ubermensch. The quiz question today was what is an ubermensch and do you think you are one? By the way, Thus Spake Zarathustra was a book by Nietzsche but the tone poem was written by Richard Strauss