Utopia
Philosophy in ancient Greece acquired a systematic unity with Aristotle. A logical method was adopted to unite different disciplines. With Aristotle, philosophy gained a rational narrative through prose with logical and substantive consistency. Philosophers prior to Aristotle, pre-Socratics in particular, expressed philosophy in the form of poetry. Aristotle’s philosophy was a philosophy of solid objects; it carried the status of spatial objects “here and now” to rational concept by way of the union between their substantial and accidental qualities. In [...]
About Art
Modern civilization is built on four foundations: Sports, Science, Art, and Philosophy. Sports deals with the discipline of movement, Science with concepts and terminology specific to science, Art with images, and Philosophy with concepts. Artistic endeavor has existed in all cultures since the earliest periods in history, but art gained self-consciousness in Ancient Greece. This was no accident because Ancient Greece was also where people gained consciousness of philosophy, or of their own thoughts. Andrey Tarkovski “Art emerges [...]
Art
“Art emerges and develops where there is a yearning for the ideal,” says A. Tarkovsky, and adds, “Art is a symbol of this world that is intertwined with the spiritual reality hidden from us by a utilitarian practice.” Even though the idea is a highly controversial concept, the idea in terms of art represents, at its most basic, “unity” and “integrity.” It expresses the “common essence” or “common form” that holds what is different together. The work of art is at [...]
The Problem of Akhlaq in Sufism
“Religion is morality in practice. Knowledge is but an instrument.” Lütfi Filiz Any treatise on akhlaq (morality/character) and Sufism (Tasawwuf) needs to make references to specialized literature and a set of concepts. The concepts of Sufism have both a philosophical and a poetic character, meaning that philosophical concepts alone would not be sufficient to explain Sufism. If philosophical concepts are like “day and night” to the mind, and mystic concepts are like “light and dark”, then Sufi concepts are like [...]
Reason, Conscience and Courage in Civilization
There are two basic worldviews, two languages in the world: one is the language of the Eastern civilization with Sanskrit roots, and the other is the language of the Western civilization with Ancient Egyptian roots. Further divisions are within these two basic worldviews. The term Indo-European languages points both to the connections between the two civilizations due to Alexander’s conquests and the Silk Road, and the differences between them. Egypt had a Hermetic-esoteric and closed system that revealed knowledge, attitudes, [...]
A “Stranger” on Earth
“Through painful toil you will eat food from the ground all the days of your life.” Genesis 3:17 The “identity crisis” that emerged after the two world wars left people uncertain about how to define themselves, what to believe in and what to hope for. Neither the institution of religion, nor the state authorities had been able to protect humanity from these disasters. Following the French Revolution, in particular, “nation-state” organizations and “humanist” and “positivist” approaches to education were [...]
Philosophy
From Plato to this day, what leads people to philosophize is that they view themselves as in-between. People are stranded between nature that surrounds them and infinity (God) that transcends them. Ever since Plato and Aristotle, this in-betweenness has always been an object of wonder and curiosity. This curiosity is about objects, facts, events, and the riddle of the universe, but it is also felt regarding the inner world of humans. All attempts to provide solutions throughout the history [...]
Eastern and Western Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a philosophical discipline, and its subject matter is art, or more accurately, fine art. The word aesthetics is derived from the Greek word for “science of sensations” or “science of emotions”, although this definition fails to do full justice to the concept of aesthetics, as aesthetics today is also used to refer to the “philosophy of art” or the “philosophy of fine art”. Aesthetics is the science of beauty, investigating the essence of art and laws of [...]