![]() I think there is the extent to which he postulates on the quality of extension-in-and-of-itself. Any type of body presupposes an existence which exists in extension and which can be affected by and can affect other bodies. Put another way, all extension is determined by its extensive parts/relations. "The mind is therefore the idea of the corresponding body" Book II Prop 11)Īll bodies thus refer to the other finite existing modes that determines it. And more importantly, this parallelism exists in complex relationships of reciprocity (e.g. All deriving from God as modes of extension and modes of thinking. Then, this parallelism runs throughout all attributes of substance. Proposition 2 establishes that God exists in extension. Proposition 1 establishes that God thinks and He wrestles the most and fleshes out his thinking on this topic mostly in the Treatise on the Intellect.Īnyhow, starting from the beginning of the Ethics: It sounds minor but he wrests a lot on establishing a sort of isomorphic non-causal interaction between these two separate planes of modality. One would be thinking in images of existence instead of being in relation to the existent. Thus one is not in the same plane of discussion as with simple bodies in extension. Or to use his terminology, as an "imagining" and not a comprehension (understanding the composition of relations constituting a body). Geometric being would be an attribute as perceived by intellect or mind, as a mental aid in measure. ![]() To understand extension I do not believe you need to understand his idea of geometric being (or objects as conceived geometrically). It is not simply identical with the space that the body occupies. Which implies that (material) extension for Descartes is not simply identical with spatial, geometrical extension. That is, a condensed body, though smaller in spatial extension, is not smaller in (material) extension. The body, however, when condensed, has not, therefore, less extension than when the parts embrace a greater space. For example, he notes that a body may get condensed, or rarefied. On the other hand, many assertions of Descartes' imply that matter, for him, was more than mere geometrical extension. In this way we will discern that the nature of matter or body, considered in general, does not consist in its being hard, or ponderous, or coloured, or that which affects our senses in any other way, but simply in its being a substance extended in length, breadth, and depth. Spinoza in this issue, as in many others, stood on the shoulders of Descartes.ĭescartes officially identified matter with geometrical (three dimensional) extension. He has been commissioned by the University’s Barber Institute to write a new chamber opera, Raising Icarus, planned for production in 2022.The geometrization of matter is a large issue, and is very relevant in present day physics (through General Relativity theory). Since 2012, he has been Professor of Composition and artistic director of CrossCurrents contemporary music festival at the University of Birmingham. Gordon is also strongly committed to working with students and younger composers, including at Cheltenham Festival, Juilliard, Antwerp Conservatorium, University of Oxford and as leader of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Emerging Composers Scheme. He has won the choral category of the British Composer Awards twice, a Prix Italia for his radiophonic work A Pebble in the Pond and has had two discs listed in The Times best 100 records of the year, in 2009 for On Memory, a piano music portrait disc on NMC, and in 2019 for In the Middle of Things, a chamber music portrait disc on Resonus Classics. Gordon has worked with many internationally leading performers, including London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, King’s College Cambridge choir and The BBC Symphony Orchestra who have commissioned him twice – for Bohortha in 2012 and a Violin Concerto in 2017, with Carolin Widmann and Sakari Oramo. Memory, time and a search for the serene are recurring themes. Born in London, Michael Zev Gordon is a composer of richly expressive and colourful music in which the tonal and atonal, the old and new, happily rub shoulders.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |