ARTISTIC STYLES, WAYS OF THINKING IN PHILOSOPHY
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A tendency or style in art, a change in the way a number of different disciplines approach their work, a religious, ethical or spiritual grouping of fairly recent origin, a type of group action e.g. humanism, romanticism, enlightenment, baroque, renaissance, gothic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DASHBOARD | our myth | our artistic styles and thinking in philosophy | our common lyfestyle, identity and culture

 

  DASHBOARD
religions (image 'God the Father: Fiat'
Romanticism The Return of the Ghosts enlightenment
The Zeitgeist
Movement
obscurantism

arts

culture

'to be human is to be transhuman'
Encyclical Letter
FRATELLI TUTTI
of The HOLY FATHER
FRANCIS on Fraternity and Social Friendship
ethics
counterculture
(The People Have the Power, Indignado's,
yellow vests, and not currently being maintained, Occupy)
gothic Purpose, 21st century movements. Deploys the collective power of millions of citizens and consumers to help solve some of the world’s biggest problems.
away from the darkness towards
spring and the
light

 

  OUR MYTH

"In colour he was white as the snow that rough feet have not trampled and the rain-filled south wind has not melted. The muscles rounded out his neck, the dewlaps hung down in front, the horns were twisted, but one might argue they were made by hand, purer and brighter than pearl. His forehead was not fearful, his eyes were not formidable, and his expression was peaceful. Agenor’s daughter marvelled at how beautiful he was and how unthreatening. But though he seemed so gentle she was afraid at first to touch him.

Soon she drew close and held flowers out to his glistening mouth. The lover was joyful and while he waited for his hoped-for pleasure he kissed her hands. He could scarcely separate then from now. At one moment he frolicks and runs riot in the grass, at another he lies down, white as snow on the yellow sands. When her fear has gradually lessened he offers his chest now for virgin hands to pat and now his horns to twine with fresh wreaths of flowers. The royal virgin even dares to sit on the bull’s back, not realising whom she presses on, while the god, first from dry land and then from the shoreline, gradually slips his deceitful hooves into the waves. Then he goes further out and carries his prize over the mid-surface of the sea. She is terrified and looks back at the abandoned shore she has been stolen from and her right hand grips a horn, the other his back, her clothes fluttering, winding, behind her in the breeze."

'Alles Vergangliche ist
nur ein Gleichnisch'

(Goethe)

The name of the terrified girl is Europa. According to the myth, she was abducted to the island of Crete, gave birth to among other Minos, who became later king of Crete, and she was never found back. What did appear was the name Europa for the territory where we live and the name European for someone belonging to one of the peoples living in, comes from or is inhabitant of Europa. Europeans applies to the plural to the population, who shares a common history.

The story goes that under king Minos the earliest “high” culture in Europe was originated, far before Ancient Greece’s era of civilization. Later in time, in western Europe, the Celts spread the La Tène culture, on aspects competitive to the Roman state, where already was a vision of a future in which “Europe” would acquire some kind of unity. Hereafter, a system of thought based on religion, determined by church, was a characteristic. The earthly existence was minor and life was focused on the afterlife. After a period of time, this way of life was critized and Europe justified that ideas have no objective existence outside man. Dogmas were abandoned and religion was accomodated in a secular order in the sense of separation between church and state, and as a private matter in society. Man became central, the beginning of modernity was marked.

The way was paved for the dominance of reason and the idea that every person had a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, not a future promise paradise, but in the here and now, styled in a self reality. It became one of the pillars of Western civilization, culminating the prosperous life we are now living in. Science and intellectual exchange was encouraged and transformative eras arose, in which great cultural, intellectual, literary, artistic movements flourished.

 

OUR COMMON ARTISTIC STYLES AND THINKING IN PHYLOSOPHY  
HUMANISM

Ethical and moral values are alive which underlies an attitude to life called humanism: equality, freedom, respect for reason, intellect and sense. Tolstoy, Freud and Weil share the conviction that culture, moral values ​​and cultivation of the human soul, ensure eternal peace. Hence the tradition of European humanism to preserve books, to read, to pass a cultural object and to keep it alive and to test issues of the day with the wisdom of the past. Contemporary humanism can be traced back through the Renaissance to its ancient Greek roots.

 

ROMANTICISM

A complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe is Romanticism, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution. It was partly a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature, and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature. The movement stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories. It elevated folk art and custom to something noble, and argued for a "natural" epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT

The Age of Enlightenment, an elite cultural and very complex movement of intellectuals in 18th century, sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange, common goals of progress, tolerance and opposed intolerance and abuses in Church and state. Originating about 1650–1700, it was sparked by philosophers Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), John Locke (1632–1704), and Pierre Bayle (1647–1706) and by mathematician Isaac Newton (1643–1727). Ruling princes often endorsed and fostered Enlightenment figures and even attempted to apply their ideas of government.

The Enlightenment flourished until about 1790–1800 and it was focussed on functionality and conceived art and beauty as side issues, a personal hobby. The radical Enlightenment is under the impression that reason can only be the slave of the passions. After 1800 the emphasis on reason gave way to Romanticism's emphasis on emotion and a Counter-Enlightenment gained force.
The center of the Enlightenment was France, where it was based in the salons and culminated in the great Encyclopédie (1751–72) edited by Denis Diderot (1713–1784) with contributions by hundreds of leading philosophers (intellectuals) such as Voltaire (1694–1778), who stayed between 1750 and 1753 in Sanssouci, the summer palace of Frederic the Great in Potsdam and who claimed that the continent constituted a kind of great republic divided into several states, Rousseau (1712–1778) and Montesquieu (1689–1755). The movement is to be consider as a mindset, for personal issues and virtues, and for social environment.

 
THE RENAISSANCE

The Renaissance is
a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late
Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest
of Europe.

As a cultural movement, it encompassed a revival of learning based on classical sources, the development of linear perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform.

 

 

 

BAROQUE

The Baroque, the period between the Renaissance and Neoclassicism, has lasted a century and a half and is often the indication for something exaggerated or exalted, something with unnecessary frills.The indication for the lavish style, that after 1600 especially in the Catholic countries of Europe arose, was derived from the Iberian word barocco and means oddly shaped pearl which was not intended flattering. In the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural period, starting roughly at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music (George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi, Bach).

 

OUR COMMON LYFESTYLE, IDENTITY and CULTURE  
Gaining an understanding of group dynamics and how to "fit in" is part of socialization. Individuals develop interpersonal relationships and begin to make choices about whom to associate with and under what circumstances and they develop a sense of community. People need:
  • places: the home, the office, and the community hangout or gathering place taking form in bookstores, coffeehouses, salons, and local pubs and through many more innovative means to create the social capital needed to foster the sense and spirit of community and
  • other elements: membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of need, and shared emotional connection.

If community exists, both freedom and security exist as well. The community then takes on a life of its own, as people become free enough to share and secure enough to get along. In 1789, the French Revolution provided inalienable human rights, rule of law, division of powers, sovereignty of the people and representative democracy as values, which are seen as part of our European identity. The sense of connectedness and formation of social networks comprise what has become known as social capital, "the collective value of all social networks and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other (norms of reciprocity)". Western cultures are said to be losing the spirit of community that once were found in institutions including churches, community centers and sports.

To counter occurrence of destructive dynamics, the European idea has emerged and is, using the concept of differentiated integration and approach of multi-level governance, a direction sought to achieve common goals. Europa is the largest area of peace and prosperity in history, biggest humanitarian aid provider, and operates with the most comprehensive diplomatic network of the world. Moreover, the polity provides the successful Erasmus+ program, yields the single market, fosters the trade agenda, agreed the Europe 2020 growth strategy, is creating a common energy policy, and is working to reform of the financial sector. A list of reasons to like the EU might read as follows:

- it has helped bring a lasting peace to Europe, mainly through the single market,
- it has promoted prosperity, innovation, opportunity and choice, also thanks to the single market,
- it has raised standards and expectations,
- it has helped Europeans understand their shared values and what they have in common,
- it has reduced – yes, reduced – regulation and red tape by harmonizing national laws in numerous areas of policy,
- it has helped replace self-interest with shared interests, and exclusion with inclusion,
- it has promoted democracy and free markets at home and abroad, by bringing together 28 governments and more than 500 million people,
- it has allowed Europe to speak with a louder voice, it offers a benchmark model of civilian power, showing what can be achieved through peace rather than the threat or use of violence and
- it has encouraged a rules-based approach to international affairs.

Europe is for the community a place to feel at home. Citizens in EU-member-states have European citizenship and have therefore opportunity to help with preparation of texts, decision-making and the evaluation of the work by the EU, a secular body. But there is much more. To provide people feel home, there are also non-material trends. Not only languages, literature & poetry, history, philosophy (within which ethics), religion, visuals & performing arts and music, health, and sports are part of it, but also cultural values, identity, virtues, tolerance, solidarity, equality, rule of law & justice are aspects that contribute to improve well-being.

European culture also has a broad influence beyond the continent of Europe due to the legacy of colonialism. In this broader sense it is sometimes referred to as Western culture. This is most easily seen in the spread of the English language and to a lesser extent, a few other European languages. Dominant influences include ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and Christianity, although religion has declined in Europe. Western culture or Western civilization is a term used to refer to the cultures of the people of European origin and their descendants. It comprises the broad heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs (such as religious beliefs) and specific artifacts and technologies as shared within the Western sphere of influence.


The term "Western" is often used in contrast to Asian, African, or Arab nations. The East-West contrast is sometimes criticized as relativistic. In some ways it has grown out of use, or has been transformed or clarified to fit more precise uses. Though it is directly descendent from academic Orientalism and Occidentalism, the changing usage of the distinction "East-West" has come to be useful as a means to identify important cultural similarities and differences — both within an increasingly larger concept of local region, as well as with regard to increasingly familiar "alien" cultures. During the Cold War, the West-East contrast became synonymous with the competing governments of the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies, respectively. The concept of Western culture is generally linked to the classical definition of Western world. In this definition, Western culture is the set of literary, scientific, musical, and philosophical principles which set it apart from other civilizations. It applies to countries whose history is strongly marked by Western European immigration or settlement, and is not restricted to Western Europe. Much of this set of traditions is collected in the Western canon.

The origins of Western culture are often referred to as "three pillars": ancient Greece (concretely Greek philosophy), the Roman Empire (specifically Roman law), and Catholic and Protestant Christianity. Broadly, these foundations are referred to as Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian roots. Germanic, Slavic and Celtic popular cultures also took part in the formation of the culture of medieval Europe, and the influence of secular humanism has been profound since the European Renaissance.

Western culture has developed a plethora of literary, musical, philosophical, political, religious, and other traditions. Some (though not all) important traditions are:

- Christian Theology and Philosophy, with an abundant tradition on the philosophical discipline of Ethics;
- Humanism, Secularism, Rationalism and Empiricism in contrast and reaction to Catholicism and Protestant Christianity;
- A very rich tradition and understanding of law, which has been followed by practically all other cultures;
- Scholasticism;
- Renaissance arts and letters;
- scientific method, leading to most of the inventions of modern industry and technology;
- The Western canon, etc.