Spheres of Perception

An extract of the new book 'Spheres of Perception'  



Beauty what is it?
    ‘Beauty is the promise of happiness’

     Stendhal 

We cannot focus on the negative emotions of fear and greed and be forgiven in overlooking perhaps the most noble recruit in our cognitive ability - to sense beauty in the world around us. 

The historically well-argued proximity of goodness (morality), beauty and truth ensuing from Pythagorean times has been critically judged by some writers and philosophers ever since then. In concordance with Pythagoras I equate morality with goodness here, since no instances come to mind where moral action generally is not set on goodness or where goodness does not relate to moral action. 

Pythagoras’s brilliance historically stands out, perhaps even on this matter, seemingly well removed from his preoccupation with the mathematical world and architecture, where he clearly sensed harmony in a relationship between goodness, beauty, and truth. Albeit superficially open to much criticism he postulated the human soul’s structure to be similar and in accord with the universe and in consonance of melodious musical notes. The beauty in the music bringing us closer to a fusion of these three elements - beauty, goodness and truth. This is perhaps not as far-fetched anymore as it may seem to some. 

Pythagoras inarguably well ahead of his times, was constantly striving and delving deeper into understanding the physical and mathematical world. Perhaps we can also claim he existed in more pragmatic times where an embryonic and more open academia were not so much affected by ‘fashion’ and profit seeking enterprises. Such independence giving his wondrous cognitive drive the ability to exchange more liberally with the world and universe around him - who, what you are and when. Certainly, some amount of liberalism and perhaps ‘unconventional’ thinking and understanding was needed to sense the amazing interconnection and harmony of an omnipresent morality in an infinite universe and propose a fusion of truth, goodness and beauty. All this at a time well before mobile DNA, the internet, and an understanding of how cells interact with their surrounds and evolved the human brain.

The rudimentary argument used against Pythagoras’s proposal on this matter run along the lines of, ‘should I listen to beautiful harmonious music with rhythms harmonised with the universe, I do not as a result necessarily become a good person and then can lay claim to sense the truth’. This can be comfortably seen as unfair to Pythagoras and quite naïve because of my argument here. His criticism is mostly due to misinterpretation and a complete misunderstanding of his harmonising a universal morality and an innate longing as part of the natural human condition for an approximation between these three elements, rather than seeing one as a necessary product of the other.

Pythagoras sensed consonance instead of disparity between the structure of the human ‘soul’ (cognition), harmonious music and a consonant in the structure of the universe. He was perhaps, well ahead of his times already aware of the morality needed for such interactions in an interconnected universe to make it function the way we understand it today.  We can also revive this Pythagorean view with our proposal in this text where we have uncovered the gracious ethos needed for harmonious interactions to explain the evolutionary drive as,

E(m)=∑∞∆C {∞∆a (Metaphysical⇌LSOR⇌PSOR) ≈ ∞∆b(Metaphysical⇌LSOR⇌PSOR)}.

This certainly does not imply that if I listen to Mozart’s requiem (or any other piece of melodious music) that I necessarily become a good person or see the truth. It does however suggest that the requiem, inarguably a beautiful and mellifluous masterpiece with significant impact on our cognitive progress, may bring us closer to the pattern of interconnections and congruous interchanges. This expressing workable truths (in this case harmonious music) with a ≈ b. The threat of a supernova explosion, seen in the context of an understanding of harmonious cosmic interchanges and universal forces following certain physical laws, now become a natural event with even an element of beauty for a knowledgeable a. Without some understanding and realisation of such an interconnected universe, following truthful universal laws, we may see it egoistically and anxiously as a potential threat with the ability to cause mass extinction of life on our planet. Although such a threat may perhaps one day be real (LSOR), the closer we get in comprehending the physical rules and moral demands driving this infinite cognitive flux, as part of constantly changing interconnected flow of ‘ideas’, the more we can sense beauty, truth and even goodness in the context of these universal interchanges. With new understanding of such potential threats to our existence as part of a bigger infinite idea and with us as interconnected idea makers, we can unanimously advance our civilisation with a better chance to confront such issues than primitively fighting each other to survive.

A representative example may be taken as the beauty of an artwork or a face in a crowd, where the beauty may analytically be seated in the lines and proportions of the painting or the face, but only when seen as a holism does it present us with an image of our interpretation of harmonised living in purity, goodness and truth. Again, it certainly does not suggest the beautiful face in the crowd belongs to an honest and good person. The beauty of the face merely proximate and presents the three aspects of beauty, truth and goodness and our interpretation within a constant drive towards such harmony. Elements we all inevitably admire more than superficial worth. Generally superficial beauty in a person represents aspects of healthy clean living avoiding excesses, but it does not mean the person possessing beauty necessarily practices such wise lifestyle choices.

Another element of beauty is acknowledgment of its place as part of an interconnected whole. Arrogance or ego at once spoils beauty as beauty is selfless, quietly taking its place within a universal whole. A person can never possess beauty by means of ownership. We can merely through higher cognition, knowledge and understanding constantly attempt to better fuse the beauty of an object with goodness and truth together with these elements in the observer.  Trying to purchase a painting because it is highly acclaimed for its beauty but not having the ability to harmonise such beauty (through truth and goodness) is pointless. Any attempt to own beauty with the aim of enhancing one’s own lack in beauty, goodness or truthfulness is likewise doomed to fail and may even destroy the primary objects beauty - without much further explanation needed in the context of our understanding here, I hope.

Once the true beauty of an object or person b is realised and synchronised with these same elements in the observer a, beauty in the eye of the beholder - observer a. This harmony between observer a and the observed b is perhaps what Pythagoras proposed. With deeper digging and better understanding of the constant change and interconnection between the observer and the observed, it can be seen how we can merely appreciate, respect, and enjoy (be happy about) beauty but never truly possess it. We merely harmonise ourselves with beauty, truth, and goodness for certain periods, through constantly improving such inner elements in ourselves as changing observers within a continuous change. From this we can gather that beauty is simultaneously permanent and ephemeral - forever out of our reach and changing.

The potential of beauty then harbours itself in this search for such harmony within ourselves for these three evanescent elements. It is in understanding and developing of this longing, free of possession, that we can also increase the frequency of experiencing these dazzling moments of beauty but realise we can never entirely cling to it. As we change, our interpretation simultaneously changes all the time. This disparate attempt at bringing us closer to beauty through ownership is exactly with distances us from its true value. We may sense a similarity here between the ephemerality of beauty and that of obtaining ultimate knowledge. We freely move between objects and experience them based on our cognitive abilities to understand and know them. The better our cognitive abilities, the more truthful our knowledge and the higher our morality (selfless) the more beautiful our world and significant our minuscule place in the vast universe become. 

Beauty is consequently achieved through harmony between a, the beholder, and the beheld b. 

The latter is important to many of us today where we seem to accumulate more than we need or can consume in a market-driven consumerist society constantly promoting possession as a link to happiness. We can see how in an attempt to obtain happiness through status in possession, we may overlook the beauty around us and perhaps also how having fewer possessions and with a less egoistic perception, we may free our cognitive capacity to sense ubiquitous beauty, while helping others and the environment. Either way an open and sober mind relieves us of some of the environmental and social burdens that come with excesses in today's world. We now see the beauty of the elderly and realise the ugliness of or actions in ignoring the poor. Sadly, many of the attempts by more clear-headed activists today to make people aware of such superfluity in our progression towards a better world, is also quickly swamped by media and those more interested in sales and profits than genuine beauty, truth and goodness. It also robs us of our cognitive ability (what makes us us) and causes us to over-admire or attach ourselves to objects or certain ideas about objects or expect epiphany in one specific event.

It is apt to end this section perhaps with a musical break and if possible listen to Mahler’s ‘Das Lied von der Erde’. In the composer’s selfless search for beauty, written near his deathbed as a farewell to the world and close to his, what can perhaps be interpreted as a fulfilled life and happy death he gave us an overlooked message. The singer of his composition expresses the harmony and continuity of the world, life, and its infinite beauty in a sweet melodic repetition, Ewig ewig, ewig ewig - for ever and ever and for ever and ever and ever … We now see endless beauty, truth, change and infinity in these last profound words of the composer, rather than finality, even in the aged and our own inevitable death.
Miss you dad ...