Culturethèque

In-lightenment posted by Mélissa on Fri, 25 May 2012

Whatever is in vogue always stays in fashion. No, I am not talking about that fat catalogue of adverts; I am thinking about the ideas which prevail… therefore I am, n’est-ce pas?

Finally, a blog about the Enlightenment. Well, sort of. A recent visit to the Maison Française d’Oxford treated my ears to the delights of “Thinking Matter” in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800. The more I listened, the more I felt myself tumbling down a spiral of ingenious ideas…even the latin derivative ingenium was a new word to add to my Foyle’s Philavery.


Imaginative Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)
Ah yes, we owe quite a lot to this fellow comrade of thought. His ideas of the senses were swirled around dividing up the brain for different reactions, i.e. the front for imagination. What I find most interesting is that this man of toga was basically the inventor of photography. He suggested that we retain abstract images from sensory stimuli. That would basically equate to looking at a picture of La Promenade des Anglais with a waft of moules-frites swimming through your nostrils…


Mens not mans
No, no I have not turned into a member of the hooded youth. “Mens” is Latin, of course, for mind as an intellect. Now that seems to be one of many definitions paddling around the intellectual sphere. As we all know from the hardship of A-level French: translation is ambiguous (also from the choice of compulsory vocabulary which will never ever cross your path in the future). However, this does give us all the good reason to discuss! So go forth and pester your peers in the wonders of mind as a corpus or as an ésprit…Descartes did it and look where he is now, front page of every edition of “Philosophers Weekly”…I made that up…


To make this short but sweet I shall now write off. Three more things before I dash: 1) join in with the alternative Olympics and exercise your mental muscles with imagination 2) give me part of the royalties when you become the next Voltaire.
3) Use this video as an excuse to your boss in order to Sapere Aude

Tags: Blogger: mélissa, Learn