Some considerations in philosophy of art…
For that matter, I have been looking at what is common and different between the artistic activity and the activity of loving, what our forefathers called the facere and the agere. It is eminently interesting, because today we confuse them to such an extent – after Nietzsche and some other more or less sublime “madmen” – that neither of them are what they used to be… In parenthesis, it amazes me that the verb to act meant originally to love….Needless to mention the deterioration the agere has weathered, to the extent that today to love (hence to act) signifies to agitate…:o)
In brief, if we transform a working matter in the artistic realm, that is not at all the case in the realm of love, for the other person is not a working matter, in fact, and if we consider that person as such, it’s over, we are a dictator, we kill love. Yet we nevertheless transform and are transformed when we love. That is a real difficulty…
The difference is that in love we progressively configure one another, that is what loving transformation is, and I am fond of the word en-visage (to hear in its literal purity), for friends end up effectively by resembling each other profoundly, thus to en-visage each other, whilst in the artistic realm, someone like Bach, even at the end of his life, didn’t have the mug of a semihemidemisemiquaver, nor did Edgar Allan Poe have that of a fountain pen, nor did a pen ever start writing poetry on its own like Poe! :0)
A well thought out post. But I wish to take a different position. I guess it might be appropriate to say that there is the talent you speak of which I would label as ‘desire’ and talent that is a “natural endowment†and I label TNA just to facilitate this message.
We are born with a set of talents and throughout life we modify, mold, and often are completely ignorant of members of this set. The set of talents we each possess is as unique to each person as our DNA. For the purpose of this essay I shall call this unique amalgamation of talents our own personal TNA.
The world recognizes and rewards certain TNAs. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Einstein, Elvis etc. placed on display some part of their TNA and the world applauded and rewarded them. They could have, had they became conscious of them, displayed another set of TNAs and the world might have yawned.
I find that a technique I call self-actualized learning which is learning of disinterested knowledge is a means whereby individuals can gain access to their TNA. Carl Sagan is said to have written, “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.†Perhaps through self-actualized learning you might find some hidden talents that will amaze you.
I am interested in discussing talents not because the world applauds and rewards certain combinations. I am interested in discussing how we can become self-conscious of our own talents and why this is important both to the individual and to the community.
I suspect we can categorize talents as physical talents and intellectual talents. I wish to concentrate strictly on intellectual talents. I do not wish to speak about the superiority of any specific talent as to quality or quantity. I describe the TNA of interest as being intellectual just to disassociate a class of talents from physical ability. I would like to think of intellectual talents as being aptitudes or propensities to favor certain inclinations that are associated with mental activity as opposed to physical activity.
Words that might be included under the word ‘talent’ are: attitude, quality of mind, intellectual character, reading faces, spellers, retriever of words, memory, solicitous of others, taker of risks, psychology skills, abstract thinking, power-wielding, creativity, etc. The point being to include everything mental that is part of being human.
The reason I am interested in this talent consideration is because I suspect every one of us have many undiscovered talents. If so, then finding a way to uncover these talents is valuable to us and to the community.
Chuck
I supose you have never met a natural athlete, or a math whizz.
All the desire in the world won’t make your average ghetto dweller play like michael jordan.