"… die Schönheit… [ist] die
"Beauty is the proper conformity |
This is not the meth-lab Heisenberg —
who also suggests a German saying:
. . . Gestaltung, Umgestaltung,
Des ewigen Sinnes ewige Unterhaltung . . . .
"… die Schönheit… [ist] die
"Beauty is the proper conformity |
This is not the meth-lab Heisenberg —
who also suggests a German saying:
. . . Gestaltung, Umgestaltung,
Des ewigen Sinnes ewige Unterhaltung . . . .
According to René Guitart in May 2008 —
"In fact, in concrete terms, the Mathematical Pulsation is
nothing else but the thing that everyone does when doing
mathematics, even the most elementary ones. It is a very
special gesture in understanding ('geste de pensée'), well
known by each mathematician. The mind have to go to
and fro between to antinomical postures: to have the
situation under control, to leave the door open. To master
and to fix (a clear unique meaning) or to neglect and to
change (toward other possible meanings). Because of the
similarity of the pulsation of inspiration and expiration in
breath with the pulsation of closing and opening phases
in mathematical thinking, at the end of [Guitart (2003/a)]
I suggested to consider the famous book 'Zen in the Art
of Archery' [Herrigel (1997)] as a true treatise in didactic
of mathematics: just you have to replace everywhere the
words 'archery' by 'mathematical proof'."
Related material: Heisenberg on Beauty and the previous post.
Update of 6:20 AM Oct. 19, 2015 —
„Ich begriff plötzlich, daß in der Sprache oder doch
mindestens im Geist des Glasperlenspiels tatsächlich
alles allbedeutend sei, daß jedes Symbol und jede
Kombination von Symbolen nicht hierhin oder dorthin,
nicht zu einzelnen Beispielen, Experimenten und
Beweisen führe, sondern ins Zentrum, ins Geheimnis
und Innerste der Welt, in das Urwissen. Jeder Übergang
von Dur zu Moll in einer Sonate, jede Wandlung eines
Mythos oder eines Kultes, jede klassische, künstlerische
Formulierung sei, so erkannte ich im Blitz jenes
Augenblicks, bei echter meditativer Betrachtung,
nichts andres als ein unmittelbarer Weg ins Innere
des Weltgeheimnisses, wo im Hin und Wider zwischen
Ein- und Ausatmen, zwischen Himmel und Erde,
zwischen Yin und Yang sich ewig das Heilige vollzieht.“
— Hermann Hesse, Das Glasperlenspiel.
Berlin: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, 2012. p. 172,
as quoted in a weblog.
For a version in English, see Summa Mythologica (Nov. 3, 2009).
Spielerei —
"On the most recent visit, Arthur had given him
a brightly colored cube, with sides you could twist
in all directions, a new toy that had just come onto
the market."
— Daniel Kehlmann, F: A Novel (2014),
translated from the German by
Carol Brown Janeway
Nicht Spielerei —
A figure from this journal at 2 AM ET
on Monday, August 3, 2015
Also on August 3 —
FRANKFURT — "Johanna Quandt, the matriarch of the family
that controls the automaker BMW and one of the wealthiest
people in Germany, died on Monday in Bad Homburg, Germany.
She was 89."
MANHATTAN — "Carol Brown Janeway, a Scottish-born
publishing executive, editor and award-winning translator who
introduced American readers to dozens of international authors,
died on Monday in Manhattan. She was 71."
Related material — Heisenberg on beauty, Munich, 1970
(Continued from Sept. 22–
“A Rose for Ecclesiastes.”)
From Kibler’s
“Variations on a Theme of
Heisenberg, Pauli, and Weyl,”
July 17, 2008:
“It is to be emphasized
that the 15 operators…
are underlaid by the geometry
of the generalized quadrangle
of order 2…. In this geometry,
the five sets… correspond to
a spread of this quadrangle,
i.e., to a set of 5 pairwise
skew lines….”
— Maurice R. Kibler,
July 17, 2008
For ways to visualize
this quadrangle,
see Inscapes.
Related material
A remark of Heisenberg “… die Schönheit… [ist] die
richtige Übereinstimmung der Teile miteinander und mit dem Ganzen.” “Beauty is the proper conformity |
In Memory of
Edmund Husserl
— Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
“Beauty is the proper conformity
of the parts to one another
and to the whole.”
— Classic definition quoted
by Werner Heisenberg
(Log24, May 18-20, 2005)
“It seems, as one becomes older,
That the past has another pattern,
and ceases to be a mere sequence….”
— T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets
See also Time Fold
and Theme and Variations.
The three main characters “spend much of the play discussing quantum mechanics, string theory and Schrödinger’s Cat experiment….
Ms. Buggé’s frequently clever script makes the audience feel smart by offering up fairly recognizable literary references (from, among other things, T. S. Eliot’s ‘Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ and William Wordsworth’s ‘Tintern Abbey’). But the play suffers from abrupt, sometimes motivation-free exits and entrances.”
As does life itself.
Yau rated the conjecture as one of the major mathematical puzzles of the 20th Century. |
Five years have passed; five summers, with the length Of five long winters! |
There is one story and one story only
That will prove worth your telling….
— Robert Graves,
“To Juan at the Winter Solstice”
Exits and Entrances:
Halmos exited on Yom Kippur.
He may or may not achieve
re-entry. For details, see
Log24 entries of Oct. 1-15:
Ticket Home
Related material:
The Unity of Mathematics,
Heisenberg on Beauty, and
Theme and Variations.
“In The Painted Word, a rumination on the state of American painting in the 1970s, Tom Wolfe described an epiphany….”
— Peter Berkowitz, “Literature in Theory”
“I had an epiphany.”
— Apostolos Doxiadis, organizer of last summer’s conference on mathematics and narrative. See the Log24 entry of 1:06 PM last August 23 and the four entries that preceded it.
“… das Durchleuchten des ewigen Glanzes des ‘Einen’ durch die materielle Erscheinung“
— A definition of beauty from Plotinus, via Werner Heisenberg
“By groping toward the light we are made to realize how deep the darkness is around us.”
— Arthur Koestler, The Call Girls: A Tragi-Comedy, Random House, 1973, page 118, quoted in The Shining of May 29
“Perhaps we are meant to see the story as a cubist retelling of the crucifixion….”
— Adam White Scoville, quoted in Cubist Crucifixion, on Iain Pears’s novel, An Instance of the Fingerpost
Compare and contrast:
Click on pictures for details.
"… die Schönheit… [ist] die
richtige Übereinstimmung
der Teile miteinander
und mit dem Ganzen."
"Beauty is the proper conformity
of the parts to one another
and to the whole."
— Werner Heisenberg,
"Die Bedeutung des Schönen
in der exakten Naturwissenschaft,"
address delivered to the
Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts,
Munich, 9 Oct. 1970, reprinted in
Heisenberg's Across the Frontiers,
translated by Peter Heath,
Harper & Row, 1974
"What is it, Major Lawrence,
that attracts you personally
to the desert?"
"It's clean."
Visible Mathematics,
continued —
"The Garden of Eden is behind us
and there is no road
back to innocence;
we can only go forward."
— Anne Morrow Lindbergh,
Earth Shine, p. xii
— Werner Heisenberg,
"Die Bedeutung des Schönen
in der exakten Naturwissenschaft,"
address delivered to the
Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts,
Munich, 9 Oct. 1970, reprinted in
Heisenberg's Across the Frontiers,
translated by Peter Heath,
Harper & Row, 1974
Related material:
(in Arabic, ka'b)
and
It’s that translucence, that light shining through, that brings us to tears, wherever we find it…. As Sidney Bechet put it, ‘You’ve got to be in the sun to feel the sun.'”
— Matt Glaser, Satchmo, the Philosopher,
Village Voice Jazz Supplement,
June 6-12, 2001
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