[Fis] Book Presentation. The Interpersonal domain. Good Dualism and Bad Dualism

Thu Apr 28 08:59:10 CEST 2022

Pedro has written:

Beyond philosophical nuances, one of the most intriguing aspects of art 
would concern its relationship with the intellectual & cultural ethos of 
each epoch.

Art, stemming from inner drives of almost unfathomable origins, seems to 
provide a compensation for some of the absences in the daily life of 
citizens (a mostly urban phenomenon).

The observer, or listener, gets some of the intellective/emotional 
contents emitted by the art producer, and that's satisfying for the 
permanent search for novelty that characterizes our species in civilized 
life regimes.

Your polysemic use of "contrast" is well adapted to discuss the above, I 
think, both in the art object and in the receiver whole appreciation.

Since the answer to Pedro's question is not easy, I will divide it into 
several steps. First, I will try to introduce a deeper understanding of 
the concept of contrast.

Contrast understood as interaction of common and different features of 
objects goes far beyond its current understanding - as a contradiction 
or a big difference. Contradiction and difference take into account only 
extremes of one feature, e.g. hot-cold, dark-bright, big-small, which 
falsifies the image of reality (because there are no objects having only 
one feature) and makes these concepts completely useless as tools of 
analysis.

Contrast understood as tension also takes into account interaction of 
all features of objects, also qualitatively different, e.g. direction 
and colour or size and shape can create contrast (tension). It is 
currently believed that these features, e.g. size and colour, are 
incomparable, do not have a common connecting element and therefore do 
not create contrast. However, the truth is that all objects known to us 
have more features through which they connect to other objects of 
reality (because they are no isolated) which should also be taken into 
account. In a contrast that takes into account more features, the 
connecting role is played by other features (in common) of the 
contrasting objects. In Figure 1a the connecting role of "shape" 
(triangle) and "size" (big circle) is played by the feature of their 
"isolation" (standing out from the background), in Figure 1b the 
connecting role of “direction” (inclined rectangle) and “colour” (darker 
rectangle) is played by the features of their shape and size.

*ab*

**

**

*Figure 1*. In Figure 1a, the connecting role of "shape" and "size" is 
played by the feature of "isolation", in Figure 1b the connecting role 
of “direction” and “colour” is played by the features of shape and size.

Contrast, understood in this way, is linked to other fundamental issues 
e.g. *development.* The common features unite the contrasting objects 
into a new structure possessing the features of those objects, so 
contrast can be identified with development. A similar general view one 
can find in Whitehead’s cosmology (Whitehead 1978).

Another important association is with the intuitive criterion of 
complexity, which is formulated as follows: *the complexity of an 
object/structure is greater the more elements can be distinguished in it 
and the more connections there are between them* (Heylighen 1999). If we 
replace "connections" with "common features" and "distinguishable 
elements" with "differentiating features", we get a definition of 
contrast. *Thus, we can also equate contrast with complexity. *

Best regards
Mariusz

W dniu 2022-04-26 o 14:20, Pedro C. Marijuan pisze:
> Dear Mariusz,
>
> Beyond philosophical nuances, one of the most intriguing aspects of 
> art would concern its relationship with the intellectual & cultural 
> ethos of each epoch.
> Art, stemming from inner drives of almost unfathomable origins, seems 
> to provide a compensation for some of the absences in the daily life 
> of citizens (a mostly urban phenomenon).
> The observer, or listener, gets some of the intellective/emotional 
> contents emitted by the art producer, and that's satisfying for the 
> permanent search for novelty that characterizes our species in 
> civilized life regimes.
> Your polysemic use of "contrast" is well adapted to discuss the above, 
> I think, both in the art object and in the receiver whole appreciation.
>
> The curious point is that the historical evolution of art becomes a 
> fascinating mirror of social evolution itself. Thinking on Western art 
> (classic, medieval, renaissance, neoclassic, modern...), how contents 
> and styles have been evolved with the mentality of each epoch.... 
> Reminding about "media", It would echo what McLuhan was saying about 
> means of communication: every new media alters the psychic equilibrium 
> and forces a mental readaptation of the individual within the whole 
> communication mosaic.
>
> Coming to our times, How far could go the present "deconstruction" of 
> art, seemingly reduced to presentation of brute "novelty"?
> Is there a way back to art contents satisfying the appetite  for 
> intellective/emotional contents?
>
> To complicate things for the worse, some portions of "public art" seem 
> to have been swallowed by the superultimate "cancelation culture".
> Is there anything left uncensored of the cultural & artistic past?
>
> I will appreciate your comments & opinions --and of the list colleagues,
> Best--Pedro
>
> El 26/04/2022 a las 9:41, Mariusz Stanowski escribió:
>>
>> Dear Joseph,
>>
>> Thank you for your clarification, however I was only referring to 
>> Cartesian dualism.
>> You also write that "the best art is neither totally realistic or 
>> abstract but has features of both".
>> My understanding is that there is no absolutely abstract or realistic 
>> art at all. In the history of
>> art we had both realism (Courbet) and abstractionism (Kandinsky).
>>
>>
>> Best regards
>> Mariusz
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> W dniu 2022-04-24 o 16:06, joe.brenner at bluewin.ch pisze:
>>> Dear Mariusz,
>>>
>>> Please let me try this first rapid response, without re-presenting 
>>> my entire approach. I understand your desire to avoid dualism, but 
>>> dualism is a part of physics, of our world. There is thus "bad" 
>>> dualism, which brings in invidious distinctions and separations. 
>>> "Good" dualism  recognizes the fundamental difference between what 
>>> is (primarily) actual and (primarily) potential, as well as the 
>>> movement from one to the other, and between many other real pairs.
>>>
>>> In my logic, ontological and epistemological entities are in any 
>>> event not totally distinct, but /some/ share /some/ of one another's 
>>> properties, as do parts and wholes and so on, without conflation.
>>>
>>> The dualism of electrostatic charge and magnetic polarity are real 
>>> and influence the way we exist and feel neurologically, and 
>>> cognitively. Another example is what is called colloquially "up" and 
>>> "down" nuclear spin, and there is some thought that some sub-atomic 
>>> particles are self-dual. I have even suggested that a form of 
>>> self-duality may exist at cognitive levels of reality.
>>>
>>> As I stated above, the best art is neither totally realistic or 
>>> abstract but has features of both. Perhaps the best strategy is to 
>>> keep an open mind on the subject or perhaps, like some sets, a 
>>> closed-open (clopen) mind.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Joseph
>>>
>>>     ----Message d'origine----
>>>     De : stanowskimariusz at wp.pl
>>>     Date : 24/04/2022 - 10:52 (CEST)
>>>     À : fis at listas.unizar.es
>>>     Objet : Re: [Fis] Book Presentation. The Interpersonal domain
>>>
>>>     Dear Joseph,
>>>
>>>     You've written: "such as information processes, has both an
>>>     ontic and an epistemic component"
>>>
>>>     If we introduce a distinction between ontic and epistemic then
>>>     we are assuming a dualistic view in advance, which, for example,
>>>     I am not in favor of.
>>>
>>>     Best regards
>>>
>>>     Mariusz
>>>
>>>
>
> -- 
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> Pedro C. Marijuán
> Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
> pedroc.marijuan at gmail.com
> pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es
> http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
>
> Editor special issue: Evolutionary dynamics of social systems
> https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/biosystems/special-issue/107DGX9V85V
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