Egg Potential
Egg Potential
Egg Potential

Egg Potential

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A.D. Reader Pt. 2, 108-111
D'ALEMBERT'S DREAM:
d'Alembert's Dream (or The Dream of d'Alembert, French: Le Rêve de d'Alembert) is an ensemble of three philosophical dialogues authored by Denis Diderot in 1769, which first anonymously appeared in the Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique between August and November 1782, but was not published in its own right until 1830

The dialogue opens upon a discussion that Diderot and d'Alembert are having in which Diderot, in arguing for his materialist,monist view of the universe, asserts his belief that sensation is not restricted to sentient beings but is, rather, a quality of all matter. On Diderot's account, sensation is like energy. Energy can exist in a potential state, as when an object is at rest, or, in a kinetic state, as when an object is actually set in motion. Similarly, in Diderot's view, sensation can exist in a potential state (as in nonliving substances) or in an actual state (as in sentient beings.) An example Diderot offers is of marble, which, he claims, if ground up and added to soil, can be converted into nutrients by plants, which may in turn be consumed by humans, and thus made part of a sentient body, thereby actualizing the original marble's potential for sensation. He also offers the example of the molecules that come to make up the sex cells of d'Alembert's mother and father, which then come to form part of d'Alembert's body. Diderot takes the opportunity of this last example to ridicule the notion of pre-existent germs (the notion that the sex cells contain all future generations nested within one another,) advocating instead for epigenesis.

Diderot, propelled by questions from d'Alembert, goes on to explain his materialist conception of thought and memory. He likens the human organs to musical instruments, whose fibers are like sympathetic strings that vibrate in response to one another. A thought causes the vibration of certain fibers, and the vibration of those fibers can cause the vibration of other fibers. This is Diderot's explanation of the association of ideas. Memory is explained by a comparison to a string which continues to vibrate even after other strings have stopped vibrating. Thus both sensation and thought are explained without reference to intervention by any immaterial force.

The dialogue ends as the two friends reach d'Alembert's apartment and bid each other goodnight. 

DIDEROT: Look at this egg: with it you can overthrow all the schools of theology and all the churches in the world. What is this egg? An insensitive mass before the germ is put into it, and after the germ is in it what is it then? Still an insensitive mass, for the germ itself is merely inert and thick fluid. How does this mass evolve into a new organization, into sensitivity, into life? Through heat. What will generate heat in it? Motion.

 

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Magritte's painting Elective Affinities:
The painting depicts the fact that into a person's ideas are hatched concrete world that is enclosed by this external forces. In terms of thermodynamics, 1933 surrealistic painting depicts the relation of free will and the concept of chemical affinity. This theory was introduced by Johann von Goethe, a German polymath. Elective Affinities by Rene Magritte captured rationale behind free will. the essence of this theory, which explained the Although we may feel free, there are instances always or forces that we cannot control. Hence, human beings may feel as though they are caged because of their inability to take full control of the circumstances that occur in their life. These facts of life are encapsulated in this oil on canvas painting by Magritte.

In sociology, the iron cage is a concept introduced by Max Weber to describe the increased rationalization inherent in social life, particularly in Western capitalist societies. The "iron cage" thus traps individuals in systems based purely on teleological efficiency, rational calculation and control. Weber also described the bureaucratization of social order as "the polar night of icy darkness"

BREAK THE IRON CAGE

There is a closely linked distinction in Aristotle between potentiality (suvauis, dynamis) and actuality (, energeia, or , entelechia) Matter exists in a state of potentiality- it has the capacity to become many things which attains actuality when combined with form. The precise relationship between matter, form, potentiality, and actuality has been a source of debate among Aristotle scholars from his earliest commentators in the ancient world to philosophers of the present day.

Lawrence Halprin's RSVP Cycles:
RSVP cycles is a system of creative methodology for collaboration. It was developed by Lawrence Halprin and Anna Halprin. Lawrence Halprin presented the system in a 1969 book The RSVP Cycles: Creative Processes in the Human Environment.(Halprin 1970)

The name is an initialism referring to its four components:

Resources: Anything that can be used in the process, including time, physical materials, other people, ideas, limitations etc.
Score: Instructions for the work. This can be identified along a gradient scale of being an Open or a Closed score.
Valuaction: A process of dynamically responding to the work based on values.
Performance: Setting the work in motion.

Pages from Halprin's Book on COLLECTIVE CREATIVITY:

 

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