Gothic (ornamentation): * see EndNote<A>

The transition to Gothic is imprecise.  Gothic painting (or ornamentation) emerges 1200, later then Gothic sculpture or architecture.  Painting employed 4 media: frescos, panel paintings, manuscript illumination & stained glass.  Panel painting was especially popular & used for magnificent alter pieces, triptychs, diptychs found in many cathedrals.  Here artists might use gold ground & expensive pigments to produce a flat, gold background.  The colour gold, as a background or in a halo symbolized  purity, royalty & the glory of life after death, an other worldly colour.  Much of this art has a strong flavour of Byzantine hieratic representation even while it is transitioning towards a more natural interpretation.  The Sienese School (13th-15th centuries) & especially Duccio (1255-1318), produced a number of works which clearly echo Byzantine influences.  Such backgrounds were familiar in Byzantine icons.  Only late in the 13th century did artists in Florence and Siena began to explore how space can become a rational, measurable environment (in other words 3D).  Giotto represents this trend which will flower in the Renaissance.

 

Magian (God in Nature):

as represented by alchemy, the Philosopher’s stone, magic, revelation by God, miracles, signs

 

Faustian (God in Nature):

as represented by a search for cause and effect, and the use of mathematics as an analytical tool

 

avowed:

adjective, acknowledged; declared

 

Gothic philosophy (basic problem- primacy of will or reason): * see EndNote<B>

Two schools arose in the 13th & 14th centuries; one emphasized omnipotent divine Will, the other the power of Reason.  They represent the high tide of scholasticism.  Universities developed & monastic orders began competing for their control.  The debate over Will and Reason was part of this competition.  It pitted Thomism against theological voluntarism.

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rationalism (late Baroque):

The Baroque period extended onto the 1740s & saw the beginning of the Enlightenment (1687 to 1789).  The publication of Newton's Principia Mathematica (1687) was the first major work of this period.  This intellectual & philosophical movement dominated the world of ideas in Europe.  It embraced a range of concepts centred on the sovereignty of reason & the evidence of the senses (empiricism) as the primary sources of knowledge (rather than authority or the Bible).  Science played a vital role; many Enlightenment writers & thinkers had backgrounds in the sciences.  Embedded within Enlightenment science was the ideal of advancement & progress.  Scientific advancement was associated with the overthrow of religion and traditional authority. 

 

Kant (Goddess Reason):

In the 1780s the Enlightenment was reaching a crisis.  The advancements of science were based on a mechanistic view of the Universe & nature.  This view undermined belief in human free will.  The Critique of Pure Reason is Kant’s response to this crisis.  Its main topic is metaphysics because, for Kant, metaphysics is the domain of reason.  His goal is to show that a critique of reason by reason itself, unaided and unrestrained by tradition or authority, can establish a secure & consistent basis for both Newtonian science and traditional morality and religion.  In other words, free rational inquiry adequately supports all of these essential human interests and shows them to be mutually consistent. So reason deserves the sovereignty attributed to it by the Enlightenment.

 

the Jacobins (Goddess Reason):

aka The Jacobin Club, organizations growing out of the French Revolution famous for its left-wing, revolutionary politics; it was closely allied to the sans-culottes, a popular force of working-class Parisians who played a pivotal role in the revolution.  Jacobins had a significant presence in the National Convention, and were dubbed "the mountain" for their seats in the uppermost part of the chamber.  In 1793-94 the Revolution coalesced around them. led by Robespierre & aided by the sans-culottes they established a revolutionary dictatorship ( via the Committee of Public Safety and Committee of General Security).  The Cult of Reason emerged from this episode; it was France's first established state-sponsored atheistic religion (intended to replace Catholicism).  Lasting only a year, in 1794 it was officially replaced by the rival Cult of the Supreme Being.

 

Nietzsche (on Will): * see EndNote<C>

The will to power (German: der Wille zur Macht) is a prominent concept in Nietzsche.  It describes what he believed to be the main driving force in humans although he never systematically defined the term,  Schopenhauer (whom he first read in 1865) had great influence on Nietzsche.  Schopenhauer emphasised will & especially the "will to live".  He explained that the universe & everything in it is driven by a primordial will to live, resulting in the desire of all living creatures to avoid death & to procreate.  This is the most fundamental aspect of reality , more fundamental even than being. 

 

Voluntas superior intellectu:

Latin, meaning will is superior to understanding

 

Schopenhauer ("World as Will and Idea,"): * see EndNote<D>

central work of Schopenhauer, published 1818; 2nd volume appeared 1844(commentary on original ideas); a final edition was published 1859.  The pinnacle of his philosophical thought, he spent the rest of his life refining, clarifying, and deepening the ideas presented in this work without any fundamental changes.   Neither edition met with acclaims; only in 1851 did he begin to see recognition.

 

Schopenhauer (his ethic):

In his On the Basis of Morality (1840) Schopenhauer outlines his ethics.  Morality is based exclusively on compassion.  Only insofar as any action was based on compassion (concern to alleviate the suffering of others) does it have moral value; every action resulting from any other motives has none.  Compassion is not egoistic because the compassionate person does not feel different from the suffering person or animal even though the sufferer is experienced as an external being.  The compassionate will identify themselves with the other man, and in consequence the barrier between the ego and the non–ego is for the moment abolished.

 

Schopenhauer (his metaphysics):

the world as a whole has 2 sides: the world is Will and the world is representation. The world as Will is the world as it is in itself, which is a unity, and the world as representation is the world of appearances, of our ideas or objects, which is a diversity.  Thus we have the world as 2 distinct things, as reality (the inner world), as appearance (the outer world).  Will (or the world as it is in itself) is an endless striving & blind impulse with no end in view, devoid of knowledge, lawless, absolutely free, entirely self-determining & almighty.  There is no God to be comprehended, the world is inherently meaningless & beyond good and evil.

 

Crusades:  

the Crusades lasted from 1095 to 1229, triggered by Pope Urban’s call (1095) to rescue the Holy Lands  (Jerusalem, Israel) from the Islamic world.  Given the communication & infrastructure of the 11th century, given the might of the ancient Islamic world & the relative weakness & division of Europe, his request appears unreasonable.  The crusaders, pilgrims, motivated by ferocious religious devotion, had no permanent forces or centralized leadership.  Nonetheless, in1098 the first Crusade captured Jerusalem & established the Crusade state, although in subsequent years these gains were lost, Jerusalem fell in 1244.

 

Hohenstaufen empire: * see EndNote<E>

aka Hohenstaufen dynasty, German; dynasty, ruled the Holy Roman Empire 1138-1208 and 1212-54.  They aimed to establish a dynasty while uniting the Empire with N. Italy.  They signally failed to establish a strong central authority in Germany, likewise they failed to link Sicily with the Holy Roman Empire or defeat the popes in their protracted struggle.  After Conrad (1250-54) the Hohenstaufen line ended.  The Holy Roman Empire entered a long period of decline from which it did not completely recover until the reign of Charles V, 250 years later.

 

cathedrals:

An prominent characteristic of the Gothic cathedral is the progressive increase in absolute height as measured from the interior nave.  The move to verticality drove Gothic architects to test the limits of their technology.  As the height grew an increasing proportion of the wall was devoted to windows, until, by the late Gothic, the interiors became like cages of glass.  Beauvais Cathedral reached the limit of what was possible with Gothic technology.  Her nave achieved 48.5 meters however only the transept and choir were completed.  No cathedral built since exceeded the height of the choir of Beauvais.  In 1284 a portion of the choir collapsed, causing alarm in all of the cities with very tall cathedrals.

 

Faustian( soul image): * see EndNote<F>

Spengler provides a brief psychological profile of the Faustian Soul.