CwHD6
CONVERSATIONS is a new weblog begun
1 May 2017. The target audience, in a broad sense, is anyone with an
active interest in words and language. More specifically, it is a
weblog for wordsmiths.
Each Monday I post anew.
Every four weeks I introduce a new theme. This post marks the start
of the second four week cycle. The theme for the month is AESTHETICS.
Commonly, all postings are a page or so long with the exception of
the fourth when I use a sample of my work that might run three or
four pages.
Starting this Thursday, I
introduce a new feature. Dawg will have his day. Dawg Sez will
provide a brief (usually half page) commentary on some curiosity of
language. The ampersand for example.
AESTHETICS
Aesthetics, curiously, is also spelled
'esthetics'. The Greek 'æ'
creates some confusion. This digraph is used in Latin (and many other
languages) to represent the sound of the dipthong 'ae', and is
usually pronounced like the 'i' in 'fine'.
But not always. Sometimes ... well, nevermind. This CwHD is not about
digrams. It is about aesthetics.
The
artist Barnett Newman defined the term this way: Aesthetics
is for the artist as
Ornithology
is
for the birds.1
Yes, and No. Ornithology leans on science. Aesthetics does not.
Perusing the 1934 Webster's, one finds this definition for the word:
The
branch of philosophy that deals with beauty and the beautiful ... the
sensations and emotions that have the fine arts for their stimulus.
In an essay of some years ago, I argued
that homo sapiens were nothing if not pattern seeking creatures.
We seek what I termed harmonious arrays
(HAs). HAs, of course, relate directly to the beautiful. Beauty by
definition might be considered a harmonious array and, as I noted in
the essay, we often have those aHA moments when arrested by beauty.
If no HA happens, we analyze. This is
science. And we continue to analyze until a workable theorem
presents itself. If our analysis is
fruitless, we despair.
This reasoning has brought me to the
notion that the primary purpose of words and language is to please
both aesthetically and/or intellectually.
A word on arguing logically: repetitive
ideas in phrases are known as tautologies. For example: This is like
deja vu all over again. So said Yogi Berra (former catcher for the
New York Yankees known for his malaprops). 'Beauty' and 'harmonious
array' are similar ideas, but remain distinct. If an argument
contains tautologies, it becomes no argument at all. Here's another
well known example (a cliché,
in fact) also from Yogi: It ain't over 'till it's over.
It's
over.
1
Newman (1952), quoted in: C. Greig Crysler, Stephen Cairns,
Hilde Heynen (2012). The
SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory. p.
123
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