Art, Light, Darkness and Physics

Art creates its own space - Van Gogh

The hubris-filled assertion of scientific theory is that it is so sophisticated that few can understand it. In fact, history easily demonstrates the limitations of science and scientific direction when it is not guided by inspired and disciplined morality.

Planck’s Constant

Plank’s Constant is not a purely mathematical expression. History explains the Anno Mirabilis, the Year of Miracles and the years of expression by the developers of Quantum Mechanics;

(10 influential figures in the history of quantum mechanics. Left to right: Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Louis de Broglie, Max Born, Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, plus Erwin Schrodinger and Richard P. Feynman).

Before relating the history of matter, of ideation, of quantum mechanics and politics to art and philosophy, I’ll now write a bit about several of the 10, who most influenced the history of quantum mechanics and whose descendants impacted my life and that of my family.?

Quantum mechanics explain the nature of matter with mathematics, a form of expression, as is art. They do not explain the nature of life. Additionally, quantum mechanics explain what Life and Matter are Not, not what they are.?

Wikipedia: Louis Victor Pierre Raymond de Broglie, 7th duc de Broglie; 15 August 1892 – 19 March 1987)[6] was a French?physicist ?and aristocrat who made groundbreaking contributions to?quantum theory . In his 1924 PhD thesis, he postulated the wave nature of?electrons ?and suggested that?all matter has wave properties . This concept is known as the de Broglie hypothesis, an example of?wave–particle duality , and forms a central part of the theory of?quantum mechanics .

The Cave?

Wikipedia: The allegory of the cave, or Plato's Cave, is a story presented as dialogue by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work?The Republic?to compare "the effect of education and the lack of it on our nature". It is written as a dialogue between Plato's brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates, narrated by the latter.

The use of Plato’s allegory of The Cave to explain the nature of life and ideation is further defined by the historical perspective of man’s evolution and devolution. It is plagued with what I call role/goal confusion. It conflates the nature of matter with the nature of Life.?

The Caveman and Cavewoman as proven by the caves of Lascaux and Altamira were capable of art and sculpture:

The cave people used natural rock formations to paint and sculpt their depictions of nature.?

The allegory, the story, like a complex puzzle, is missing an important piece.? Neither the disciples of Plato or the quantum theorists mention women and their contribution to knowledge and art. Voltaire mentioned Emilie du Chatelet; by describing that despite her being extraordinary, her only limitation was that she was not a man. Du Chatelet, among those who conversed with Liebniz in the salons of the Enlightenment, corrected Newton. Her thoughts were promptly sublimated as the society of the time could not conceive of a woman being capable of matching wits with the great Newton.?

Van Gogh, Art and Music

It was van Gogh who developed the idea that?art creates its own space.?

Art, music and architecture are a ubiquitous part of civilization.?

Heisenberg was an accomplished pianist and was inspired by both music and nature. His epiphany occurred while he hiked in the Alps where he conceived of the Heisenberg Principle.?

A full understanding of thought is not attainable without a simultaneous understanding of art, music, literature, history, politics, sculpture, architecture and culture at a particular time in the history of civilization:

Bertold Brecht opined that art is not a mirror, it is not delimited by our conception of who we are in the universe. It is a hammer with which, like the caveman and cavewoman, we sculpt, paint, express and change reality.?

Neil DeGrasse Tyson, a possible descendant of Admiral de Grasse:?

victor of the campaign that won America:

expresses the relationship between thought and education with:

During our brief stay on planet Earth, we owe ourselves and our descendants the opportunity to explore — in part because it's fun to do. But there's a far nobler reason. The day our knowledge of the cosmos ceases to expand, we risk regressing to the childish view that the universe figuratively and literally revolves around us."

The Confinement of Ideas?

Van Gogh’s development of the idea or concept of art as creating its own space, views the Dark of Night:

as contributing as much to inspiration as does the Light of Day.

In Europe, works of art were viewed as political statements. The elite who could afford to buy Jean-Francois Millet’s paintings, initially refused to purchase his Sower;

and the rest of Millet’s art:

because it was perceived as glorifying the common laborer at a time of great political unrest in Europe.?By purchasing art, the privileged also confined the development of ideas to themselves.?As the Chinese say, knowledge is power and the purchasing of art and ideas monopolized power - to the owner. In America, J.P. Morgan created his own library and the Mellons, Vanderbilts and Rockefellers accumulated, gathered and garnered art and music in their home galleries and preserved books, art and music in their own libraries and conservatories. This expresses another great failing of the Age of Mercantilism during which art, music and expression were confined to the wealthy. The Age of Mercantilism confined the aggregation of culture and entrepreneurship to the rich and privileged. The reaction to this accumulation was Marxism, violence and the evolution of Democracy.

The Influence of Culture on Civilization?

One cannot fully understand Civilization, as Kenneth Clark explained in the TV series:

without understanding its art, its architecture, its music, its culture and its faith; what inspires it and the ideology of the time, because, unlike the Uncertainty Principle and superposition, they are inseparable.?

What has all this to do with America? Again education and history guide us to answers.?Our Declaration of Independence was a prescient and forward-looking statement which foresaw much of what would be achieved through the evolution of Democracy. It is an evolutionary achievement realized in part in 1920, when women were allowed to vote, to register property in their own name as Ruth Hall did in 1921.?This was achieved by marching peacefully, just as the independence of India from Great Britain was achieved by the marches of Gandhi and Nehru.?

One man marched in America, in support of the suffrage of women. It was Frederick Douglass:

the most photographed man of his time. Douglass was the only man who marched and spoke throughout the U.S. in support of the rights of women and Blacks. He was beaten near to death, in Indiana, during his travels in America.?

Women achieved the right to vote in 1920; Blacks achieved the right to vote in 1964 and 1965.

Achievement

The evolution of America is reflected in business; in the boardroom, and in cinema, another form of art that exhibits the achievements of humanity:

“Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.”- Jennifer Lee - writer?and director of Frozen and A Twist in Time wrote. Her 13-year old daughter sang “Do you want to build a snowman?” The purpose of leadership in today’s world is to evolve Democracy, in the ruins wrought by demagoguery.?

The Connection?

My sister and I went to elementary school with Carl Broglie, a descendent of?Louis Victor Pierre Raymond de Broglie. Carl, son of Bishop Broglie, said something I never forgot; “There is no such thing as Darkness,” he said, there is only the absence of Light.”