When America dropped atomic bombs on Japanese cities in 1945 human beings were brought face to face with the possibility of total extinction. The atrocity killed around two hundred thousand civilians and was defended by many people of those times as, 'necessary'. Such events might be behind the use of the word 'imperative' in writings of Phillip Romero about the value of art in human survival.
The fossil records show that in the history of our planet plant and animal communities have flourished and then vanished altogether. Not only the Mayan civilization, but also dinosaur remains and plant fossils show how life forms flourish and then fade. Had the economic theories of Karl Marx had any scientific credibility the world might have ended during the twentieth century. Russia and China might have had the economic strength to confront the western world and an ensuing Third world War would have accounted for us all. It would not have been the first time for a species to destroy itself by its own success.
It many have been fortuitous circumstances rather than calculated reason that saved humanity from itself. With the Cold War simmering communist economic theory was found wanting and Russian and Chinese people found themselves impoverished. In the West young people were swept up in a reaction to the horrors of war. They deserted their allies in Vietnam and declared themselves 'flower people', unwilling to fight.
The sixties peace movement was quite sensible in some ways. Young people refused to allow themselves to be used as cannon fodder as their grandparents had been during the First and Second World wars. This was courageous, but many people were not at all courageous or idealistic but simply opportunistic. They saw in the slogans of the time ways to indulge themselves and seek oblivion in drugs and sex.
Large numbers of young people did not grow long hair and beards, stick flowers in their hair or walk about in scruffy robes. Instead they labored at degrees in science, mathematics or commerce. Many of these people associated hippies with the humanities. A general view was that hippies were graduates of humanities courses. These were were soft options that did not require academic rigor or hard work. Art and humanities courses were equated with inferior qualifications, with the letters, BA standing for 'Blow All', or even worse.
Leonardo da Vinci did not see the discrepancy between the sciences and the humanities. He would possibly have been surprised to learn that some people could make a division between the two because for him art and science were simply different aspects of a single approach. There are people who dismiss humanities on the grounds that they do not arrive at the truth by means of scientific method. Such dividing of academic endeavor into discrete divisions can be seen as a kind of restricting bigotry.
Many people believe that the twenty-first century will be the era of the artist. It is not only that science and technology has run its course and come up against the reality of environmental ruin. Beyond that there is wide realization of the need for creativity, for divergent thinking and for freshness in facing economic and scientific challenges.
Phillip Romero is a scientist who has set his mind to discovering the power of art. His writings seem particularly relevant at a point in human history where human beings can no longer depend on war and aggression as a source of scientific inspiration. It is clear that more atomic bombs are not the solution. However, creative solutions are imperative.
The fossil records show that in the history of our planet plant and animal communities have flourished and then vanished altogether. Not only the Mayan civilization, but also dinosaur remains and plant fossils show how life forms flourish and then fade. Had the economic theories of Karl Marx had any scientific credibility the world might have ended during the twentieth century. Russia and China might have had the economic strength to confront the western world and an ensuing Third world War would have accounted for us all. It would not have been the first time for a species to destroy itself by its own success.
It many have been fortuitous circumstances rather than calculated reason that saved humanity from itself. With the Cold War simmering communist economic theory was found wanting and Russian and Chinese people found themselves impoverished. In the West young people were swept up in a reaction to the horrors of war. They deserted their allies in Vietnam and declared themselves 'flower people', unwilling to fight.
The sixties peace movement was quite sensible in some ways. Young people refused to allow themselves to be used as cannon fodder as their grandparents had been during the First and Second World wars. This was courageous, but many people were not at all courageous or idealistic but simply opportunistic. They saw in the slogans of the time ways to indulge themselves and seek oblivion in drugs and sex.
Large numbers of young people did not grow long hair and beards, stick flowers in their hair or walk about in scruffy robes. Instead they labored at degrees in science, mathematics or commerce. Many of these people associated hippies with the humanities. A general view was that hippies were graduates of humanities courses. These were were soft options that did not require academic rigor or hard work. Art and humanities courses were equated with inferior qualifications, with the letters, BA standing for 'Blow All', or even worse.
Leonardo da Vinci did not see the discrepancy between the sciences and the humanities. He would possibly have been surprised to learn that some people could make a division between the two because for him art and science were simply different aspects of a single approach. There are people who dismiss humanities on the grounds that they do not arrive at the truth by means of scientific method. Such dividing of academic endeavor into discrete divisions can be seen as a kind of restricting bigotry.
Many people believe that the twenty-first century will be the era of the artist. It is not only that science and technology has run its course and come up against the reality of environmental ruin. Beyond that there is wide realization of the need for creativity, for divergent thinking and for freshness in facing economic and scientific challenges.
Phillip Romero is a scientist who has set his mind to discovering the power of art. His writings seem particularly relevant at a point in human history where human beings can no longer depend on war and aggression as a source of scientific inspiration. It is clear that more atomic bombs are not the solution. However, creative solutions are imperative.
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