83
munity. Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro (1753–1806) is renowned for his colored
wood-block prints, his “floating world” (ukiyõ) poetry and calligraphy, and his pronounced scientific observations of insects, shells, and birds. His fold-out masterpiece A Chorus of Birds (“Momo-chidori kyoka awase”) housed today in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, not only illuminates in alchemical colors
and forms thirty birds with whom the artist was familiar, but the volume also
endeavors to explore what Utamaro named “Fude no Ayamaru,”—“The Brush Goes
Astray”.
39
That lovely depiction of what we could take to mean a brush with illogic
is quite useful. It is its own community within nature, but one that does not obey the
false strictures and obsessions of one particular bipedal, largely carnivorous hominid. This individual, the contingent realities, circumstances, fate within an environment and biography are all matter of conditioning, de-conditioning, or
non-conditioning. Evolution as an assimilated fact had been acceded to by a sufficient bulwark of scientific loyalties even before its rubrics could be corroborated by
genetics, or the advent of psychology, quantum mechanics, or deep learning. So, the
question of conditions by which a cause and consequence come about was only
partly described—conditional clauses of unsubstantiated faith.
8.8 Us?
We still have nothing like a clear understanding of the impacts of the world around
us on human nature. No one agrees on the language to describe human nature, let
alone the principles that guide us. If there even is an us. Or whether twin species
understandings would be better served by a multiplication of possible hybrid beings
and cultures within the vague aegis of what is nominally thought of as Homo sapiens, but may, in fact, be nothing more than a passing vogue ascribed to by evolutionary biologists who all vie with one another, during their brief moments in time, to
excel at a temporarily shared language of description. An embryological/genetic set
of explanations that may be entirely false, given their partiality and severe competition unto itself. These countless unknowns have been discussed within a specific
context, one which Paul Horwich has defined “…a paradox, roughly and superficially, as an assembly of apparently reasonable considerations that engender conflicting inclinations about what to believe, and hence a form of cognitive tension”.
40
39 From Translator’s Note, Utamaro: A Chorus Of Birds, with an Introduction by Juia MeechPekarik, and a Note on kyõka and translations by James T. Kenney, The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, A Studio Book – The Viking Press, New York, 1981.
40 See See Paul Horwich, “The Nature of Paradox” in his book, Truth-Meaning-Reality, Oxford
University
Press,
New
York,
2010,
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:
oso/9780199268900.003.0011. Oxford Scholarship Online, Chapter 2, Published to Oxford
8.8 Us?
munity. Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro (1753–1806) is renowned for his colored
wood-block prints, his “floating world” (ukiyõ) poetry and calligraphy, and his pronounced scientific observations of insects, shells, and birds. His fold-out masterpiece A Chorus of Birds (“Momo-chidori kyoka awase”) housed today in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, not only illuminates in alchemical colors
and forms thirty birds with whom the artist was familiar, but the volume also
endeavors to explore what Utamaro named “Fude no Ayamaru,”—“The Brush Goes
Astray”.
39
That lovely depiction of what we could take to mean a brush with illogic
is quite useful. It is its own community within nature, but one that does not obey the
false strictures and obsessions of one particular bipedal, largely carnivorous hominid. This individual, the contingent realities, circumstances, fate within an environment and biography are all matter of conditioning, de-conditioning, or
non-conditioning. Evolution as an assimilated fact had been acceded to by a sufficient bulwark of scientific loyalties even before its rubrics could be corroborated by
genetics, or the advent of psychology, quantum mechanics, or deep learning. So, the
question of conditions by which a cause and consequence come about was only
partly described—conditional clauses of unsubstantiated faith.
8.8 Us?
We still have nothing like a clear understanding of the impacts of the world around
us on human nature. No one agrees on the language to describe human nature, let
alone the principles that guide us. If there even is an us. Or whether twin species
understandings would be better served by a multiplication of possible hybrid beings
and cultures within the vague aegis of what is nominally thought of as Homo sapiens, but may, in fact, be nothing more than a passing vogue ascribed to by evolutionary biologists who all vie with one another, during their brief moments in time, to
excel at a temporarily shared language of description. An embryological/genetic set
of explanations that may be entirely false, given their partiality and severe competition unto itself. These countless unknowns have been discussed within a specific
context, one which Paul Horwich has defined “…a paradox, roughly and superficially, as an assembly of apparently reasonable considerations that engender conflicting inclinations about what to believe, and hence a form of cognitive tension”.
40
39 From Translator’s Note, Utamaro: A Chorus Of Birds, with an Introduction by Juia MeechPekarik, and a Note on kyõka and translations by James T. Kenney, The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, A Studio Book – The Viking Press, New York, 1981.
40 See See Paul Horwich, “The Nature of Paradox” in his book, Truth-Meaning-Reality, Oxford
University
Press,
New
York,
2010,
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:
oso/9780199268900.003.0011. Oxford Scholarship Online, Chapter 2, Published to Oxford
8.8 Us?