The Pythagopod

In 1967 lecture at Yale Architecture School Anne Tyng discussed integrating the five Pythagorean solids into a single shape and suggested the shape as an architectural solid. Christopher Glass aims to sphere the cube in the manner of Buckminster Fuller, but with reference not only to the engineering models he uses but to the cultural models of the Pythagorean proportions as well. The author has developed computer models of the resulting plan at least two scales: the original glass house and a smaller hermitage pod.     

试析吴宓伦理思想的理论来源及历史局限

吴宓是学衡派的领军人物,贯穿吴宓一生文化思想的是他对传统伦理精神的坚守与弘扬。吴宓认为,政治的根本在于道德,欲救世救国,就必须重塑中国文化传统中具有永恒价值的人伦精神和理想人格,“以人格而升国格”,才能使灾难深重的中华民族得以“重建民族的自尊”。吴宓的伦理思想,以儒家思想为本土资源,又得益于白璧德新人文主义和柏拉图哲学思想,从而使其伦理思想有了浓郁的文化保守主义色彩,有了我们可以把握的基本脉络。     

The Indefinite Dyad and the Golden Section: Uncovering Plato’s Second Principle

Scott Olsen examines the philosophy of Plato to bring to light the nature of Plato’s Second Principle, known as the Indefinite Dyad, sometimes called the Greater and the Lesser, and its relation to the Golden Section, ϕ . He responds to the challenge posed in 1983 by Kenneth Sayre, and explains how the the Indefinite Dyad can be used to derive the square roots of 2 and 3.     

Psycholinguistics and Plato's paradoxes of the Meno.

Considers 2 paradoxes in Plato's Meno: we cannot learn anything unless we already know it; we cannot learn anything new from prior learning. The Platonic epistemology rendered these paradoxes explainable with the doctrines of forms and anamnesis. Contemporary philosophers and psychologists have rejected Plato's solutions in favor of Aristotlean dissolutions of the paradoxes. However, the rise of psycholinguistics and with it the problem of creativity and the recognition of the conceptual primacy of the abstract in epistemology have resurrected the platonic approach. No claims can be made for any advance over Plato's original formulations. Rather, despite 2 millennia of study, virtually nothing has been learned about either the nature of knowledge and its aquisition or the productivity of behavior. (44 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Cinema as Secular Temple: Ethos,Form and Symbolism of the Capitol Theatre

Since the tetraktys is the most important symbol of the Pythagorean school and system, its prominence in the form and decoration of the Capitol Theatre, Melbourne (Australia), suggests that this building was designed in the Pythagorean spirit. The tetraktys encodes the fundamental proportions or harmonies of the musical scale (1:2, 2:3, 3:4) and so one would expect to find these same proportions used in the form and decoration of the Capitol as well as evidence of relevant musical thought and inspiration in the writings of its designers, Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin. Graham Pont explains the significance of the tetraktys in the Pythagorean tradition, identifies the Capitol as a “secular temple” in form and ethos, and indicates possible contemporary influences on the theatre’s remarkable motif of the “Crystal Tetraktys” and other symbolism.