Monday 13 July 2009

About Ontology


The term of Ontology refers to 'the plea of being' from a philosophical and religious perspective. It studies the nature and essence of beings: what really exists and everything that has substance. Religion, Biology and Genetics, Philosophy, Metaphysics and Phenomenology are the branches of philosophy which are related to Ontology. Especially, metaphysics is the sector of philosophy focalizing on “epekeina”. The meaning of Greek word “epekeina” refers to what people could not be aware of, by mere experience.

According to Aristotle Metaphysics takes the meaning of ‘After the natural’ or the ‘First Philoshophy’. It concentrates on principles like the universal rules and reality, the elements of nature, the foundations of the world, the limits of reality, etc. Some basic questions are: what is the reality’s as well as the world’s ultimate or primary nature? This issue focuses primarily on 'ontology. It talks about things, the importance of the last form and substance of the world, the conditions of existence (space, time) and the primary relations amongst beings (causality, need, etc.).

Total phenomenology restores Philosophy’s primal meaning as a universal science according to its Platonic and Cartesian meaning. In other words phenomenology is that kind of philosophy which includes the authentic knowledge. Divided in First Philosophy (universal ontology or phenomenology), and Second Philosophy which concerns the universal science of facts. The First Philosophy consists of the totality of those methods that Second Philosophy relies on, while methodologically it is authorized by itself.

PLATONAS (PLATO)

For Plato Art is the ability to do something that requires extraordinary skill and expertise, capacity requiring some knowledge of achieving a goal. Two main types of arts: a: «possessive» (such as obtaining money) b: «poetic» (producing something that did not exist previously).

Especially productive or «Poetic» arts are known by:

1) The creation of something new

2) The use of any materials \ tools

3) The union of those instruments and their transformation

4) A skill or a set of skills

5) Some kind of knowledge

6) Specific purpose (the artist follows a plan)

Imitation

1. Type / Form

2. Physical / material objects

3. Imitation / representation of art

The form of an object is « that object’s nature», the ideal situation, which indicates its perfect operation. Unlike material bodies being perishable and varied, form is eternal and unified: It consists of the essential, fundamental characteristics of a species, which exist in super-natural world (which Plato considers the only and real one).

Beauty (the good, that we are pleased to watch)

As properties or criteria of beautiful: 1) Regarding to complex things, a harmonious combination of the parts with the whole like the ideal proportions, the balance or opposition that gives in its entirety a dynamic calm or plenitude and completeness. To sum up analogy and symmetry could be the basic elements of any harmonious combination. 2) Those who concern the simple things – p.e. the unmixed colours, it should they have unit, simplicity, regularity.

According to Plato the perfection of the world resembles the unparalleled beauty of these rules polyhedrosis.

According to Plato’s philosophy the world is based on five basic elements. These elements are: fire, air, water, ground and universe. Every single one of these elements matches with a normal convex polyhedral recordable on a globe. Every seat is a normal polyhedrosis polygons. Every edge has equal length and every angle is solid and flat respectively amongst equal. There are no more than five polygons like those such as the tetrahedron, the octahedron, the icosahedron the cube and dodecahedron.

• The tetrahedron symbolizes fire.

• The octahedron symbolizes the air.

• The water symbolizes icosahedrons.

• The cube symbolizes the Earth.

• The dodecahedron symbolizes the Universe.

For instance the tetrahedron, the octahedron and icosahedron are consisted of the same equilateral triangles. The exaedro is consisted of equal squares and finally the dodecahedron is normally consisted of the same pentagon.

The five platonic solids are known up to this year, just because Plato’s formation of the material universe depends on them. Many years after, during the Renaissance, John Kepler (1571-1630) in 1596 published his work «Cosmology Mystery» which proposes a model of the universe based on solids of Plato. This time, just six planets were also known. Kepler notes that the spheres are consisted of the Platonic solids. Saturn is for the cube, Jupiter is for the tetrahedron, Mars is for the dodecahedron, Venus is for the icosahedrons and Mercury is for the octahedron. The Earth, which is presented as the image of God, serves as a divider between both of these groups of solids.

Maria-Tereza Tzelepaki

Student of Athens School of Fine Arts

References

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWY7kiHMKLk (20 June 2009)

www.thalesandfriends.org / gr / images / marina / parrot / sterea.doc (25 June 2009)

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ArchimedeanSolid.html (25 June 2009)

http://www.skepdic.gr/Entries/Omikron/ontologia.htm (11 June 2009)

Course-Notes: «Introduction to philosophy and aesthetics I», Academic year 2007-8, Instructor: Foteini Zikas.

M. C. Beardsley, History of aesthetic theories, Nefeli 1989 Go: Dimosthenis Kourtovik, Pavlos Christodoulides.

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