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Requirement:

Your post should be approximately  300-350 words long. Use brief detail/references/examples from the text to back-up your claims. If you are writing about The Siege, the most obvious aspect to consider would be the knowledge gained into the historical and political context of the narrative.

Question:

Does familiarity with literature itself provide knowledge and, if so, of what kind – knowledge of facts, of the author, of the conventions of the form or tradition, of psychology or cultural history, of oneself?

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Literature itself in English is defined as “written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit.” Different literature could have different areas of focus, written in different styles by various authors.  Literature itself is an art form, and the nature of art determines that artworks are created by the personal knowledge of the artist, and aims to provoke personal responses from the audience. The intention of the artist will always be different from the understanding of the audiences. The nature of art makes it similar to history, and human sciences. The similarity is also in the analysis of the subject: one needs to be content with the evidence provided to support their claim.

The kind of knowledge that the literature provides is a shared one, as most of the personal message would not be able to reach the audience. However, through analysis of the texts, one would get a clearer image of the author’s intention. As fictional novels are too, based on facts according to real life, and the accuracy of such knowledge gained is based on one’s faith of the author. The language and the cultural context of the literature also plays a part, and it is the setting of the text, and understanding these background information is very important. One example is that the setting for the story of “The Reader” is pre-WWII and post-WWII, whereas Germany (the protagonist’s country of origin) played an active part. It would be crucial to understanding these factors to understand the retrospection of the Germans of their past.

Although the aim of the author would not be the same as what the audience thought that the author is trying to convey, literature is still able to provide the audience with their personal knowledge. The audience will experience the book by reading it directly themselves, and based on their imagination and emotions, perhaps memories; the response provoked will be different for each.

In different areas of knowledge, the methods of achieving knowledge also depend on the kind of knowledge that one aims to obtain.  Areas of knowledge are classified into 7 sections, and by comparing each section with another, we are able to examine and evaluate the knowledge question “To what extent is “complete certainty” achievable”

In some cases, complete certainty is virtually unachievable. In arts, the construction of art is largely associated with the artist’s emotion and aims to provoke a personal response from the audience. It can be delivered through a large variety of media, and the message that it conveys might be quite different from what the audience’s interpretation. The very nature of arts makes the knowledge obtained from art more personal than the others, therefore complete certainty of the meaning of art is essentially impossible. How can one ever know that Da Vinci is trying to convey through the eyes of Mona Lisa?

In history, ideally one aims to be as objective as possible when describing a historical event. However, this is usually not the case as the writers tend to include bias in their writing, excluding key evidence and information in order to favour their own side, thus history can be very different if viewed from two perspectives. The most accurate history would be if the writing only includes dates and data, but a drawback is that no one could ever understand the coming of the event. If one includes the factors of influence, then the question becomes that how one gets to decide what is important and what should be excluded. The reliability of information obtained from historical writing is limited based on these reasons.

In some cases, the establishment of certain subjects relies on the certainty and justification of the knowledge.  Mathematicians have the concept of rigorous proof, which leads to knowing something with complete certainty. This is because that mathematics relies on deductive reasoning, the process which draws broader conclusions from a narrow statement, which is usually an axiom. Without the axioms, the mathematical system would collapse as axioms are the foundation of how everything works.In mathematics, an equation usually only have 1 or few answers, and the calculations must abide the axioms. If the inner angles of a triangle do not equal to 180 degrees, many other theories based on this axiom would collapse and be proven invalid.

Similarly, natural sciences rely on the absolute certainty of its scientific knowledge to exists. The scientific method is more inductive as scientists first derive a hypothesis from an observation, consolidate it or abandon it after repeated trials of experiments. A hypothesis only becomes scientific knowledge after it has been peer-reviewed and repeated by different scientists, all conducted in a very formal manner. However, the world of science has experienced large paradigm shifts that sometimes completely invalidates previous theories such as the flat earth models after technological advancements. Thus, we regard any current models and theories of science as relative certainty, but not complete.

‘Precision and beauty are the most important concepts when creating an artwork.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Precision and beauty are sometimes not the most important concepts when creating an artwork, depending on the purpose of the artwork. This is because an artwork is the result of the reimagination of one’s personal knowledge, and tend to more emotionally interactive compared to strictly meeting standards of beauty. Standards of beauty are also hard to define as there are many forms and styles of art.  

Some real-life examples can be the different styles of painted art. A very typical example can be Cubism. In this style of art, artists of practice fracture their objects into geometric forms and tend to use contrasting perspectives in a single painting. Cubism artworks are often confusing in the message, and not quite aesthetically pleasing, such as Picasso’s “Weeping Woman”.

Surrealism is defined as a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images. The famous painting by Dali, “Persistence of memory” is a famous painting representing this style.

Another style, impressionism is about trying to capture the atmosphere of the painting rather than accurately drawing out the details.  This contrasts with the assumption of that art is always about precision, but rather in this style, getting the feeling is more important.” Soleil Levant” by Claude Monet is an example.

Many paintings following these styles have been outstanding and iconic of their time, but the artists do not necessarily value precision and beauty in the first place when producing the painting. In fact, most of these paintings might not be considered as beautiful by common eye. These artworks are usually quite personal and require investigation to get the intentions of the artist.

However, some might argue if the reason of producing art is getting a message across, then these two concepts are actually the most important when creating an artwork, as the audience of the artwork might not grasp the author’s intention of creating the work if the message is not certain. As one needs to appreciate an artwork, it should be aesthetically pleasing otherwise it is not considered good art.

People can perceive art differently, and everyone’s understanding of art will never be the same as the author’s original intentions. However, by making the art as accurately and as precise as it can be in real life, everyone will understand its concepts completely.

An example is Realism in arts, which is the attempt to represent subjects matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions. Sketching, the practice of still life drawing can be regarded as examples.

Although this sort of art usually directly depicts the author’s intention, it might be regarded as relatively superficial or has no real meanings at all. This is because the experience or knowledge that is involved in producing the art might be largely shared, thus it could not invoke emotions among viewers.

Therefore, it is generally not advised to look for precision and accuracy in art most of the time, as knowledge is acquired differently in art than other areas of knowledge. Artistic creations are mostly a result of personal knowledge requiring imagination and creativity and often is intended to invoke an emotional interaction with the audience. It is the very nature of art that makes it so hard to understand. Although it usually has a framework for understanding, the audience’s understanding will not always be the same as the author’s aim.

Although John Napier was regarded as the inventor of logarithms, one could also argue that logarithms are simply a result of prior knowledge that has accumulated over centuries. There were several predecessors to logarithms, such as the quarter square multiplication algorithm, a table to calculate the power of multiplications and other things that served a similar purpose. Napier was the one who compiled the rules of logarithms, so it is not accurate to state that he invented the logarithms.

Besides assigned books, I have been reading several books during this half term. I have read a biography of a now-deceased doctor, called “When breath becomes air”.  The words are really beautiful as the speaker draws ideas from classics that he has a passion for.  I got really inspired by the book, as the speaker was a really successful and well-known neurosurgeon, however, his life started going downhill when he got diagnosed with spine cancer. During the last few years of his life, he realized that there is no point of discontinuing what one used to do because one should utilize their time fully even though they could be taken away anytime. It has a really moving ending and it gives me insight into the ways other use to face challenges.

I have also read Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy, but my favorite is the first one “Northen lights”. I get really absorbed by the idea of having a close companion which is like your own consciousness, and I really enjoy the struggle of the protagonist Lyra choosing between her own family and her sense of righteousness. It is particularly heartbreaking when the people are trying to cut the link between Lyra and her companion Pantalaimon, which is considered to be the same as breaking apart of one’s body and mind. Although it is a fantasy trilogy, in my personal opinion it is much darker and more complex than the Harry Potter series as the author also explored themes such as the corruption of authority,  religions, puberty, freedom, and love. Through a series of thrilling adventures across different worlds, Lyra made friends and companions and sometimes was forced to say goodbye to them. By the end of the journey, Lyra transformed from a flimsy girl into a capable and wise teenager. It is a very enjoyable book for me and I would like to re-read it again sometime later.

Recently I have discovered that VSEPR Theory is also in nature, especially in fruits of plants. 

As you can see in the picture, the snowberries that are growing together adopt positions od maximum repulsion in order to maximise their space for growth. Two berries form a linear shape of 180 degrees, while four berries adopt a tetrahedral shape with a bond angle of 109.5 degrees. Three berries form a trigonal planar shape with a bond angle of 120 degrees.

One other fruit example for chemistry includes cherries, as they are known to form twin cherries when the tree is constantly exposed to the sunlight in warm temperatures. This results in fruits that are either “polar”  or “non-polar”.

From second to the left to right:

Polar: A twin cherry with a significantly bigger fruit and one smaller fruit. In chemistry, this is because of the electronegativity difference between the two elements in a bond. An example will be HCl.

Non-Polar: A twin cherry with two fruits approximately the same size. In chemistry, non-polar molecules form either because there is no difference in electronegativity, so there is an equal attraction of electrons or the bond itself is symmetrical so there is no net dipole.

Bibliography:

Brown, Catrin, and Mike Ford. “04 Chemical Bonding and Structure.” Higher Level Chemistry, Pearson Education, 2014, p. 163.

sunflower_nju. “在日本摘樱桃是一种怎样的体验.” 在日本摘樱桃是一种怎样的体验_一边写诗一边旅行-微阅读, Wechat, 22 June 2016, m.viyuedu.com/sunflowernju/13781.html.