Observation and Truth

We live in a world where we have literally just about every piece of information that we could need in the palm of our hands.  (Literally. We all have smartphones).  And not only that, but the information that we can find is usually valid and has some sort of evidence to support it.  This practice of having information that is backed by evidence is a product of the Enlightenment period, which has greatly shaped the world that we live in today.

Before this time period, of course individuals sought growth and learning.  After all, that’s what the Renaissance was all about.  However, it was during the Enlightenment that people started looking for validity in the information flowing around.  

There was a man by the name of Francis Bacon in this time period of the Enlightenment who was known for being a philosopher over the scientific method.  He is well-known for his thoughts regarding observation and truth. He made the following statement

“Man, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in through of the course of nature.  Beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.”


This quote marks a crucial turning point where people began looking to science for answers.  It was no longer as common to accept thoughts and theories without any evidence or observation.  This was a huge leap in progress for the world, and because of it, we have access to so much free flowing information that can be validated through evidence.

Image credit: by Frans Pourbus 

Russia: A Cross Section of Europe

Peter the Great- Tsar of Russia

I have always had an inexplicable fascination with Russia. As early as seventh grade, I found myself drawn to the policies and history of Russia. I guess I always found it confusing as a nation. Something about it seemed so irrevocably stuck in the past, yet simultaneously striving to snag a slice of Western Europe's power pie. It seemed to exist in two states of being concurrently. Until today, I could never quite account for that duality.

During the Renaissance, when there was a surge toward the new and innovative, Russia didn't budge. They clung to their traditions. Rather than returning to their roots to find the future, they stubbornly stayed medieval. Right up until the end of the 17th century, this remained unchanged. Then, Peter the Great took the throne.

Widely regarded as the most beloved leader in Russia's history, Peter the Great was a bridge between Western and Eastern Europe. Unlike previous Tsars, Peter was not only educated at
home with tutors, but went abroad and gained an interest in science and technology. When he returned to Russia, he made a full push to bring his country into the 17th century. He sponsored a generation of scholars to study in Western Europe so that he could cultivate that new learning. He even went so far as to ban certain traditions in Russia, forbidding his courtiers from wearing beards.

As is indicated by their continued love for him, the Russian people appreciated what Peter the Great was trying to do. They loved the western-style city he established- St. Petersburg. However, much of Russia continued to hold on to their traditions. Moving so abruptly from their near-medieval way of life to the end of the Renaissance era was too much for many people, and they stubbornly tried to remain the same.

Thus Russia became, and to a certain extent, continues to be, a link between the old and new in Europe. A perplexing place, where both ways of life coexist. All thanks to the Tsar who dreamed of more for his people, Peter the Great. 

https://www.biography.com/people/peter-the-great-9542228

Sprezzatura in a Suit

I used to work at a high-end custom suit tailor. The inspiration for there style was heavily influenced by European traditional style, specifically stemming from British and Italian tailoring. When I first started I noticed that the staff broke traditional style rules I had already learned. The small blade on their ties were too long, the buttons on their button down cuffs weren't always done up, or their sleeve buttons on their suits were undone.

Assuming my coworkers knew better than I did, I questioned my manager on his smaller tie blade being longer than his big tie blade. His response was gibberish to me: "sprezzatura". Exspressa-what?

After explaining the word's Italian origins, my manager proceeded to explain one of the most fascinating concepts of dressing well that went far beyond the concept of appearance. His smaller tie blade was longer than the bigger one to signal nonchalance. The company that I worked for had a philosophy that the purpose of dressing well was not to appear superior. To them, a man dresses well to prove himself as a well-rounded individual who doesn't require an obsessive amount of effort to have a respectable appearance. Subtle signs of missed details or broken rules express a sense of effortlessness and prove that a man who dresses with sprezzatura knows more about life than how to dress well.

After the discussion with my manager, I studied different European style bloggers to better understand the meaning of the word. I realized sprezzatura is not just a way to dress but a way of life. Beginning with the Renaissance and the rediscovery of the divine individual, people found a new love for learning complicated concepts and discussing them eloquently and effortlessly. People who sought to live with sprezzatura were what we would call a "jack of all trades." Someone who embodies sprezzatura is continually learning and sharing their skills humbly and casually with those they come in contact with.

How can you live with sprezzatura? Start with the way you dress. Research the rules. For both males and females, there are rules associated with the composition of an outfit that are worth knowing. Once you know the rules, break them. Do it casually and with subtleness. After that, find another subject that intrigues you and casually study it. It only takes a touch of sprezzatura before you realize what you are capable of.
   

Vindication? Or Damnation? The Problem with Context

Photo by Flickr user yaili

It may sound a little blasphemous coming from an undergraduate studying English, but the part I love most about studying old literature isn’t actually reading the text. I often feel like I should have spent more time studying history than English because I get so much more out of piece when I understand the historical context.

The problem with that enjoyment, however, is that we as people have a very hard time getting every aspect of the context down when we start looking backwards. Despite carefully kept records and trustworthy accounts, my little problem becomes magnified when we start going back hundreds of years to the Renaissance and try to accurately guess why people wrote and did things. A good example of this to me is the controversial Renaissance writer Niccolò Machiavelli. His notorious writings have stretched down through the ages to gently mold our pop culture and character tropes with an influence akin to the much more recent H.P. Lovecraft. Because of Machiavelli, we have (for better or worse) House of Cards, Game of Thrones, and The Tudors. His works are the bread and butter of political intrigue and sound like a much more ancient, bitter, and cynical version of How to Win Friends and Influence People. 

But, the jury is still out on whether those words are serious or satire. And the debate centers around the context. 

Machiavelli wrote some fairly horrible things that are offensive to an ethical mind, but it doesn’t seem he spent his whole life living them. He was a republican during a time of monarchy who suffered publicly for his attempts to undermine the authority of the ruling Medici’s. There is a strong foundation for a belief that Machiavelli was one of the world’s most incredible satirists and critics of absolute power. We, however, can't be sure because we just don't fully know. 

You can learn more here.  

Da Vinci: Epitome of the Renaissance Man

Leonardo da Vinci was born right at the beginning of the renaissance; perhaps that contributes to his becoming a true renaissance man. He was the illegitimate child of a notary and a peasant girl but nonetheless grew up comfortably in his father’s house reading scholarly texts and learning to paint. He was talented enough to be apprenticed to an artist at 15, and his artistic career took off from there. His paintings, the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper among them, have been greatly admired for centuries. However, this renaissance man’s interests expanded past the creative arts. In fact, his broad interest and study across disciplines contributed to the impressive quality of his paintings.

Shakespeare notes the amazing potential of humankind in Hamlet, writing, “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals.” Shakespeare could almost have been referring to da Vinci in this passage; da Vinci certainly demonstrated how infinite in faculty a human could be, and he certainly expressed his appreciation of the form and action of humans. He extensively studied anatomy, even dissecting corpses to examine how nerves and muscles work. He was also fascinated by physics and the natural world, filling dozens of notebooks with his observations of the natural world and ideas for inventions. There is incredible precision in da Vinci’s works because the artist incorporated his knowledge of the sciences into every detail.

In his Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico della Mirandola discusses how part of what makes humans such high and noble beings is their ability to shape themselves into whoever they want to be. Raised an artist to eventually become a true renaissance man, a welder of the arts and sciences when many would have declared them separate entities, da Vinci certainly carved his own identity. There was so much he wanted to learn, he seldom finished the projects he started, but he was overall content with his accomplishments. This wide scope of genius and dedication to connecting the arts and sciences continue to serve as a testament to the versatility of human achievement.

Chaos vs Order: The Motivation Behind the Voyages

The Renaissance Man. He had effortless style in his dressed, he was well versed in subjects ranging from math to rhetoric, and most importantly he was a sovereign individual. His ancestors lived in a world where sovereignty remained in the hands of the state and it's constituents were born into their destinies as predicated by fate (or the state). After being introduced to sovereignty, the Renaissance Man saw beyond the tyrannical order that bound his ancestor's destinies and followed his natural instinct to explore the chaos of the outside world. He continually waded through the unknown waiting for an idea to grab hold of him. The drive to comprehend and create resulted in the voyages of people like Sir Walter Raleigh and Michel de Montaigne.

Every individual needs order and consistency in their lives to remain sane. But, when order become tyrannical people are tend to either wreak havoc where they are just to have something to put back together, or set off on an adventure to understand and put together all the unknown puzzle pieces outside of their domain. Leaving the tyranny of the Tower of London in search for gold is not just Sir Walter's story, but an archetype of human behavior. While the description of his adventures is not honest, his narrative of their quest into chaos lives on.

Michel de Montaigne lived out this archetypal ideal as well, however seemed to gain more from his journey than just a bedtime story. Montaigne encountered the unknown when he met the "Cannibals." He could have recoiled in the face of so much chaos and labeled them as barbaric like many other voyagers of his day, but instead he had the courage to take one step further into the dark. By taking the time to observe and contemplate the seemingly chaotic traditions of the natives, Montaigne was able to organize all the new information he observed and concluded that the Tupinamba Indians were very similar to the people he new in his homeland.

This level of understanding would not have been possible without the enlightenment that resulted out of the Renaissance. As an individual continually exposes themselves to chaos and makes a sincere attempt to put in comprehensible order, they will move closer to reaching their full potential of Being.