William Blake

 Poet's Datebook: William Blake

 

Brief Biography of William Blake. English poet, artist and printmaker of the Romantic Movement.   

 

William Blake was a poet, painter, engraver, mystic and visionary. He is best-known for Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794), and recognized as one of the most original and important English poets. He used his famous process of illuminated printing to illustrate his poems. 

 

Early Life of William Blake

Blake was born on November 28, 1757, in London, England, the son of a simple tradesman. Aged four, he told his parents that he saw God put his head in the window. He never attended school but despite this he acquired a wide knowledge of languages, the Bible and English poetry. In his early teens he was apprenticed to an engraver, from whom he learned the skills that were to earn him his living.

 

Spiritual, Mystic and Visionary

Blake was an intensely spiritual man. Many people thought he was insane, having claimed to see objects ordinarily unseen or inanimate objects move. He had visions of angels and ancient figures from the Bible. He nurtured the belief that imagination should be encouraged as an important human experience. 

In his writing, as well as in his engravings, Blake broke all the conventions of his time as he searched for imaginative originality. This is not surprising as he lived in the Age of Enlightenment, born a year after the child prodigy Wolfgang A. Mozart.

 

Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience

His most famous collections of poems, Songs of Innocence, published when he was 32, and Songs of Experience, published five years later, are simple and honest expressions of spiritual and emotional feelings, yet tenderly beautiful. They include some of his best-loved poems, such as 'The Tyger' and 'The Rose.'

 

Later Years

Blake concentrated on a series of poetical works known as the Prophetic Books later in his life. He sketched out the whole history and future of humanity, using an invented mythology inspired by the Holy Bible. As with his earlier books, they were not popular and earned him virtually no money that time. Only his work as an illustrator was respected in his day.

 

Final Years

After 1818, Blake did not write anything but created some of his greatest illustrations for editions of Dante's Divine Comedy and the biblical Book of Job. He died at the age of 69, on August 12, 1827. 

 

A lovely, haunting well-known quote by William Blake:

"To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."

 

William Blake Work

Poetical Sketches, 1783

An Island in the Moon, 1784

Songs of Innocence, 1789

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, c. 1790-1793

Songs of Experience, 1794

The Book of Urizen 1794

The Four Zoas, 1797

Milton, c. 1804-1808

Jerusalem, c.1804-1820

 

Resources:

Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Ian Ousby (1993)

Chambers Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Edinburgh. Chambers Harrap, 2002

Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring. New York: Larousse, 1994

 

(Note: I originally wrote & published this piece for Suite101.com, December 7, 2008. / Tel) 

 

(c) 2010. Updated November 28, 2021. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.  

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Philosophy / Philosophers Datebook: June 28

 

Brief biography of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a leading philosopher and writer of the 18^th century Age of Enlightenment and period of Romanticism, known for The Social Contract and Emile, or Treatise on Education.

 

 

 

Jean Jacques Rousseau, Swiss leading philosopher of the Enlightenment and a writer, pioneer of the Romantic Movement in continental philosophy.  He is famous for his books The Social Contract and Emile, (or Treatise on Education, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, and Confessions).  

Early years

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712, in Geneva, Switzerland, the son of a watchmaker. When his mother died at his birth, his father hardly showed any interest in him. Aged 16, he ran away from Geneva and wandered around Europe until his late 20s. He was taken in the private care of a Madame de Warens where he took to reading, study and eventually after few years got a job as secretary to the French Ambassador in Venice.

Rousseau became acquainted with the leading writers and celebrities of the time including Voltaire and Denis Diderot, who was chief editor of the Encyclopedia that time. Through Diderot, Rousseau received work writing for the encyclopedia that began to appear in 1751.

Despite his success as a writer, he only started his first book when he was nearly 40 years old. He fell out with almost everyone upon his publication of The Social Contract, including the Government of France, the Protestants and Catholics, and with Madame Françoise-Louise de Warens, who had become his mistress by this time. He even quarreled with his one-time friend, David Hume in England. 

 

 Rousseau Philosophy: The Social Contract and the General Will

The Social Contract starts with the famous opening line: “Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.” In this work, he provides a blueprint for the ideal society, in contrast to his earlier books, Emile and The Origin of Inequality. Rousseau envisions a liberated society. He argues that when people live in social groups, their freedom to follow their own interests must be limited to the general will of the group to which they belong. He further claims that injustice is a result of institutions or the so-called “civilized” group of people (society) which suppress or corrupt the natural will and ability of men.    

Rousseau also introduces the “general will” which he defines as the will of all those directed to their own common interests and distinct from “the will of all” which is merely the consolidation of individual selfish wills.

The general will, however, appears to generate a force that is greater than the sum of its parts. What is often missing in the interpretation is the way he sees it: there can be no disharmony between the interests of the sovereign and that of the people, since by definition, the sovereign is constituted from the people.  This is most unlikely.

Insight to Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau is one of the outstanding figures of French literature and philosophy. A contemporary of Voltaire, he lived during the Age of Enlightenment, with its social upheavals and romanticism. In his philosophy and writings, he discusses political philosophy and believes the environment has a great part in shaping people and society. The Social Contract of Jean-Jacques Rousseau inspired the French Revolution with its famous catchphrase "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité." 

He died at the age of 66, July 2, 1778. 

 

Photo Credit:

Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain. (Painted portrait). Unknown source.  

 

Resources:

Clark, John, Ed. Illustrated Biographical Dictionary. London: Chancellor Press, 1994

McGovern, Una, Ed. Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers, Harrap Publishers, 2002

Stokes, Philip. Philosophy: The Great Thinkers. London: Arcturus Publishing, 2007

 

(c) June 2020. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Sören Kierkegaard

Great Philosophers Datebook: May 5

 

Brief biography and philosophies of Danish Philosopher Sören Kierkegaard, father of Existentialism, known for the “leap of faith” and the book, Either/Or.

"To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner. Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner, put yourself in his place so that you may understand what he understands and the way he understands it." - Søren Kierkegaard

Sören Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a Danish philosopher considered the father of Christian existentialism and a great influence to Sartre.  His writings fall into three periods – the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. As founder of Christian existentialism, he believed that God is known only by a “leap of faith,” which is a leap into the eternal and irrational.

 

Born on May 5, 1813, in Copenhagen where he spent all his life, Sören Kierkegaard was the seventh and last child. His father was a wool merchant who at first cursed God, but later in life, had a pietistic faith as he contemplated Christ’s sufferings. It was his father’s faith that had a deep effect on Sören and how he viewed the world.      

In 1830, he entered the University of Copenhagen, where he studied philosophy, theology and literature. On his mother’s death four years later, he decided to move away from home, he thought the only way he’ll know what to do with his life was to know himself.  He worked as a Latin teacher, and when his father died in 1838, the money he inherited was enough to keep him independent all his life.

Kierkegaard’s Philosophies on Aesthetics, Ethics and Religion  
    

Kierkegaard was engaged to Regine Olsen, but broke the relationship, devoting himself to writing instead.  Fearing the ethical commitment of the institution of marriage, he remained a scholarly bachelor. He considered marriage and domestic responsibility incompatible with philosophical tasks.

His earliest and first significant work, On the Concept of Irony, (his 1841 dissertation), proved a masterful criticism of the philosophy of George W. Hegel, in which he attacked philosophical system building.  Instead, he formulated the thesis that subjectivity is truth. He argued that each individual has the freedom to choose his own truth on the subjective basis of faith.  His main point was the belief in a person’s immortality. This was in conflict with Hegel who created the “Absolute Spirit” that denies the personality of God.      

On religious belief, Kierkegaard held this to be a matter of passion not reason, that even when a person might indulge in proof of God’s existence, the way of Aquinas or Anselm, it has nothing to do with belief in God as an intellectual exercise, but rather a choice to believe in God passionately. 
    

Kierkegaard’s Final Years

In later years, his personality became a target of attack, both in satirical magazines and in public ridicule. In 1848, he had spiritual crisis and started to ponder on death. He also held a sermon at the cathedral. In his last few years he published a series of articles, some under a pseudonym, and compiled them as Attack Upon Christendom. 

Kierkegaard was stricken with a spinal disease and died on November 11, 1855. He was 42.  He deeply affected theologians and Existential philosophy in the second quarter of the 20th century. Like Nietzsche, Kierkegaard was lonely and neurotic. He opposed all strict philosophical constructions, and hid his thoughts under pseudonyms. A prolific writer, he published some thirty books.

Books by Sören Kierkegaard

Either/Or, 1843

Repetition, 1843

Fear and Trembling, 1843

Stages on Life’s Way, 1845

The Concept of Dread, 1844

Concluding Unscientific Postscript, 1846   


Photo Credit:

S. Kierkegaard. In Public Domain.
Sketch of Søren Kierkegaard. Based on a sketch by Niels Christian Kierkegaard (1806-1882).
Copyright expired as artist died more than 70 years ago. (Accessed:  May 5, 2017)

 
Resources:
 

Clark, John, Ed. Illustrated Biographical Dictionary.  London: Chancellor Press, 1994

McGovern, Una, Ed. Biographical Dictionary, Edinburgh: Chambers, 2002
Soren Kierkegaard. en.wikipedia.org 

Stokes, Philip.  Philosophy: The Great Thinkers. Capella, 2007  

Note: This abridged piece was originally written for Suite101.com (now close) August 9, 2010.

(c) May 2010. Updated May 5, 2017. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Molière Life and Works

Writers Datebook: January 15

Playwright and Actor, Greatest Writer of French Comedy     

Brief biography of dramatist and actor Moliere, considered greatest master of French comedy, famous for Tantruffe and Le Misanthrope.

Molière was a French playwright and actor considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature. Among his best-known dramas are Le Misanthrope, (The Misanthrope), L'Ecole des femmes (The School for Wives), Tartuffe au l'Imposteur, (Tartuffe or the Hypocrite), L'Avare au l'École du mensange (The Miser), Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (The Bourgeois Gentleman).

Early Life of Molière

Molière was the pen name of Jean-Baptisete Poquelin, one of the greatest French comedy writers. He was born on January 15, 1622, in Paris, the son of a wealthy upholsterer. He had a strict upbringing at a Jesuit school. Despite qualifying as a lawyer, he never practiced law. His first love was the theatre, and at the age of 21 he formed a theatre company with a group of friends. They toured France for a number of years before coming to the attention of King Louis XIV, who gave them a permanent theatre.

Life as a Playwright

Molière had his first major success as a playwright at the age of 40, with The School for Wives. The play poked fun at the limited education that was given to daughters of rich families, and it was the first of what are generally regarded as a series of masterpieces. His comedies ranged from broad slapstick comedy to subtle satire. He almost always acted in the lead role himself, as he firmly believed that there was 'no comedy without truth, and no truth without comedy.'  

He made fun of anyone he thought was dishonest, and because of his satires, he often found himself in trouble especially from moralists – two of his plays, The Impostor and Don Juan, were banned. His plays - Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur (Tartuffe or the Hypocrite), for its attack on religious hypocrisy received condemnations from the Church, while Don Juan was banned from performance.

Later Years of Molière

Molière's hard work in the theatre began to take its toll on his health and, by 1667, he was forced to take a break from the stage. He concentrated on writing musical comedies later in his life. In these plays the drama was interrupted by songs and dance or a combination of both.

Final Years

While performing in the production of  Le Malade Imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), who suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, was taken ill. He died in the same day on February 17, 1673. After his death the theatre group Comédie Française was formed to promote his works. They still enjoyed by modern theatre goers throughout the world.     

Books by Molière

The School for Wives, (L'Ecole des femmes), 1662

The Impostor, (Tartuffe au l'Imposteur), 1664

Don Juan, 1665

The Misanthrope, (le Misanthrope),1666

The Doctor in Spite of himself, 1666

Tartuffe, (a revised version),1667

The Miser, (L'Avare au l'École du mensange), 1668

George Dandin, 1668

The would-Be Gentleman, 1670

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (The Citizen Turned Gentleman), 1672

The Imaginary Invalid, (Le Malade imaginaire), 1673

 

Image Credit:

Moliere. Wikipedia / Public Domain.

 

Resources:

1. Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers, 2002

2. Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, Larousse, 1994   

 

Note: I first published this piece in August, 2008, written for Suite.com (now close).     

(c) January 2010. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.    

The Game theory of Von Neumann, Morgenstern and Nash

The Game Theory of Von Neumann, Morgenstern and Nash

The game theory is a mathematical method of analyzing strategic behaviour of people when placed in competitive situation. The scientists behind it are John Von Neumann, Oskar Morgenstern and John Nash, Jr.

The Game Theory in a Nutshell
According to the game theory, all games have three things in common:

• rules,
• payoffs, and
• strategies.

Games include zero-sum games (when each player benefits at the expense of others), non-zero-sum games, co-operative games (when people can make bargains), and games of complete information.
The game has an equilibrium referred to as the “Nash equilibrium”, coined after the American mathematician, John Nash, Jr. It is a solution concept that maximizes everyone’s benefit.

Maria Montessori

 Humanities  / Great Thinkers Datebook:  August 31

 

Brief biography of Maria Montessori, Italian educator, physician and humanitarian. Traces her early life and later her influences, leading to the famous Montessori method of teaching she pioneered.

Maria Montessori is renowned for Montessori Method of teaching which emphasizes educating young children through self-expression. Of her method, she believed that,  "… The fundamental principle of scientific pedagogy must be, indeed, the liberty of the pupil – such liberty as shall permit a development of individual, spontaneous manifestation of the child's nature."

 

Early Life of Maria Montessori

Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori was the first Italian woman to receive a Doctor of Medicine degree in University of Rome (1894). She was born on August 31, 1870, an only child of an army officer turned civil servant and an educated and well-off mother. As a pupil in a public school, she won awards for good behavior and "women's work," meaning cooking and sewing. Already at a young age, she was outspoken, independent-mined and showed leadership quality. Although she was not necessarily a brilliant student, she was studious and did well in exams.

It was her mother who encouraged young Maria academically and at 12 years old, she attended a technical school that included French, history, geography, mathematics, and science. Although her father was outraged at his daughter's "unfeminine" direction, he did not interfere. She continued and advanced in her studies until she studied at the university of Rome, where in 1896, she received her Doctor of Medicine degree. She became the first Italian woman to study medicine and with honors.  She initially developed her educational method while working with mentally handicapped children. Revolutionizing modern education, the Montessori Method emphasized freedom of expression, supported individual initiative and utilized sensory training.

Dedication to Reforms 

Montessori's dedication to reform can be traced back to her childhood and young adulthood at the time of a newly unified Italy much torn between a national commitment to social progress and parochialism. Maria spent her childhood in an agricultural quiet provincial town, before the family moved to Rome when she was five. Her mother stressed the values of hard work and the importance of helping the less fortunate.

Influence of Montessori on Children with Learning Disability

While practicing medicine, Montessori became increasingly interested in helping children with learning disabilities. Along this line, she was influenced by prominent educators including Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, who pioneered the use of sensory stimuli with the learning disabled, Edouard Sequin, whose exercises with the use of physical activity to stimulate perception resulted in the students' ability to learn to read and write, and of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed in prioritizing the process of learning rather than what is learned.  

In 1907, she acquired directorship of a "Casa dei Bambini" (day care center) and applied her principles to normal children.

The Legacy of Maria Montessori

Critics questioned the method's informal structure. However, Montessori found remarkable success with all levels of students.

She devoted the remainder of her career to spreading her principles. She lectured, organized more centers and established training courses in her methods. Today Montessori schools are popular worldwide. 

Montessori died at the age of 81 years old, 6th of May, 1952, in Noordwijk, Netherlands.

Photo Credit:

Maria Montessori. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

Resources:

Felder, Deborah. Giant Book of Influential Women. The book company, London (1997)

Goring, Rosemary, Ed. Larousse Dictionary of Writers (1994)

Martin, Jean, Ed. Who's Who of Women in the 20^thCentury. London, Bison Group (1995)

 

(c)  August 2009. Updated August 31, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 Great Thinkers / Datebook: August 28

 

 

 

Brief biography of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of the greatest German great thinkers: writer, poet, playwright, philosopher.

 

 

 

 Goethe was one of the greatest German writers scientific theorists of all time. He was famous for such works as Faust, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.

Early Life of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born on August 28, 1749 in the German city of Frankfurt, to an influential family. He had a comfortable childhood. Educated at home, he was greatly influenced by his mother, an artistic and sensitive woman who encouraged his love of literature. When he was 16, Goethe went to Leipzig University. Two years later he began an unhappy love affair that inspired his first play, The Lover's Caprice.

The Sorrows of Young Werther

After a period of illness Goethe resumed his studies. He fell in love with a woman who was engaged to someone else. An attempt to express his anguish he wrote The Sorrows of Young Werther, a novel that made him famous throughout Europe and influenced the development of modern German literature.

"Sturm und Drung" Movement

Back in Frankfurt, the 24-year-old Goethe joined a group called Sturm und Drung ('Storm and Stress"), which wrote emotionally intense works that were part of the Romantic movement. A few years later Goethe accepted an appointment to the court of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. For the next ten years he wrote little but pursued his scientific and political work.

Goethe in Italy

Goethe might be the greatest poet of Germany, yet he also embraced Europe. He traveled to Italy, long regarded by him as the centre of culture. He returned a changed man and left his post to concentrate on writing. His masterpiece, Faust, which he began years earlier, was completed just before his death. An epic work, it shows Goethe's development, as well as that of European society.

Last Words on Goethe

Goethe admired Byron's Don Juan and especially loved the comic rhyme of the English language in it. His career as a writer and as a thinker spanned the end of Classicism and the beginning of Romanticism. His concerns transcended the individual's emotions, always questing for knowledge and faith in salvation. At the age of 82, Goethe died on March 22, 1832 in Weimar.

 

"Now slants the fiery god toward the west,

Hating away, but seeking in his round

New life afar: I long to join his quest,

On tireless wings uplifted from the ground."

Faust, Part One, Translation by Philip Wayne

 

Works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Lover's Caprice, 1767

The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1774

Clavigo, 1774

Stella, 1775

Iphigenia: A Tragedy, 1787

Egmont, 1787

Torquato Tasso, 1789

Roman Elegies, 1788-1790

Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, 1795-1796

Hermann and Dorothea, 1798

Faust, Part One, 1808, Part Two, 1832

Italian Journey, 1816-1817

Wilhelm Meister's Travels, 1821-1829

Poetry and Truth, 1811-1831

 

Image Credit:

Johann W. von Goethe. en.wikipedia.org/Commons. Public Domain

 

Resources:

Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Ian Ousby (1993)

Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring (1994)

The A-Z of Great Writers by Tom Payne, Carlton, 1997

 

(c) August 2009. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.