From The Hawkes Library; affiliated with FourthPillar.biz
© 20/12/09 Jon Hawkes <email> <web>
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Cultural poles / binaries / dualities

The dynamic between imagination and reason

One of the ways we see the world is in terms of opposing pairs.
Cultural development can be viewed as dialectic: emerging from the interplay between two helical mindsets. Both are essential. Both need to be nurtured.

inspiration

calculation

 

rule breaking

rule making

art

science

 

innovation

tradition

mythos

logos

 

raw

cooked

intuition

conclusion

 

savagery

civilisation

transcendent

immanent

 

the muse

the miser

right brain

left brain

 

Dionysus

Apollo

development

envelopment

 

Heraclitus

Parmenides

wisdom

information

 

dancing

marching

insight

outcome

 

what is it worth?

what does it cost?

impulse

plan/strategy

 

the exception

the rule

spiritual

secular

 

antithesis

thesis

sacred

profane

 

to be

to do

poetry

prose

 

originality

memory

lateral

logical

 

theory

practice

illumination

solution

 

subject

object

understanding

comprehension

 

inclusion

exclusion

play

utility

 

the flash

the plod

curiosity / wonder

analysis

 

the senses

the intellect

unknowable

knowable

 

feeling

thinking

unnameable

naming

 

orbit

progress

infinite

finite

 

non-sense

sense

cyclic

linear

 

emotion

consideration

dream

technology

 

absurd / irrational

rational

fantasy

fact

 

madness

sanity

serendipity

management

 

surreal / unreal

real

spontaneity

de-liberation

 

impossible

practical

chance

determination

 

Venus

Mars

chaos

organisation

 

ecstasy

agony

anarchy

hierarchy

 

private

public

impact

compact

 

inside

outside

what if

what is

 

soft

hard

as if

as is

 

space

time

is it exciting / fun / challenging?

is it useful?

 

what do we see / feel / hear / taste / sense?

does it add up?

love / hate / joy / fear

caution / envy / greed / suspicion

 

connection

separation / classification / categorisation

un / sub / conscious

conscious

 

images / sounds / tastes

numbers

creation

re-creation / reproduction

 

how not to remember

how not to forget

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© 20/12/09 Jon Hawkes <email> <web>
From The Hawkes Library; affiliated with FourthPillar.biz

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