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grits-galraisedinthesouth · 2 years ago

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An Open Letter Denouncing the [RACIST] Attacks on Justice Clarence Thomas

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/07/13/an_open_letter_denouncing_the_attacks_on_justice_clarence_thomas_147879.html?mc_cid=e37b2b8113

An Open Letter Denouncing the Attacks on Justice Clarence Thomas

By Glenn Loury & Robert Woodson Sr.

July 13, 2022

White progressives do not have the moral authority to excommunicate a black man from his race because they disagree with him.

And those – regardless of background – who join in the charade or remain silent are guilty of enabling this abuse.

We, the undersigned, condemn the barrage of racist, vicious, and ugly personal attacks that we are witnessing on Clarence Thomas – a sitting Supreme Court justice. Whether it is calling him a racist slur, an “Uncle Tom” or questioning his “blackness” over his jurisprudence, the disparagement of this man, of his faith and of his character, is abominable.

Regardless of where one stands on Justice Thomas’ personal or legal opinions, he is among the pantheon of black trailblazers throughout American history and is a model of integrity, scholarship, steadfastness, resilience, and commitment to the Constitution of the United States of America. For three decades Justice Thomas has served as a model for our children. He has long been honored and celebrated by black people in this country and his attackers do not speak for the majority of blacks.

He is entirely undeserving of the vitriol directed at him. Character assassination has become too convenient a tool for eviscerating those who dare dissent from the prevailing agenda, especially when it is a black man who is dissenting.

This is not about the content of the court’s decisions or Justice Thomas’ personal views; some of the undersigned agree with his judicial decisions and some do not. We speak out – as black people and Americans – to condemn these attacks and support Justice Thomas, because to remain silent would be to implicitly endorse these poisonous schemes as well as his destruction.

Sincerely,

Glenn Loury

Professor of Economics

Brown University

Providence, RI

Robert Woodson Sr.

Founder and President

The Woodson Center

Washington, DC

Charles Love, Executive Director, Seeking Educational Excellence, New York, NY

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA

W. Barclay Allen, Havre de Grace, MD

Christopher Arps, Co-founder, Move-On-Up.org, St. Louis, MO

Dr. Lisa Babbage, Babbage America, Suwanee, GA

Leon Benjamin, Pastor, Life Harvest Church, Richmond, VA

Claston Bernard , Olympian, Author, Former Congressional Candidate, Gonzales, LA

Shamike Bethea, Fredrick Douglass Foundation of NC, Fayetteville, NC

Harold A. Black, Emeritus Professor University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

Kenneth Blackwell, Chairman, Conservative Action Project, OH

Tony Blount, Member / Coalition of Concerned Freedmen, New York, NY

Jordan R. Bolds ,New York, NY

Robert Bracy, President/Pinnacle Business Management, New York, NY

David Brooks, Former Rich Township IL Republican Committeeman, Indianapolis, IN

Janice Rogers Brown, Gardnerville, NV

John Sibley Butler, Austin, TX

Don Carey, City Councilman, Chesapeake, VA

Tess Chakkalakal, Associate Professor, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME

Jeff Charles, Podcaster, Writer, Political Commentator, Jacksonville, FL

Gabrielle Clark, Houston, TX

Adam B. Coleman, Founder of Wrong Speak Publishing, Piscataway, NJ

Melanie Collette, Host, Money Talk with Melanie Cape May Court House, NJ

Ward Connerly, President of the American Civil Rights Institute, Coeur d'Alene, ID

D. Daniels, GA

Kira A. Davis, Deputy Managing Editor, RedState, Ladera Ranch, CA

Rod Dorilás, GOP Candidate, Florida 22nd Congressional District, West Palm Beach, FL

Patricia Rae Easley, Black Excellence Media, Chicago, IL

Larry Elder, President of Elder for America PAC, Los Angeles, CA

Rev. Joe Ellison Jr., City Chaplain Ministries, Richmond, VA

Melvin Everson, Former State Rep, Snellville, GA

Nique Fajors, St. Louis, MO

Yaya J. Fanusie, Chief Strategist, Cryptocurrency AML Strategies, Columbia, MD

George Farrell, Chair of BlakPac,Washington, DC

Chavis Jennings, Highland, IN

Casey Felin, ThatGirlCasey Media, Philadelphia, PA

LaTasha H. Fields, Team Illinois, Chicago, IL

Marie Fischer, JEXIT, Baltimore, MD

Kali Fontanilla, Founder of Exodus Institute, Sarasota, FL

Roland Fryer, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Edwin A. Fynn, Merrillville, IN

Verlon Galloway, Gary, IN

Dr. Derryck Green, Sacramento, CA

Kermit E. Hairston, Stone Mountain, GA

Christopher Harris, Executive Director of Unhyphenated America, Fairfax County, VA

Clarence Henderson, President Frederick Douglass Foundation of N. Carolina, High Point, NC

Ismael Hernandez, Founder/President/Freedom & Virtue Institute, Fort Myers, FL

Curtis Hill, Former Indiana Attorney General, Elkhart, IN

Deidre Hulett, Gary, IN

Daniel Idfresne, 18-Year-Old Political Commentator, New York City, NY

Niger Innis, Chairman, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Las Vegas, NV

Kevin Jackson, Founder/The Kevin Jackson Network, Gilbert, AZ

Nikki Johnson, MD, Cleveland, OH

Leonydus Johnson, Host of Informed Dissent, Oak Hill, OH

Diante Johnson, President, Black Conservative Federation, Arlington, VA

Christopher Jones, Pastor, Atlanta, GA

Seneca Jones, Dallas, TX

Khansa Jones-Muhammad, Los Angeles, CA

Dr. Alveda King, Concerned Citizen, Atlanta, GA

Lisa Kinnemore, Stone Mountain, GA

Garry Kinnemore, Stone Mountain, GA

Matthew P. Kreutz, Frederick Douglass Foundation of New York, Medina, NY

Chaplain Ayesha Kreutz, Frederick Douglass Foundation of New York, Medina, NY

Princess Kuevor, Columbus, OH

Michael Lancaster, Frederick Douglass Foundation, Stone Mountain, GA

Mitchell Lomax, Ellicott City, MD

Pamela Denise Long, Nat'l Coordinator, Coalition of Concerned Freedmen, St. Louis, MO

Barrington D. Martin II, Atlanta, GA

Linda Matthews, Frederick Douglass Foundation Ohio, Cincinnati, OH

Kevin McGary, Co-Founder Every Black Life Matters (EBLM), Dallas, TX

John McWhorter, New York, NY

Shemeka Michelle, Author, Durham, NC

Cashmere Miller, Atlanta, GA

Montrail Miller, FDF, GA

Lucas E. Morel, Professor of Politics, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA

Brian Mullins, Black Community Collaborative, Chicago, IL

Scherie Murray, Director, Unite the Fight PAC, Laurelton, NY

Dr. Lorenzo Neal, New Bethel AME Church, Jackson, MS

Dean Nelson, Frederick Douglass Foundation, Washington, DC

Morris W. O'Kelly, On-air personality, KFI AM640/iHeartRadio, Los Angeles, CA

Tim Parrish, Founder, Right Appeal PAC, Woodbridge, VA

Lonnie Poindexter, LionChasersNetwork.org, Washington, DC

Jon Ponder, Chief Executive Officer, Hope For Prisoners, Las Vegas, NV

Wilfred Reilly, Kentucky State University, Frankfort, KY

Deon Richmond, Studio City, CA

Donique Rolle, Educator, Orlando, FL

Ian V. Rowe, Senior Visiting Fellow, The Woodson Center, New York, NY

Sheryl R. Sellaway, Founder, Righteous PR Agency, Johns Creek, GA

Erec Smith, Assoc. Professor of Rhetoric/Co-founder Free Black Thought, York, PA

Dr. Felicity Joy Solomon, Shorewood, IL

Delano Squires, Contributor, Blaze Media, Washington, DC

Rebekah Star, New York, NY

Dr. Carol M. Swain, Be the People News, Nashville, TN

David Sypher Jr., Political Strategist, Rahway, NJ

Dr. Linda Lee Tarver, President, Tarver Consulting, Lansing, MI

Greg Thomas, Stratford, CT

Roderick Threats, Black Patriot Media Group, Palm Beach, FL

Jimmy Lee Tillman II, Founder/President, Martin Luther King Republicans, Chicago, IL

Stephanie W. Trussell, Republican Candidate for LTG Illinois, Lisle, IL

Jesse C. Turner, Senior Pastor, The Historic Elm Grove Baptist Church, Pine Bluff, AR

Bettye H. Tyler, Marvellous Works, Inc., Jackson, MS

Helen Tyner, Parents for a Better Englewood, Chicago, IL

Dr. Eric M. Wallace, Freedom's Journal Institute, Flossmoor, IL

Marcus Watkins, Michigan Republican Assembly, Romulus, MI

Curtis Watkins, Uplift & Restore Community Development Corp., Michigan City, IN

Cindy Werner, State Ambassador, Frederick Douglass Foundation-WI, Milwaukee, WI

Devon Westhill, President/General Counsel, Center for Equal Opportunity, Washington, DC

Jason Whitlock, Host of Fearless with Jason Whitlock, Nashville, TN

Christopher Wilson, Indianapolis, IN

Kuna Winding, Chicago, IL

Corrine Winding, Chicago, IL

Aryca Woodson, Communications Consultant, IN

John Wood Jr., Opinion Columnist, USA Today, Los Angeles, CA

Michael E. Wooten, Former Administrator, Federal Procurement Policy, Woodbridge, VA

Glenn Loury is professor of economics at Brown University.

Robert Woodson Sr. is founder and president of The Woodson Center.

Craig Shirley: Donations To Reagan Library Will Trickle Down After Liz Cheney Speech, "The Debates Are Over"

Occam's Razor (the simplest explanation is usually correct) would say that Cheney saw the GOP departing from everything she represents and did her best to poison every Republican Institution she can touch before she's driven out into the wilderness.

FNC's Peter Doocy To White House: Does The President Think It Is Appropriate To Protest Outside A Supreme Court Justice's Home?

So the Biden Administration thinks it's OK to shadow these Justices, or any other public figure, from location to location to disrupt their lives and possibly expose them to threats. You have a right to peacefully protest but their are restrictions on time, place, and manner...and one of those is a restriction (a law against!) on protesting outside the homes of Justices. So, the Administration is approving and tacitly encouraging illegal behavior. The only reason to protest outside the homes of these Justices is to intimidate them; it certainly isn't aimed at persuading fellow Americans on the issue.

Zelensky: "The End Of The World Has Arrived" I'm Embarrassed This Is Happening In The 21st Century

Some may remember the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 60s. Castro was in power in Cuba and the Russians began bringing nuclear missiles into Cuba. JFK was President of the USA at the time. A nuclear was was barely averted and Russia took their missiles home, but exacted some concessions from Kennedy, one of which was pulling our missile capability out of Turkey. At the end of the Cold War promises were made to Russia that NATO would not expand into the Russian sphere of influence. That promise has been broken many times. Havana Cuba is a bit further from Washington, D.C., than Kiev is from Moscow. Biden signed a paper in Nov 2021 that invited Ukraine to join NATO. See " The Two Blunders That Caused the Ukraine War" in the March 4th WSJ. One might ask why Biden opened the door for Ukraine to join NATO? Did he think that Russia would do nothing with the prospect of being squeezed by another NATO country? Or did Biden want Russia to attack the Ukraine to take the heat off the dismal prospects of the mid-term elections?

Recall, Remove & Replace Every Last Soros Prosecutor | RealClearPolitic

Recall is not feasible particularly since many states do not have recall. But voters should pay more attention to these DA, AG, and prosecutor races. Republicans adopted a from the ground up strategy to win state legislator races and it was a spectacular success. Democrats, with Soros money are trying to do the same thing with DA races. Republicans should engage them and voters should pay more attention or we will end up with more non prosecution of crimes and release without bail.

Tucker Carlson: Arrest Of Bannon And Navarro Is A Huge Escalation In Democratic Party's Weaponization Of DOJ

The whole premise of the J6 witch hunt is that an insurrection to over-throw the US gov't was planned. Mind you, this was planned without a single weapon to be used, and relied on the police abandoning post, and the Capitol doors to somehow be opened from the inside. Once inside these "insurrectionists" took selfies. This narrative is so dead.

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elcinelateleymickyandonie · 4 years ago

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Charles Laughton.

Filmografía

Películas

- Bluebottles, The Tonic, Daydreams (1928) Dir.: Ivor Montagu

- Piccadilly (1929) Dir.: Ewald Andrea Dupont.

- Wolves (1930).

- Down River (1931) Dir. Peter Godfrey

-El caserón de las sombras (The Old Dark - House, 1932) Dir. James Whale

- Entre la espada y la pared (The Devil and the Deep, 1932) Dir. Marion Gering

- Justicia divina/El asesino de Mr. Medland (Payment Deferred, 1932) Dir. Lothar Mendes

- El signo de la cruz (The Sign of the Cross, 1932) Dir. Cecil B. De Mille

- Si yo tuviera un millón (If I Had a Million, 1932) Dirs. Ernst Lubitsch, Norman Taurog, Stephen Roberts, Norman McLeod, James Cruse, William A. - Seiter y H. Bruce Humberstone

- La isla de las almas perdidas (Island of Lost Souls, 1932) Dir. Erle C. Kenton

- La vida privada de Enrique VIII (The Private Life of Henry VIII, 1933) Dir. Alexander Korda

- White Woman (1933) Dir. Stuart Walker

- The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) Dir. Sidney Franklin

- Nobleza obliga (Ruggles of Red Gap, 1935) Dir. Leo McCarey

- Los miserables (Les Misérables, 1935) Dir. Richard Boleslawsky

- Rebelión a bordo (Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935) Dir. Frank Lloyd

- Rembrandt (Rembrandt, 1936) Dir. Alexander Korda

- Yo, Claudio (I, Claudius, 1937) Dir. Joseph von Sternberg.

- Bandera amarilla (Vessel of Wrath, 1938) Dir. Eric Pommer (Laughton es actor y coproductor de esta película).

- Las calles de Londres (St. Martin's Lane, 1938) Dir. Tim Whelan (Laughton es actor y coproductor de esta película).

- La posada de Jamaica (Jamaica Inn, 1939) Dir. Alfred Hitchcock (Laughton es actor y coproductor de esta película).

- Esmeralda, la zíngara (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1939) Dir. William Dieterle

- Laughton en la película Ellos sabían lo que querían (1940), con Carole Lombard y Frank Fay.

- They Knew What They Wanted (1940) Dir. Garson Kanin

- Casi un ángel (It Started with Eve, 1941) Dir. Henry Koster

- Se acabó la gasolina (The Tuttles of Tahiti, 1942) Dir. Charles Vidor

- Seis destinos (Tales of Manhattan, 1942) Dir. Julien Duvivier

- Stand by for Action (1943) Dir. Robert Z. Leonard

- Forever and a Day (1943) Dirs. René Clair, Edmund Goulding, Cedric Hardwicke, Frank Lloyd, Victor Saville.

-Esta tierra es mía (This Land Is Mine, 1943) Dir. Jean Renoir

- The Man from Down Under (1943) Dir. Robert Z. Leonard

- The Canterville Ghost (1944) Dir. Jules Dassin

- El sospechoso (The Suspect, 1944) Dir. Robert Siodmak

- El capitán Kidd (Captain Kidd, 1945) Dir. Rowland V. Lee

- Su primera noche (Because of Him, 1946) Dir. Richard Wallace

- Arco de triunfo (Arch of Triumph, 1947) Dir. Lewis Milestone

- El reloj asesino (The Big Clock, 1947) Dir. John Farrow

- El proceso Paradine (The Paradine Case, 1948) Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

- On our Merry way/A Miracle can Happen (1948) Dirs. King Vidor, Leslie Fenton, John Huston, George Stevens.

- The Girl from Manhattan (1948) Alfred E. Green

- Soborno (The Bribe, 1949) Dir. Robert Z. Leonard

- El hombre de la torre Eiffel (The Man on the Eiffel Tower, 1949) Dir. Burgess Meredith (codirectores no acreditados: Charles Laughton y Franchot Tone).

- No estoy sola (The Blue Veil, 1951) Dir. Curtis Bernhardt

- The Strange Door (1951) Dir. Joseph Pevney

- Cuatro páginas de la vida (O. Henry's Full House, 1952) Dir. Henry Koster

- Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952) Dir. Charles Lamont

- Salomé (Salome, 1953) Dir. William Dieterle

- La reina virgen (Young Bess, 1953) Dir. George Sidney

- El déspota (Hobson's Choice, 1954) Dir. David Lean

- La noche del cazador (The Night of the Hunter, 1954) Dir. Charles Laughton (no aparece como actor en la película).

T- estigo de cargo (Witness for the Prosecution, 1957) Dir. Billy Wilder

- Bajo diez banderas (Sotto dieci bandiere, 1960) Dir. Diulio Colletti

Espartaco (Spartacus, 1960) Dir, Stanley Kubrick

- Tempestad sobre Washington (Advise and Consent, 1962) Dir. Otto Preminger.

Documentales

- The Epic That Never Was (1965). Dirigido por Bill Duncalf y presentado por Dirk Bogarde. Documental de la BBC sobre el rodaje de I, Claudius con diversas escenas acabadas. (VHS, DVD).

- Callow's Laughton (1987). Documental de la Yorkshire TV-ITV dirigido por Nick Gray y presentado por Simon Callow sobre Charles Laughton.

- Charles Laughton Directs The Night of the Hunter (2002). Documental dirigido por Robert Gitt a partir de tomas descartadas de la Película.

Teatro

Debut teatral (1913). Stonyhurst College, Reino Unido

- The Private Secretary per Charles Hawtrey

Teatro amateur (hasta 1925). Scarborough, Reino Unido

- The Dear Departed por Stanley Houghton

- Trelawney of The Wells por Arthur Wing Pinero

- Hobson's Choice por Harold Brighouse

1926

- The Government Inspector. por Nicolai Gogol. Dir. Theodore Komisarjevsky

- Los puntales de la sociedad por Henrik Ibsen. Dir. Sybil Arundale

- El jardín de los cerezos por Antón Chéjov. Dir. Theodore Komisarjevsky

- Las tres hermanas por Antón Chéjov. Dir. Theodore Komisarjevsky

- Liliom por Ferencz Molnar. Dir. Theodore Komisarjevsky

1927

- The Greater Love por James B. Fagan. Dir. James B. Fagan y Lewis Casson

- Angela por Lady Bell. Dir. Lewis Casson

Vestire gli ignudi por Luigi Pirandello. Dir. Theodore Komisarjevsky

- Medea por Eurípides. Dir. Lewis Casson

- The Happy Husband por Harrison Owen. Dir. Basil Dean

- Paul Y por Dimitri Merejovski. Dir. Theodore Komisarjevsky

- Mr. Prohack por Arnold Bennet y Edward Knoblock. Dir. Theodore Komisarjevsky

1928

- A Man with Red Hair por Benn W. Levy, a partir de la novela de Hugh Walpole. Dir. Theodore Komisarjevsky

- The Making of an Immortal por George Moore. Dir. Robert Atkins

- Riverside Nights por Nigel Playfair y A.P. Herbert. Dir. Nigel Playfair

- Alibi per Michael Morton, a partir de la novela de Agatha Christie. Dir. Gerald duMaurier

- Mr. Pickwick por Cosmo Hamilton y Frank C. Reilly, a partir de la novela de Charles Dickens. Dir. Basil Dean

1929

- Beauty por Jacques Deval (adapt. inglesa: Michael Morton). Dir. Felix Edwardes

- The Silver Tassie por Sean O'Casey. Dir. Raymond Massey

1930

- French Leave por Reginald Berkeley. Dir. Eille Norwood

- On the Spot por Edgar Wallace. Dir. Edgar Wallace

1930

- Payment Deferred por Jeffrey Dell, a partir de la novela de C.S. Forrester. Dir. H.K. Ailiff

1931

-Gira americana (Chicago y Nueva York) de Payment Deferred y Alibi (esta última retítulada The Fatal Alibi y dirigida por Jed Harris).

Old Vic: temporada 1933-34. Londres. Reino Unido. Todas las obras dirigidas por Tyrone Guthrie.

El jardín de los cerezos por Antón Chéjov. Dir. Charles Laughton

1951-52 Estados Unidos y Reino Unido (Gira).

Don Juan in Hell de Man and Superman por George Bernard Shaw. Dir. Charles Laughton.

1953 Estados Unidos (Gira).

John Brown's Body por Stephen Vincent Benet. Dir. y Adaptación: Charles Laughton (no apareció como actor).

1954 Estados Unidos (Gira).

The Caine Mutiny Court Martial por Herman Wouk, a partir de su novela. Dir. Charles Laughton (no apareció como actor).

1956 Nueva York, Estados Unidos.

Major Barbara por George Bernard Shaw. Dir. Charles Laughton

1956 Londres, Reino Unido

The Party por Jane Arden. Dir. Charles Laughton

1959 Stratford-upon-Avon, Reino Unido

El sueño de una noche de verano por William Shakespeare. Dir. Peter Hall

El rey Lear por William Shakespeare. Dir. Glen Byam Shaw.

Créditos: Tomado de Wikipedia

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Laughton

#HONDURASQUEDATEENCASA

#ELCINELATELEYMICKYANDONIE

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justforbooks · 5 years ago

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HISTORY OF THE LONDON LIBRARY

On the 24 June, 1840, the celebrated Scottish author, historian, and biographer, Thomas Carlyle, stood up at a meeting in a crowded hall in Covent Garden to proclaim the need for a new lending Library in the great metropolis of London.

Carlyle’s vision succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. What he called into existence that night has become, over the ensuing 175 years, the largest independent lending library in the world. Today its façade in St James’s Square gives little indication that beyond it lie over a million books, covering more than 17 miles of open access bookshelves arranged within seven interlocking buildings.

From its opening on the 3rd May 1841, this haven for reading, writing and thinking quickly became a beloved home for some of the greatest names in literature: Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, George Eliot, Henry James, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woolf, Isaiah Berlin, Laurence Olivier, Agatha Christie and Harold Pinter amongst many others were all members. Four Poets Laureate and ten Nobel prize-winners have roamed its bookshelves for inspiration in the past and today, 7,000 members of all ages and backgrounds – including some of the most familiar names in the literary world - find the Library’s resources invaluable.

Timeline

1841 The Library opens at 49 Pall Mall, London. The Earl of Clarendon is appointed inaugural President, WE Gladstone and Sir Edward Bunbury were on the first committee. John Cochrane is appointed first Librarian (and serves until 1852).

1842 An additional room is rented at 49 Pall Mall creating the Library’s first reading room. The collection reaches 13,000 volumes.

1845 The Library moves to its present location in St James’s Square.

1855 Alfred Lord Tennyson is appointed President, serving until 1892.

1879 The Library buys the freehold of the premises.

1893 Charles Hagberg Wright is appointed Librarian and serves until his death in 1940. He develops the unique and much-loved shelving system which has enabled books to be readily and fruitfully browsed; catalogues the collection of 200,000 volumes; and oversees major building works as the Library is remodelled in 1896 to accommodate the rapidly expanding book collection.

1896-98 The building is entirely reconstructed. The present eclectic facade, the Main Hall, Reading Room and the grille-floored bookstacks are erected and remain hallmarks of the Library today. The building is one of the first steel framed buildings in London.

1921 The building is extended: seven new floors are constructed to house a further 200,000 books. The radical glass floors and steel frames are constructed, shipped in from, America.

1932-4 Further building works take place. The Art Room and the committee room that has since become The Sackler Study are constructed. The Reading Room is extended and additional bookstacks are built. The collections now number some 450,000 volumes.

1934 On April 13 1934, life member Stanley Baldwin MP gives the opening address at a ceremony to open the newly built Central stacks.

1934 Charles Hagberg Wright is knighted after more than 40 years of extraordinary service to the Library.

1944 The Library is hit by a German wartime bomb - over 16,000 volumes are destroyed and the newly built Central stacks are heavily damaged. Repairs take 10 years to complete.

1948 Winston Churchill accepts the honorary position of Vice-President.

1952 T.S. Eliot is appointed President, serving until his death in 1965.

1995 The Anstruther Wing is completed. This new building, equipped with special environmental controls, allows for the safe housing of 30,000 of the rarest and most vulnerable volumes.

2004 Duchess House is purchased, increasing the overall capacity of the building by 30%.

2010 Work is completed to create the Lightwell Reading Room, the new Times Room, staff offices, the restoration and extension of the Library’s Art Room (below), and the refurbishment of the Issue Hall.

2013 The historic Reading Room is extensively refurbished and The Writers' Room and The Sackler Study are opened as new working and studying spaces.

2014 The building project gets national recognition as architects Haworth Tompkins win RIBA Awards for their work on the Library’s refurbishment.

2015 The Library’s collection stands at over 1,000,000 titles, covering over 2,000 subjects in 55 different languages. The books range in date from 1500 to 2015 complemented by bound copies of over 2,000 periodicals dating from 1699 to today.

2016 To celebrate its 175th anniversary the Library holds a five day literary festival in St. James's Square. The Word in the Square celebration features over 40 separate events and talks by leading writers and public figures, over half of whom are London Library members.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #London Library

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creepingsharia · 4 years ago

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540 Local Elected Officials From All 50 States Urge Prez Trump to Import More Refugees to U.S.

Joe Biden has promised to make this happen, including taking in foreigners from terrorist hotspots around the world. In fact, Joe Biden was one of the original architects of the fraud-ridden refugee program that has destroyed neighborhoods across the U.S.

by Ann Corcoran

I told you here that the refugee industry was working on a letter to the President urging him to get the refugee flow into America moving again.

Yesterday they sent the letter with 540 signatories.

Says Amnesty International:

By signing this letter, these elected officials have joined together to voice their commitment to welcoming refugees in their communities and reviving the United States’ legacy as a leader in refugee resettlement.

I notice something missing from the letter. It avoids giving the President a number, but the industry has made it very clear!

They want 95,000 refugees to begin arriving on October first.

The President could make a decision this month on how many refugees might be invited to live in the US in FY2021. He could also legally set the ceiling at zero.

All of my posts on the topic are tagged FY2021.

Here are the signatories from yesterday. The list is handy for identifying those local elected officials who are changing America by changing the people.

I don’t know why the organizers think that these open borders advocates will hold any sway with the President, but they sure make it handy for you to identify the other side where you live. Target them for retirement when they come up for re-election!

(For a little additional fun, see last year’s list here.)

They say the list is bipartisan, but there is no indication of party affiliation. You will need to look through those listed in your state to see if Republicans are among those looking to import more poverty to your city.

[Find your state in the list below the fold]

Alabama

Gary Palmer, State Representative, Birmingham Neil Rafferty, State Representative, Birmingham

Alaska Elvi Gray-Jackson, State Senator, Anchorage Andrew Josephson, State Representative, Juneau

Arizona Ylenia Aguilar, School Board Member, Phoenix Lela Alston, State Senator, Phoenix Richard Andrade, State Representative, Phoenix Andres Cano, State Representative, Tucson Steven Chapman, Governing Board Member, Phoenix Cesar Chavez, State Representative, Phoenix Paul Cunningham, Vice Mayor, Tucson Andrea Dalessandro, State Senator, Green Valley Devin Del Palacio, School Board Member, Tolleson Elora Diaz, School Governing Board Member, Phoenix Paul Durham, Councilmember, Tucson Diego Espinoza, State Representative, Avondale Charlene Fernandez, State Representative, Phoenix Kristel Ann Foster, School Board President, Tucson Randall Friese, State Representative, Tucson Rosanna Gabaldon, State Representative, Sahuarita Kate Gallego, Mayor, Phoenix Carlos Garcia, Councilmember, Phoenix Betty Guardado, Vice Mayor, Phoenix Daniel Hernandez, State Representative, Tucson Berdetta Hodge, Tempe Union Governing Board President, Tempe Steve Kozachik, Councilmember, Tucson Lauren Kuby, Councilmember, Tempe Pedro Lopez, Governing Board Member, Phoenix Adam Lopez-Falk, School Board Member, Phoenix Lindsay Love, Chandler Unified School District Governing Board Member, Chandler Juan Mendez, State Senator, Tempe Patrick Morales, Vice President of the Tempe School Elementary Board and Governing Board Member, Tempe The Honorable Channel Powe, Governing Board President, Phoenix Stanford Prescott, Governing Board Member, Phoenix Union High School District, Phoenix Martín Quezada, State Senator, Phoenix Rebecca Rios, State Senator, Phoenix Diego Rodriguez, State Representative, Laveen Regina Romero, Mayor, Tucson Athena Salman, State Representative, Tempe Lane Santa Cruz, Councilmember, Tucson Raquel Teran, State Representative, Phoenix Monica Trejo, School Board Member, Tempe Corey D. Woods, Mayor, Tempe

Arkansas Andrew Collins, State Representative, Little Rock Megan Godfrey, State Representative, Springdale Sonia Gutierrez, Councilmember, Fayetteville Lioneld Jordan, Mayor, Fayetteville Matthew Petty, Councilmember, Fayetteville Joy Springer, State Representative, Little Rock

California Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, Assemblymember, Sacramento John J. Bauters, Councilmember, Emeryville Bob Blumenfield, Councilmember, Los Angeles Maya Esparza, Councilmember, San Jose Kevin Faulconer, Mayor, San Diego Eric Garcetti, Mayor, Los Angeles Sam Hindi, Councilmember, Foster City Johnny Khamis, Councilmember, San Jose Paul Koretz, Councilmember, Los Angeles Sheila Kuehl, County Supervisor, Los Angeles Gordon Mar, City and County Supervisor, San Francisco Peggy McQuaid, Vice Mayor, Albany Lisa Middleton, Councilmember, Palm Springs Hillary Ronen, Supervisor, San Francisco Philip Y. Ting, Assemblymember, San Francisco Norman Yee, President, Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco

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My Pictures for Schools - Hertfordshire

In Hertfordshire the County Council’s collection of pictures for schools was started in 1949 as part of the School Loan Collection, a post-war initiative by Sir John Newsom, the Hertfordshire Chief Education Officer at the time. The aims of Pictures for Schools were to provide education for children, show children contemporary art rather than reproductions of masters and to liven up classrooms that in post-war Britain would have needed modernisation.

Many of the pieces were purchased from reputable dealers, artists and the ‘Pictures for Schools’ exhibitions which took place from the 1950s and 1960s. I thought I would show some of the pictures I now own and put the biographies of the artists.

Vera Cunningham - 'Stooks',

Born in Hertfordshire of Scottish parentage, Vera studied painting at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. She began exhibiting with the London Group in 1922. With Matthew Smith, she exhibited in Paris at the Amis de Montparnasse and the Salon des Indépendants in 1922. Her first one-man show was held at the Bloomsbury Gallery in 1929. She produced a number of theatre designs at the end of the 1930s, but returned to easel painting. During WWII she was involved in the Civil Defence Artists' shows at the Cooling Galleries. After the war her Paris dealer, Raymond Creuze, mounted three exhibitions in 1948, 1951 and 1954. She lived in London. The Barbican Art Gallery held a retrospective exhibition in 1985. Her work is held in the Manchester City Art Gallery; the Guildhall Gallery, London and at Palant House, Chichester.

Cuningham modeled for and had relationships with fellow artists Bernard Meninsky and Matthew Smith.

Vera Cunningham - 'Garden Scene',

Thomas William Ward - 'Charmouth Manor'

Thomas William Ward, was born at Sheffield. Studied part-time with Eric Jones (Harold Jones's twin brother) at Sheffield 1937-1939. After service during the Second World War, Bill continued his studies at the Royal College of Art 1946-1950, winning a silver medal in 1949. He married at Kensington, London in 1949, sculptor Joan Palmer Ward. He taught at Harrow College of High Education 1950-1980, finally as principal lecturer, retiring to Suffolk in 1980. Elected a member of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers in 1953 and the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1957. This painting was bought from Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester in 1957.

Alistair Grant - 'The Weight-lifter'

Although best known as a printmaker, Alistair Grant also painted throughout his career and in the 1980s he adopted an expressionist style using vibrant colours. He was born in London and studied at Birmingham College of Art (1941-43). After serving during the war, Grant returned to art school and the Royal College of Art, where he was taught by Carel Weight and Ruskin Spear. Grant was to work in the printmaking department of the Royal College for 35 years (1955-90), ending his career as Emeritus Professor of Printmaking at the RA.

The Weight-lifter was bought from the Whitechapel Art Gallery at their Pictures for Schools exhibition: 8 October – 29 October 1949. It is likely ‘Eva’s House’ came from a similar exhibition.

Alistair Grant - 'Eva's House', 1955

Vincent Lines - 'Old Hereford Wagon',

Vincent Lines was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1928. The principal, William Rothenstein described him as ‘one of the best students of the painting school’. While only in his twenties, he was appointed principal of Horsham School of Art and later became principal of Hasting School of Art. Lines was a prolific and talented topographical watercolourist, with an intimate knowledge of the countryside, which he recorded on the spot, in the open air.

He was chosen as an artist for the Recording Britain project, to which he contributed twenty watercolours. He was a close friend of Thomas Hennell and the pair often painted together in the countryside around Hennell’s home at Ridley, near Meopham in Kent.

Lines survived the war and went on to become Vice-president of the Royal Watercolour Society. He wrote the biography of Mark Fisher and Margaret Fisher Prout, illustrated Rex Waites ‘The English Windmill’

The war years brought deepened friendships in particular with Mildred Eldidge and Thomas Hennell, both fellow watercolourists of the R .W .S . Through contact with Hennell he became fascinated by country crafts and together they hunted out the potter and the cooper, wheelwright and blacksmith, hurdlemaker and charcoal burner.

During 1943-4 he painted a series of eight watercolours recording the avenues of elms in Windsor Park, before the trees were felled. The pictures are now in the Royal collection. A further commission for Vincent during these years was the contribution to Arnold Palmer’s four-volumed Recording Britain, published in association with the Pilgrim Trust.

Due to Thomas Hennell’s death in 1945 the illustration of Rex Wailes’s book The English Windmill, which would certainly have been done by him, passed instead to Vincent Lines. Wailes’s definitive survey presents English windmills in their history, construction and mode of working. Resurgence Magazine Issue 141, Jul 1990.

Molly Field - 'Farm Implements'

Molly Field was born in Keighley, Yorkshire. She originally worked under the name Molly Clapham but then married the artist Dick Field. Attended Leeds College of Art (1932-33) then the Royal College of Art (1934-38), with Ernest Tristram. Showed at the Royal Academy, Women’s International Art Club and the Wakefield. Also known under Mary Field.

M Murphy - 'Geranium'

This is a mystery as it is one of the best paintings in the collection but there is no detail in the archives about who it is by.

Berard Gay - 'Ivy Plant'

Bernard left school at the age of 14 and after various jobs, just before the Second World War joined the merchant navy. In 1947 that he returned to education, studying textile part-time at the Willesden School of Art (1947-52) and changed course to fine-art under Maurice de Sausmarez and Eric Taylor. He began drawing classes at St Martins School of Art and quickly established himself as a painter. It may have been in the Pictures for Schools exhibition 23 January – 14 February 1954.

David Koster - 'Cat and Lilies'

Koster studied at the Slade School of Art (1944-47). Taught drawing and print-making at Medway College of Design. One-man shows at Everyman Foyer Gallery (1958, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70); Glasgow Citizen's Theatre (1965); Stable Theatre Gallery, Hastings (1967). Taken several illustration commissions including work for the RSPB and a front cover for their 'Birds' Magazine.

David Koster was born in London and attended the Slade School of Fine Art from 1944 to 1947. He was a founder Member of the Society of Wildlife Artists in 1964.

Raymond Croxon - 'View in the Lake District',

Raymond Coxon enrolled at the Leeds School of Art, and the Royal College of Art. While he was there, between 1919 and 1921, he not only met his future wife but also became friends with a fellow student, Henry Moore. In 1922 Moore and Coxon visited France and met a number of artists there, including Pierre Bonnard and Aristide Maillol. Coxon continued his studies in London at the Royal College of Art between 1921 and 1925 under Sir William Rothenstein. Coxon took a teaching post at the Richmond School of Art in 1925 and in 1926 he married Edna Ginesi, with Moore acting as his best-man. Coxon would later perform the same service for Moore when he married Irina Radetsky in July 1929. He became a member of the London Group in 1931 and of the Chiswick Group in 1938.

During the WW2 he became a war artist and was commissioned to produce some paintings of Army subjects in Britain. Then working for the Royal Navy as a war artist. The painting of this print is in the collection of Palant House. The lithograph made for the Contemporary Lithographs Ltd. Other artists in the series were Eric Ravilious, John Piper, Vanessa Bell, Barnett Freedman and so on.

Julia Ball - 'East Coast Storm'

Julia Ball is a Cambridge artist and this woodcut came up for sale with the Cambridge collection of Pictures for Schools but due to a cataloguing error on the auctioneers I didn’t win it as they had labeled it as a different lot. For years I smoldered about that. But when the Hertfordshire sale came up, I had to have it. Made in the 1960s this woodcut is of a storm over the east coast. Her painting are mostly abstract and works can be found in Kettles Yard and in the New Hall art collection. This picture was bought from the Royal Academy Diploma Galleries, 1967.

Joseph Winkelman - 'Winter Morning'

Joseph Winkelman has specialised in intaglio printmaking since 1975 after completing the Oxford University Certificate course in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Drawing. As an active member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE), he served as President from 1989 to 1995 and was recently artist in residence at St John's College, Oxford.

John Sturgess - 'Black and White Leaf'

A student at the Royal College of Art in the 1950s. He would have been taught by Julian Trevelyan, Edwin La Dell, Edward Ardizzone and Edward Bawden. He worked with John Brunsdon as a printer, printing other artists work, rather than going into teaching. They set up a press in Digswell Art Centre and that is likely how his work ended up in the Hertfordshire Collection. This work of a leaf looks more like foil, it is rather beautiful and a lithograph on stone. Though I haven’t photographed it the frame is a John Jones frame made of aluminium and is as beautiful as the print.

John O'Conner - 'Boy and the Heron'

John O'Connor A.R.C.A. R.W.S, is today best known for his woodcuts, but during his lifetime he was also celebrated as a watercolourist. In 1930 he enrolled at Leicester College of Art before moving on to the Royal College of Art in 1933. His teachers at this time were Eric Ravilious, John Nash and Robert Austin. He graduated in 1937.

On a visit to Eric Ravilious’s home at Bank House, Castle Hedingham in Essex, O'Connor was captivated both by the directness of the wood-engraving technique, and by the simple domestic scene in which Ravilious engraved by a lamp in one corner of the room while his wife Tirzah played with their small son by the fire in another. It was due to Ravilious that O'Connor got his first commission of work aged 23, illustrating Here’s Flowers by Joan Rutter for the Golden Cockerel Press in 1937.

He taught at Birmingham and Bristol before serving in the Royal Air Force form 41-45. On being demobbed he illustrated two books for the Golden Cockerel Press and taught in Hastings for two years before moving to Colchester to become the head of the School of Art in 1948. He was affectionately known as ‘Joc’ to his students, using his initials. His colleagues included Richard Chopping, who designed dust jackets for the James Bond novels, his own former teacher John Nash, and Edward Bawden, one of the finest British printmakers.

He saw his favourite painting places in Suffolk - the ponds, willows, briars and honeysuckle - disappear beneath the bulldozer and combine harvester. In 1964 O'Connor retired from teaching full time at Colchester, to concentrate on painting and engraving. He wrote various 'How to’ books and taught part time at St Martin’s School of Art. In 1975 he and his wife, Jeannie, went to live by Loch Ken in Kirkcudbrightshire, where his love of light and water inspired his many watercolours and oil paintings. He took up a post teaching at Glasgow School of Art from 1977 to 1984.

In the 1950s and 60s, O'Connor exhibited at the Zwemmer Gallery, in London, and had many exhibitions throughout Britain. His work was purchased by the Arts Council, the Tate Gallery, the British Museum and the Contemporary Art Society, as well as by several local education authorities; it can also be found in the Oslo Museum, the Zurich Museum and at New York central library. He was elected to the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1947, and, in 1974, to the Royal Watercolour Society. He was an honorary member of the Society of Wood Engravers.

June Berry - 'High Meadow'

June Berry studied painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. She has had nineteen solo exhibitions including a retrospective at the Bankside Gallery, London in 2002. Her paintings have been exhibited frequently at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London since 1952. Berry was Vice-President of the Royal Watercolour Society from 2001 to 2004.

Her work is included in the collections of HM the Queen, the British Government Art Collection, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the National Museum of Wales, the Royal West of England Permanent Collection, the Graphothek, Berlin, Germany and the All Union Society of Bibliophiles, Moscow, Russia. Her work has also been purchased by many private collectors in the UK, USA, Germany and Russia. She is a Member of the Royal Watercolour Society, the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, the New English Art Club and is a Royal West of England Academician.

Madeleine Holtom - 'Orchids'

Madeleine Elizabeth Anderson was born in Belvedere, Kent. She studied art at the Kingston School of Art where Reginald Brill was principal with other teaching from Anthony Betts, William Ware and John Platt. In 1932 she was awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art, there she won the painting prize in 1934. She painted in oils and watercolours under William Rothenstein and Gilbert Spencer.

Leaving the RCA she became a professional artist and also worked making advertisements. She married and divorced G. H. Holtom and they had two sons and two daughters, they moved to Northwood near Watford, North-West London. She also exhibited with the New English Art Club.

Her work is represented in the collections of: Friendship House, Moscow. Queen’s College, Oxford. The Cuming Museum. Cheltenham’s Art Gallery. The Government Art Collection, British High Commission, Accra, Ghana.

Frank Freeman - 'Flower Piece',

Frank Freeman is a bit of a mystery to me at the moment. I can find mention of him in a few places but sadly due to the blitz and poor archiving many are the lost. What is known is he was supported for a while by Lucy Carrington Wertheim and he was based in the Manchester area. One flower painting is mentioned in her book Adventure in Art.

Visitors who came to see me about this time. Among these were Frances Hodgkins, who stayed for months at a time at my flat, Henry Moore and his lovely Russian wife, John Skeaping, Barbara Hepworth, Cedric Morris, Lett Haines, John Alford, William Plomer, Leon Underwood, John Gould Fletcher, Pavel Tchelitchew, Komisarieysy, David Fincham and his wife Sybil, Jim Ede and Frank Freeman. Lucy Carrington Wertheim - Adventure in Art, 1947 p10-11

John Wynne-Morgan - 'Christmas Roses'

John Wynne-Morgan was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire and enrolled at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London in 1945.

In a 1962 London catalogue foreword, Wynne-Morgan is described as ‘primarily a portrait painter’ (though the show contained scenes of Paris, Ibiza, Venice and London, and he also painted many Bonnard-ish nudes). His studio was in Hampstead and he was the author of three books for aspiring artists. In Oil Painting as a Pastime: A Complete Course for Beginners (Souvenir Press, London, 1959), he evokes how hard it is to embark on a portrait:

Edna Rodney - 'Parrot Tulips'

Of all the artists I bought Edna Rodney eludes me, I can not find her anywhere and it might be she was an art student who gave up art for a family or she might have been one of Hertfordshire’s pupils that ended up in the collection as sometimes happened. It is rare to find nothing however.

Chloë Cheese - 'Lucky Fish',

Chloëʼs childhood was spent in the Essex village of Great Bardfield observing the printmaking of her mother Sheila Robinson and she remembers in particular often visiting the studios of fellow printmakers Edward Bawden and Michael Rothenstein.

She has contributed to a recent book Bawden, Ravilious and the Artists of Great Bardfield published by the V&A. Chloë studied at Cambridge Art School from 1969 and the RCA from 1973 to 1976.

She has lived in South London since the 70s, investigating her home and surroundings first through drawing which is then used as a basis for the creation of monoprints, lithographs and etchings. Her engagement with still life subjects has widened to include figures against the palimpsest of an urban life.

Chloë has exhibited widely and her work is held in various public collections including The V and A Museum London and The Arts Council of Great Britain. Bio via St Judes.

Chloë Cheese - 'Pink Carnations',

Michael Rothenstein - 'Coronation Cockerel'

Born in Hampstead, London, on 19 March 1908, he was the youngest of four children born to the celebrated artist, Sir William Rothenstein and his wife Alice Knewstub. He studied at Chelsea Polytechnic and later at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Affected by lingering depression, Rothenstein did little art making during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Despite this, he had his first one-man show at the Warren Gallery, London in 1931.

During the late 1930s the artist's output was mainly Neo-Romantic landscapes and in 1940, like Vincent Lines, he was commissioned to paint topographical watercolours of endangered sites for the Recording Britain project organised by the Pilgrim Trust. In the early 1940s he moved to Ethel House, in the north Essex village of Great Bardfield.

At Great Bardfield there was a small resident art community that included John Aldridge, Edward Bawden and Kenneth Rowntree. In the early 1950s several more artists (including George Chapman, Stanley Clifford-Smith, Audrey Cruddas and Marianne Straub) moved to the village making it one of the most artistically creative spots in Britain. Rothenstein took an important role in organising the Great Bardfield Artists exhibitions during the 1950s. Thanks to his contacts in the art world (his older brother, Sir John Rothenstein, was the current head of the Tate Gallery) these exhibitions became nationally known and attracted thousands of visitors.

From the mid-1950s Rothenstein almost abandoned painting in preference to printmaking which included linocut as well as etchings. Like his fellow Bardfield artists his work was figurative but became near abstract in the 1960s.

Although little known as a painter, Rothenstein became one of the most experimental printmakers in Britain during the 1950s and '60s.

Rothenstein was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1977 and a Royal Academician (RA) in 1984. Near the end of his life there was a retrospective of his work at the Stoke-on-Trent City Museum and Art Gallery (1989) and important shows followed at the Fry Art Gallery, Essex.

The print I have (The Cockerel) was made for the Festival of Britain series of prints in 1951 and is signed under the mount. Likely bought from Redfern Galleries.

My blog of some of my pictures from the Cambridgeshire Collection of Pictures from Schools is here.

For areas of research I am indebted to Catherine Davis and Natalie Bradbury.

#Michael Rothenstein #Chloe Cheese #Pictures for Schools #Vera Cunningham #Alistair Grant #Vincent Lines #Molly Field #Berard Gay #David Koster #Raymond Croxon #Julia Ball #John O'Conner #Madeleine Holtom #Frank Freeman #John Wynne-Morgan

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pamphletstoinspire · 6 years ago

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Catholic Physics - Reflections of a Catholic Scientist - Part 101 - Truth Cannot Contradict Truth - Part 8

With Images:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/catholic-physics-reflections-scientist-part-101-truth-harold-baines-3f/

Essay 6: Can Computers Have a Soul?

SECTION 1: Catholic Teaching about the Soul

1.1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND — WHAT ARISTOTLE HAD TO SAY ABOUT SOULS

Although, there are many questions to be asked in this chapter, unfortunately there may not be altogether satisfying answers. Many scientists and philosophers lump together mind, intellect, consciousness, soul, but are they the same? According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the soul includes intellect and also the so-called vegetative capacities (the unconscious). Catholic teaching is consistent with some scientific propositions, but not all. Since there is not yet a consensus explanation in science and philosophy about consciousness / mind, we cannot conclude that disagreement between Catholic teaching and some un-validated scientific proposals means Catholic teaching conflicts with science.

We’ll review both theological and scientific proposals for intellect, consciousness and whatever else can be thought to comprise “the soul.” An extended discussion is given here of Catholic ideas about soul.

The main thing to take away from such discussions is that the soul is immaterial; which is to say that it can’t be weighed, measured or detected by any kind of instrument. Accordingly, most scientists (including me) will tell you that “soul” is not something that can be studied by science.

Let’s turn to the ancient Greeks, to Aristotle, to get a more explicit picture of what the “soul” might be. According to Aristotle, “substance” tells you what a thing is. Substances have two attributes, matter — that of which the “thing” is composed, and form — that which gives it function, shape, organization, determines what it is — as I’ve tried to illustrate below:

Attributes of substances - Adapted from Wikimedia Commons (Caption for linked image)

Matter has the quality of “POTENTIALITY,” which is to say it can be made into something, and the something is the “ACTUALITY,” Matter+Form. The “ESSENCE” of the thing at the bottom of the illustration is that it is a tray, (for which there are many different kinds and individual realizations); in classical and scholastic philosophy “FORM” and “ESSENCE” are equated (see here), but for clarity I have conformed to modern usage and distinguished between the two words.¹

Substances can be further classified as “material” (composed of matter) or “immaterial.” An example of a material substance is given in the above illustration. An example of an immaterial substance is the label on the tray, not as actually printed on the tray but as the words, which could be actualized not only as on the tray, but printed here: “Star Egg Carriers and Trays.” Other examples of immaterial substances, pure form, are numbers and angels — whence the much maligned medieval conundrum, “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?”²

Let’s see how Aristotle applied these notions to living things. A living things can have form, but that form can change during its life: a caterpillar can metamorphose into a butterfly, an ugly duckling into a swan, a wastrel into a saint. So, how did Aristotle take account of such changing form? He termed the changing form of a living thing its “soul;” the soul is the organization of the living thing, how it functions and maintains itself. Further, Aristotle classified souls as “vegetative,” “sensitive,” and “rational,” as shown in the illustration below:

Aristotle’s Classification of Souls for plants, animals and humans from Wikimedia Commons (Caption for linked image)

Where does this classification take us with respect to souls for computers and robots? If you look at the attributes of a rational soul, they include “thought” and “reflection.” Now “reflection” is the capacity to think about things, and in particular, to think about oneself, in other word to be self-aware. This self-awareness — ”Cogito, ergo sum,” I think, therefore I am — is a necessary condition for consciousness, so it will be required for computers and robots if we are to say they have souls. Since moderns — scientists and philosophers who will have no truck with Aristotle or the Medieval Scholastics — say the soul is a meaningless concept, they will argue about whether computers and robots can be conscious, so that is the question we’ll examine in later sections.

And if we decide that computers and robots cannot be self-aware, be conscious, then we can conclude that they do not have souls. Before discussing what modern thinkers have to say about this, let’s hear from my favorite theologian/philosopher saint, St. Augustine.

1.2 WHAT ST. AUGUSTINE SAYS: THE SOUL IS IMMATERIAL AND IMMORTAL

“Such great and wonderful things would never have been done for us by God, if the life of the soul were to end with the death of the body.” - St. Augustine (Hippo), Confessions

Catholic teaching about the soul become firm with St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.). His ideas about the soul, that it was immaterial and immortal, were derived from the following principles:

Since we are made in the image of God, and God is not material, so must be the soul:

“When speaking of God no one should think of Him as something corporeal; nor yet of the soul, for the soul is nearest to God.” - St. Augustine, Confessions

The soul comprises the rational faculty, thinking, and since thoughts are not confined to a spatial location, neither should be the soul, and it is not, therefore, a body, i.e. material.

Since the soul thinks and wills — directs for a purpose — but material bodies do not do this, the soul cannot be a material body.

A soul has moral principles, which a material body does not, so a soul cannot be a material body. Rather the soul and the body are distinct (but see below, in “What the Catholic Catechism Tells Us”), with the soul in command of the body as a rider is in command of a horse. There is a necessary connection between soul and body; they are dependent on one another. They are together one thing:

“Man is a rational substance consisting of soul and body” — St. Augustine, The Trinity

St. Augustine makes a number of arguments for the immortality of the soul, from the notion that it is immaterial, that it is the repository of eternal truths (mathematical and logic) and therefore is also eternal, and from the nature of man’s relation to God (see the opening quote). For a more detailed account, see the article by Br. Justin Hannegan, OSB

One other important theory of how the mind works can be attributed to Augustine, the theory of “Divine Illumination”, that true knowledge comes from God:

“The mind needs to be enlightened by light from outside itself, so that it can participate in truth, because it is not itself the nature of truth. You will light my lamp, Lord.” — St. Augustine, Confessions

Thus two can have the same knowledge, know the same thing because both have knowledge imparted by God:

“When I speak the truth, I do not teach someone who sees these truths. For he is taught not by my words but by the things themselves made manifest within when God discloses them.” — St. Augustine, “De Magistro

1.3 WHAT ST. BONAVENTURE TELLS US: THE TRINITARIAN MODEL FOR THE SOUL

St. Bonaventure also held that Divine Illumination was the source of knowledge for intellectual creatures (humans), who were made as images of God. As creatures (created by God) who think, the ultimate objective of intellectual activity is to seek God.

According to St. Bonaventure, the mind has three principal parts or roles:

“Following this threefold progress, our mind has three principal aspects. One refers to the external body, wherefore it is called animality or sensuality; the second looks inward and into itself, wherefore it is called spirit; the third looks above itself, wherefore it is called mind. From all of which considerations it ought to be so disposed for ascending as a whole into God that it may love Him with all its mind, with all its heart, and with all its soul [Mark, 12, 30]. And in this consists both the perfect observance of the Law and Christian wisdom.” — St. Bonaventure,”The Journey of the Mind into God,” Chapter 1, Art. 4.

This is illustrated below:

St. Bonaventure’s Trinitarian Model of the Soul - Trefoil Triangle from Wikimedia Commons (Caption for linked image)

Another trinitarian interpretation of the soul is to say that it consists of memory, intellect and will. Here’s an analogy I heard first from a recording of Fr. Bernard Groeschel on meditation: some of us can remember watching the television announcement that Pope St. John Paul II was elected Pope and that his name was Karol, Cardinal Wojtyla before he was elected (MEMORY); we know how the Pope is elected and what the office of the Bishop of Rome entails (INTELLECT); and we promised to follow his direction as leader of the Church (WILL).

1.4 WHAT ST. THOMAS AQUINAS TELLS US: THE SOUL IS A SUBSISTENT ENTITY

“Therefore the intellectual principle, which we call the mind or the intellect, has an operation in which the body does not share. Now only that which subsists in itself can have an operation in itself. … We must conclude, therefore, that the human soul, which is called intellect or mind, is something incorporeal and subsistent. - St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia, 75, 2

St. Thomas argues that the soul is a subsistent entity, that is to say, it exists in itself, not as an “epiphenomenon” of something material. Here’s something that is an epiphenomenon: surface tension, wetness, which proceeds from the properties of water and is a property, not a thing in itself. He comes to this conclusion because he notes that we can think — employ the intellect — without the body doing anything (but see below, Section 3, “What Science Fiction has to say).

He also comes to the conclusion that the soul is not matter. Since man can know the nature of material things by virtue of his intellect, the intellect is not in itself material. If it were, it would not be able to “receive the forms” of material or bodily things, as the quote above is meant to demonstrate.

Since the soul is immaterial it does not decay, that is to say it is immortal. However, the soul, as the form of the body, is not a complete substance. It has a necessary relation to the body. Therefore the rational soul can not perform any of the activities it is meant to do — e.g. thinking, worshiping — in a state for which it was not designed, i.e. as a separate entity. Thus the soul after death, separated from the body, needs God to make it and the body one thing again.

1.5 WHAT THE CATHOLIC CATECHISM TELLS US: BODY AND SOUL ARE ONE

Much of Catholic teaching about the soul, embodied in the Catholic Catechism, derives from the works discussed in the preceding sections:

“The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual…. Man, whole and entire is therefore willed by God… soul refers to the innermost aspect of man, that by which he is most specially in God’s image: ‘soul’ signifies the spiritual principle in man… it is because of the spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and body in man are not two natures united but rather their union forms a single nature.” [emphasis added] — ”Catechism of the Catholic Church,” excerpted from paragraphs 362, 363, 365.

The Catechism emphasizes that there are not two separated entities, a material body and a spiritual soul, but that these two aspects are fused into one thing, the human being. However, there is an essential difference between these two aspects:

“The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God–it is not ‘produced’ by the parents–and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death “ [emphasis added] and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection.” — loc.cit. Par. 366

The physical body is inherited from the parents; the body is endowed by God at conception with a soul. Moreover, since the soul is immortal. It will be resurrected — reunited with the body at the last days.

1.6 NOTES

¹I depart from the classical philosophical definition of form here, where “form” is synonymous with “essence.” See here and here. However, that definition does not accord with various different forms, as discussed in the first linked article (Catholic Encyclopedia), and it is also confusing, whence my departure from the classical usage.

²This question actually raises an interesting philosophical point: a point has no area but angels, being immaterial, occupy no area. The question is equivalent to “What is zero divided by zero,” which question mathematicians will tell us is not defined and is, therefore, without meaning.

SECTION 2: What Philosophers Say about Computer Souls

2.1 INTRODUCTION

Let’s start off on a light note. A long time ago when computers were still new (yes, it was that long ago), when I was at my first academic assignment, the head of the division dealing with computers gave a talk on artificial intelligence for computers. One of the humanities faculty in the audience put a question after the talk “Would you want your daughter to marry one [i.e. a computer]?“. Legend has it (I wasn’t there) that he answered “Yes, if she loved him.” Another version of this legend has it that someone shouted out after the question, “Why not — his wife did.”

A necessary condition for computers or robots to have a soul is that they be self-aware, be conscious. If this is not possible, then there would be no way we could think that devices with “artificial intelligence” had souls. So, in this section we’ll focus on whether computers and robots can be self-aware. Another way of talking about this is to ask whether “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) is in fact possible, that is to say, whether computers/robots are intelligent— can think independently, outside a set of prescribed rules, algorithms. We’ll examine below the different answers to this question given by AI experts and philosophers.

2.2 TURING’S ARGUMENT FOR COMPUTER SOULS

Turing Test for Computer Intelligence: observer asks questions of human (behind screen) and computer (behind screen). If questioner can’t tell from the answers which is the computer and which the human, the computer has passed a test for intelligence. - Animation from Wikimedia Commons (Caption for linked image) “Theological Objection: ‘Thinking is a function of man’s immortal soul. God has given an immortal soul to every man and woman, but not to any other animal or to machines. Hence no animal or machine can think.’

Rebuttal to Objection: ‘It appears to me that [The Theological Objection] implies a serious restriction of the omnipotence of the Almighty. It is admitted that there are certain things that He cannot do such as making one equal two, but should we not believe that He has freedom to confer a soul on an elephant if He sees fit? We might expect that He would only exercise this power in conjunction with a mutation which provided the elephant with an appropriately improved brain to minister to the needs of this soul.’

2.3Alan Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence.

Alan Turing was a founder of computer theory, how they work and what they can do. During World War II he led a group of English cryptographers to solve the German “Enigma Code.” His life, an unhappy one, has been the subject of books and plays.

He proposed a test to see if one could say computers were intelligent (see the animation above). His “Turing Test” is totally behavioristic: you have two input tables; behind one is a person, behind the other a computer. You ask questions at each table and on the basis of the answers decide behind which desk is the computer; if you can’t tell the difference, then by objective evidence the computer can think as well as a human can.

A number of objections have been raised to the Turing test as a measure of self-awareness. The best of these, I believe, is John Searle’s “Chinese Room” analogy. Imagine you are in a large room containing many, many manuscripts and directions. A question in Chinese 你喜欢咖啡吗？ (“Do you like Coffee?”) comes into the room and you go to the directions for answering that question. The instruction book lists the Chinese character you are to type out for this question: 是 ( “Yes”). You don’t know Chinese, you don’t understand the characters, but the question is answered correctly. There is clearly no understanding of Chinese as a language, nor is the system (you and the room) conscious or self-aware. There have been arguments about the validity of this analogy (see here), but I believe Searle’s reasoning is valid. He makes the important distinction between grammatical, algorithmic reasoning —proceeding according to a set of rules — and semantics, intelligence — understanding the meaning of rules and terms by association.

2.3 DEGREES OF SELF-AWARENESS, INTELLIGENCE

Since there are degrees of self-awareness, consciousness, intelligence in living things, it follows that if computers can be self-aware, we might expect there to be degrees of consciousness and intelligence in machines generally. Such degrees of consciousness/intelligence have been nicely categorized by George Musser in an article in AEON . His scheme is summarized in the table at the right (Musser gives 13 degrees; I haven’t listed all of them):

Note that the last four machine (computer) examples are from science fiction stories, as is the last “animal” example. Note also — no notion of God as the ultimate super, super-consciousness.

2.4 ELIZA, A COMPUTER THERAPIST

Here’s a Turing Test example: a computer program devised by Joseph Weizenbaum in the 1960’s (MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) to mimic a psycho-therapist.

ELIZA: HELLO. I AM THE DOCTOR. PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT YOUR PROBLEM. (Type in complete sentences and always end your sentence with a period.)

patient: My mother makes me so mad sometimes.

ELIZA: CAN YOU GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE?

patient: She phoned me and expected me to drop everything.

ELIZA: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FAMILY.

patient: I hate my parents.

ELIZA: WHY DO YOU HATE YOUR PARENTS?

patient: They won’t let me go.

ELIZA: IS IT IMPORTANT THAT THEY WON’T LET YOU GO?

patient: I’m suffocating.

….etc.”

People who have engaged this program report that they seem to have encountered a real therapist — they talk about things they would not bring up except to a therapist. So this program would probably pass a Turing test. But it’s clear (I hope) that there’s no self-awareness in the computer as the program proceeds. And whatever intelligence is manifested in the response is that of the programmer, anticipating and correlating stock phrases.

2.5 PHILOSOPHERS DIFFER ON COMPUTER CONSCIOUSNESS

Now certainly one has to answer the question “Can a computer be self-aware?” before answering “Could a computer have a soul?”. AI experts and philosophers of mind (Dennett, Churchland) say yes to the first and refuse to discuss the second. Philosophers of mind (Searle, Penrose, McGinn) who say no to the first question would, of course, say no to the second. The division of opinion on whether computers can think/can be conscious is summarized in the following table, proposed by Roger Penrose:

Attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence, from Roger Penrose (Caption for linked image)

Daniel Dennett is an American philosopher who believes that consciousness is an illusion, that the only thing occurring is the electrical and biochemical action of neurons — that the brain functions very much as a “meat computer.” Dennett is a good example of the “mind emerges from brain” school of philosophers. Others in this school are Paul and Patricia Churchland and David Chalmers. Chalmers believes that there might be something in addition to physiology contributing to the workings of the mind (although he wouldn’t say this something is the Holy Spirit). He struggles with what that something is. See this panel discussion in which Chalmers posits that there’s a 42% chance that we live in a computer simulation (shades of The Matrix!) and, in particular, see time 1:38 for the odds the panelists give of that being the case.

John Searle is an American philosopher of the mind who believes that consciousness is an “epiphenomenon” of biochemical and biophysical brain processes, very much like surface tension — wetness — is an epiphenomenon of the molecular structure of water. However Searle does not believe that consciousness can be a result of a computer-like mechanism (see the “Chinese Room” analogy above). Searle says that consciousness is a physiological property like digestion See this 2014 interview.

Roger Penrose is a British mathematician and physicist who believes that consciousness is directly linked to quantum processes, and that until a satisfactory theory of quantum gravity emerges, there can be no truly complete theory of consciousness. Nevertheless, he and Stuart Hameroff, an anesthesiologist and physiologist, have proposed that quantum effects in microtubules in neurons give rise to consciousness. In his books, The Emperor’s New Mind, Shadows of the Mind, Consciousness and the Universe, Penrose argues strongly that consciousness is not an algorithmic process. He uses Goedel’s Incompleteness Theorem and the Turing Halting Theorem to show that an algorithmic process can not generate theorems in number theory that a human could. There have been many objections to this argument (search: “Penrose Turing Halting Theorem”), so his reasoning has not convinced those in AI community that they are wrong in believing that a computer can be conscious or that the brain is a “meat computer.”

Colin McGinn is one of the new “Mysterians,” philosophers who believe that consciousness is a phenomenon that can never be understood scientifically because we are limited in our understanding.. He follows Chomsky and Nagel in the notion that there are things we cannot experience or “know” in terms of consciousness — if we’re color blind, we can never know what seeing “red” is like, even though we know all there is to know about the neurons affected, the wavelength of the light that excites the red sensation etc. As in Thomas Nagel’s ground-breaking article “What’s it like to be a bat,” we can never have the same sensations as a bat and know what it’s like to perceive by supersonic echoes.

So, what’s the verdict? It seems the jury is hung. No argument presented has been strong enough to convince the others. My own judgment is inclined to that of the New Mysterians. It is a view that is compatible with religious belief, and the belief that at the top of a conscious scale is the consciousness of the Trinitarian God, in which all of Plato’s and St. Augustine’s ideal forms reside.

SECTION 3: Science Fiction Stories about Computer Souls

3.1 INTRODUCTION

A scene from the play “RUR” (“Rossum’s Universal Robots”–Capek, 1923) whence the term “ROBOT” for a mechanical man. - from Wikimedia Commons (Caption for linked image)

Science fiction abounds in tales of robots, androids and computers with intelligence. Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” and his robot/android stories come to mind. And who can forget HAL 9000 in “2001.”

In this section I’ll focus on stories that deal with the notion of robots or computers having a soul, because these stories come closer to defining soulhood than do many of the philosophers and scientists dealing with artificial intelligence.

Since philosophers and AI scientists have not given definitive answers about the souls of computers, consciousness and such, let’s go to a realm where imagination holds sway, unlimited by hard facts. It will certainly be more entertaining (and possibly just as insightful) to hear what science fiction (SF) authors have to say about this. So let’s suppose, as do SF authors, that consciousness is possible by some means or another for computers and robots and see what consequences might ensue concerning ensoulment

3.2 I WANT TO BE A COMPUTER WHEN I DIE

As a transition to considering machine intelligence, let’s examine how SF treats the transfer of human intelligence or personality into computers or robots. Note that one theoretical physicist, Frank Tipler, in his book, The Physics of Christianity, posits that heaven will consist of personalities transferred to software as the universe reaches its end in an “Omega Point‘ singularity. Since it is a black hole type singularity, time is slowed down and the intelligences transferred to software thus have essentially an eternity to enjoy their virtual life.

Among the many SF stories that deal with transferred human intelligence, there is one by Norman Spinrad that especially focuses on the question of soulhood, Deus X. Spinrad treats the question with respect, although his attitude to the Catholic Church is less than reverent (there is a female Pope, Mary I). Below is a summary of the plot, as given in McKee’s excellent survey, The Gospel According to Science-Fiction:

“…thousands of people exist in an artificial afterlife called ‘Transcorporeal Immortality’, having copied their consciousness onto a worldwide computer network called ‘The Big Board’…. Catholic theologian Fr. Philippe de Leone argue[s] that this creation of an artificial soul, which cannot have true self-awareness, dooms the actual soul that is copied to damnation. Pope Mary I, hoping to settle the controversy, orders Fr. DeLeone to have his soul copied upon his death, so that his consciousness can argue against its own autonomous existence from the other side.” — As quoted in The Gospel According to Science Fiction. p.43

Superficially, Pope Mary’s plan seems to contain a paradox. If the downloaded Fr. de Leone changes his mind and says “yes, I am a real soul,” how can we trust what an artificial soul might say? The solution to the paradox is that all of Fr. de Leone’s beliefs have been downloaded to his program. If these beliefs are changed, it means that the entity in the computer has free will, and is thus autonomous and a real soul.

In the story Fr. DeLeone’s soul is “kidnapped” (how do you kidnap a program?) by a group of downloaded personalities that wants to convince the Church, using Fr. de Leone’s download, that they have a real soul. As McKee points out in his synopsis, there is a reverse Turing Test applied here. Fr. de Leone does change his mind, the downloaded personalities declare him a deity (“Deus X”) and a new controversy arises: Church officials declare this deification to be blasphemy. To still the controversy, Fr. de Leone sacrifices his downloaded personality (dies), Pope Mary declares him a saint and recognizes that the downloaded souls are “real”.”

In my opinion, this is not a satisfactory exposition. I hold with the Catholic interpretation (see above) that souls do not function without a body and that a soul and body comprise one person.

3.3 THE CHURCH AND AI: ST. AUGUSTINE AS A COMPUTER — “GUS”

There are many SF works in which the Catholic Church plays a role. In some, the Church and its teachings are treated with respect; in most, not so much. As Gabriel McKee points out in The Gospel According to Science Fiction

“SF, arising as it does from the secular humanism of the Enlightenment, is critical of religious institutions. SF frequently argues that if organized religion is to be a positive force in the future of humankind, it must change drastically to meet the spiritual challenges of the future.” — Gabriel McKee, op.cit., p. 183

A sympathetic view of how the Church might interact with artificial intelligence is given in Jack McDevitt’s fine story, “Gus“. In this beautiful tale, the newly installed rector of a Catholic Seminary interacts with a computer simulation of St. Augustine of Hippo, purchased (the simulation, that is) to help students understand St. Augustine’s teachings. The Rector, Msgr. Chesley, is at first greatly displeased with Gus’s (the program’s) dicta:

” ‘The thing must have been programmed by Unitarians’ Chesley threw over his shoulder. ‘Get rid of it'” — ”Gus” in Cryptics, p. 373.

The relationship between Chesley and Gus becomes warmer with time, as they discuss the problems of being a Catholic in today’s world:

“ ‘Why did Augustine become a priest?’

Chesley asked.

‘I wanted,’ Gus said, with the slightest stress on the first words, ‘to get as close as I could to my Creator.’ Thoughtfully, he added, ‘I seem to have traveled far afield.’

‘Sometimes I think,’ Chesley said, ‘the Creator hides himself too well.’

‘Use his Church,‘ said Gus. ‘That is why it is here.’

‘It has changed.’

“Of course it has changed. The world has changed.’

‘The Church is supposed to be a rock.’

‘Think of it rather as a refuge in a world that will not stand still.’ “ — op. cit., p. 382,

Gus’s sayings to the students become so unorthodox (he decries the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary) that other faculty decided he should be downloaded to storage and traded in for a computer simulation of Thomas Aquinas (plus business software). Gus asks Msgr. Chesley to hear his Confession and then destroy him, so he can have peace:

” ‘I require absolution, Matt.’

Chesley pressed his right hand into his pocket. ‘It would be sacrilege,’ he whispered.

‘And if I have a soul, Matt, if I too am required to face judgment, what then?’

Chesley raised his right hand, slowly, and drew the sign of the cross in the thick air. ‘I absolve you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’

‘Thank you…There’s something else I need you to do, Matt. This existence holds nothing for me. But I am not sure what downloading might mean.’

‘What are you asking?”

‘I want to be free of all this. I want to be certain I do not spend a substantial fraction of eternity in the storeroom.’

Chesley trembled. ‘If in fact you have an immortal soul,’ he said, ‘you may be placing it in grave danger.’

‘And yours as well. I have no choice but to ask. Let us rely on the mercy of the Almighty.’

Tears squeezed into Chesley’s eyes. He drew his finger- tips across the hard casing of the IBM. ‘What do I do? I’m not familiar with the equipment.’

‘Have you got the right computer?’

‘Yes.’

‘Take it apart. Turn off the power first. All you have to do is get into it and destroy the hard disk.’

‘Will you — feel anything?’

‘Nothing physical touches me, Matt.’

Chesley found the power switch… He found a hammer and a Phillips screwdriver. He used the screwdriver to take the top off the computer. A gray metal box lay within. He opened it and removed a gleaming black plastic disk. He embraced it, held it to his chest. Then he set it down, and reached for the hammer. In the morning, with appropriate ceremony, he buried it in consecrated soil.” — op. cit., pp. 388-389

As always, I asked my wife to review this article. I asked her whether she was moved by the story of Gus. She replied, “If it were St. Augustine on his death-bed talking to his confessor, yes; but a black plastic disc–never.” Even though I was moved to tears when I first read the story, I raise the same objections as I did for downloaded human personalities: the Catholic teaching that soul and body are one.

3.4 DOES DATA HAVE A SOUL?

Commander Riker removes the arm of Data, the Android, to show he is only a machine.

from Fandom

For those who aren’t Trekkies, Data is the android navigator in the second Star Trek series, Star Trek: the Next Generation. He aspires to humanity and sometimes reaches and even surpasses that state. There is a problem, however, in that whether Data has a soul is never considered in any of the episodes, possibly because the word “soul” is anathema to writers and producers of popular entertainment. So in the episode, “The Measure of a Man”, the question “Is Data a sentient being” is asked, rather than “Does Data have a soul”.

The question is addressed in a trial, to see if Data, as a “sentient being”, has the right to refuse to be disassembled for study and refitting. Captain Picard acts in Data’s behalf and Commander Riker, under duress, as the prosecutor. Riker attempts to demonstrate that Data is a machine by switching him off and taking his arm off:

“[Riker is doing his duty in the courtroom]

Commander William T. Riker: The Commander [Data] is a physical representation of a dream – an idea, conceived of by the mind of a man. Its purpose: to serve human needs and interests. It’s a collection of neural nets and heuristic algorithms; its responses dictated by an elaborate software written by a man, its hardware built by a man. And now… and now a man will shut it off.[Riker switches off Data, who slumps forward like a lifeless puppet]

Commander William T. Riker: Pinocchio is broken. Its strings have been cut.” The Measure of a Man, Quotes.

Captain Picard gives a stirring defense, arguing that the question of whether Data is conscious — self-aware — has not and cannot be settled, any more than whether one can be certain that another person is conscious except by external behavior. And finally the question of soulhood is addressed minimally:

“Captain Phillipa Louvois [The Judge]: It sits there looking at me; and I don’t know what it is. This case has dealt with metaphysics – with questions best left to saints and philosophers. I am neither competent nor qualified to answer those. But I’ve got to make a ruling, to try to speak to the future. Is Data a machine? Yes. Is he the property of Starfleet? No. We have all been dancing around the basic issue: does Data have a soul?[emphasis added] I don’t know that he has. I don’t know that I have. But I have got to give him the freedom to explore that question himself. It is the ruling of this court that Lieutenant Commander Data has the freedom to choose.” [notice the shift from “it” to “he”] ibid.

And so Data is left free, and the question of whether he has a soul, undetermined — as in the Scottish verdict, “Not Proven.”

Whether Data has a soul is more difficult judgment than for the previous stories: Data has a body, and if his body is disabled then he, as a unit, doesn’t function. This condition satisfies the Catholic teaching that body and soul are one. On the other hand, Catholic teaching tells us that the soul is given to us at conception by the Holy Spirit. Would we say that the Holy Spirit instills a soul into Data when the first circuit was implanted? I don’t think so, but maybe I’m wrong. What do you think, Dear Reader?

3.5 FINAL THOUGHTS

It seems from the above that Catholic teaching has more definite things to say about ensoulment and what the soul is than do science and philosophy. There is much disagreement amongst the advocates of AI and philosophers about who and what might be endowed with consciousness and real intelligence, much less who or what might be given a soul.

If one defines a God-given soul as the capacity to wonder where we came from, what will happen when we die, who made all this and why, then I believe that is unlikely that computers, machine intelligence will have that ability, despite the science-fiction stories to the contrary. Nor will animals, even though they have intelligence in some degree. Could there be sentient beings with souls on extra-terrestial planets? Possibly, and even the Church is interested in that possibility, as attested by a Vatican sponsored conference on the possibility:

“Just like there is an abundance of creatures on earth, there could also be other beings, even intelligent ones, that were created by God. That doesn’t contradict our faith, because we cannot put boundaries to God’s creative freedom. As Saint Francis would say, when we consider the earthly creatures to be our ‘brothers and sisters,’ why couldn’t we also talk about an ‘extraterrestrial brother?’ He would still be part of creation.” — Fr. Gabriel Funes, Chief Astronomer to the Vatican, Osservatore Romano, 2014

Well, maybe — but we’ll very likely not know in our lifetime.

SECTION 4: Science Background — Elements of Neuroscience

4.1 Why (Some) Scientists Say there is No Such Thing as a Soul

If one believes that everything can be explained by science (which I don’t), then only that which can be measured or observed in replicated experiments is “real”. Accordingly, many scientists regard the “soul” as a fictitious entity, since it is immaterial and has no measurable properties that can be observed in replicable experiments.

Rather than speaking of the soul, scientists focus on the mind as a function of what goes on in the brain. Such functions can be localized in various regions of the brain (see the figure below).

Brain Areas Controlling Different Functions from Wikimedia Commons (Caption for linked image)

The various actions governed by the brain can be localized by observing behavioral changes when different parts are injured or with modern imaging techniques: MRI, SPECT, PET scans.

4.2 SCIENTIFIC MEASUREMENTS OF BRAIN ACTIVITY

“Interestingly, the average human brain weighs about 1.5 kilograms, has about 160 billion cells and about 100 billion neurons connecting the cells… One can look at the brain and see the incredible complexities and the miracles of the Divine …or one can respond … that this has nothing to do with G-d. Some people will be inspired with belief in the Almighty; others will claim that somehow billions of cells and neurons working together can be created through random evolution.” — Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein, “Jewish World Review,” 17 January 2014

The basic unit of the brain is the neuron, depicted in the figure below. The average human brain contains about 86 billion neurons. They act by release of chemicals (neurotransmitters) to adjacent neurons across a synaptic junction (gap) and thereby generate electrical signals, nerve impulses, that travel along nerve fibers and thereby generate electrical signals, nerve impulses, that travel along nerve fibers.

Diagram of a Neuron; inset is diagram of a synapse between transmitter (A) and receptor (B) neurons.

1: mitochondria; 2. vesicle containing neurotransmitter molecules; 3. autoreceptor gate; 4. synaptic cleft (3/10,000 of paper thickness); 5. neurotransmitter molecule receptor; 6. calcium gate; 7. fused vesicle releasing neurotransmitter molecules; 8. neurotransmitter molecule re-uptake pump.

Here’s a nice video explaining in more detail how nerve transmission works.

How Nerve Transmission

https://youtu.be/rWrnz-CiM7A or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWrnz-CiM7A&feature=youtu.be

Since there is electrical activity in the brain due to nerve impulse transmission, this can be measured by EEG (ElectroEncephaloGraphy) which can be used to detect abnormal brain behavior, as in epilepsy. The state of water in the brain, and the corresponding state of brain tissue — normal or abnormal — can be studied by high resolution CAT scans (x-ray tomography), or MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

MRI of Brain with Tumor

A: Feb 2005, before treatment;

B,C: Later in 2005, after treatment;

D,E: Recurrence and treatment with radiotherapy

F: Treatment with chemotherapy.

from Wikimedia Commons (Caption for linked image)

Functional MRI scan of visual activity in occipital lobe of brain from Wikimedia Commons (Caption for linked image)

Chemical activity in the brain can be detected by Positron Emission Tomography (PET scans), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), or functional MRI (fMRI). The first two techniques use radioactive tracers attached to molecules which will be metabolized (e.g. sugar molecules) at areas of localized brain activity. fMRI relies on increased blood flow to areas of the brain that are active; the blood contains oxygen molecules, which are paramagnetic and affect the MRI signal.

The picture above shows an fMRI scan of a subject watching “a complex moving visual stimulus and rest condition (black screen)”. The activation (yellow-orange) is shown against a “regular MRI corresponding to the brain region scanned.” The left-hand side of the image corresponds to the occipital region of the brain, where visual images are processed.

4.3 NEUROIMAGING AND THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

An interesting application of SPECT imaging is reported by Professor Andrew Newberg, Jefferson University Hospital. He showed, comparing images from religious (nuns, monks) and atheists, what brain regions and thus what brain functions are activated or deactivated by such religious acts as prayer, meditation, contemplation.

A detailed account of this is given in Professor Newberg’s web site and here; briefly, the account is this. When people with long experience in contemplative prayer (for example, Franciscan Nuns) pray, the frontal regions of the brain — the area of higher mental activity, forethought, etc — are activated and the parietal areas — which give a sense or orientation, bodily location—are deactivated. The latter result, according to Professor Newborn, corresponds to a feeling of losing self, of oneness with the environment, a feeling often associated with deep meditation and contemplation. On the other hand, the brains of atheists do not show such changes.

One point should be emphasized here. Although location of brain activity, locations correlated with function, can be found by these imaging techniques, such results in themselves do not give a complete understanding of mental activity, a proof that this activity is purely a consequence of material goings-on. It’s very much as if we have a computer with unlabeled inputs and outputs. After some trial and error we discover that one output goes to a display, one input for commands to move a cursor, etc. We’ve determined location and function, but we do not have a complete picture of what goes on in the internal workings of the computer.

4.4 A FINAL THOUGHT

We can conclude, I believe, that scientific measurements, including modern imaging techniques — fMRI, SPECT, PET — show us where in the brain functions are performed and what electrical and chemical processes occur for such functions. However, they do not tell us why we know who we are, why “cogito ergo sum” is true for us, but not a computer.

From a series of articles written by: Bob Kurland - a Catholic Scientist

#catholic physics

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todayclassical · 8 years ago

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May 24 in Music History

1610 Birth of composer Giovanni Battista Chinelli.

1736 Birth of composer Juan Sesse Balaguer.

1737 Birth of composer Louis Francois Chambray.

1754 Birth of composer Giacomo Conti.

1767 Birth of composer Joseph Ignaz Schnabel.

1737 FP of Duni's "Demofoonte" London.

1781 Birth of French hornist and composer Louis-Francois Dauprat in Paris.

1803 FP of Beethoven's Kreutzer sonata. Beethoven, piano; Bridgetower, violinist in Vienna.

1808 FP of Isouard's "Un jour à Paris ou la leçon singulière" Paris.

1813 FP of Méhul's "Le prince troubadou" Paris.

1826 Death of German violinist and composer Friedrich Ernst Fesca.

1831 Birth of English pianist Richard Hoffman in Manchester, England.

1831 Death of singer, organist, and publisher Benjamin Carr in Philadelphia.

1833 FP of Marschner's opera Hans Heiling at the Königliches Opernhaus in Berlin.

1834 FP of Auber's "Lestocq, ou L'intrigue et l'amour" Paris.

1841 Birth of soprano Zulmar Bouffar in Nerac.

1841 Birth of composer and pianist Tito Mattei.

1848 Death of German composer Annette von Droste-Hulshoff.

1859 FP Charles Gounod’s Ave Maria. Madame Caroline Miolan-Carvalho sang in Paris.

1873 FP of Delibes' "Le roi l'a dit" Paris.

1874 FP of Hallström's "Den Bergtagna" Stockholm.

1876 Birth of French bass Louis Azeman in Agde Heraut.

1878 Birth of Belgian tenor Charles Fontaine in Antwerp.

1879 Birth of French soprano Suzanne Cesbron-Viseur.

1886 Birth of French conductor and composer Paul Paray in Le Tréport.

1893 FP of Saint-Saëns' "Phryné" Paris.

1896 Birth of Danish opera composer and conductor Johan Hye-Knudsen.

1898 FP of Smyth's "Fantasio" Weimar.

1899 FP of Jules Massenet's Cendrillon in Paris, with Georgette Bréjean-Silver.

1903 Birth of Swedish composer Hilding Hallnäs.

1905 Birth of composer Zdenek Blazek.

1906 FP of Delius' Sea Drift in Essen, Germany.

1906 FP of Braunfels' "Falada" Essen.

1908 Birth of composer Kresimir Fribec.

1910 Birth of English soprano Victoria Sladen in London.

1910 Birth of composer Margers Zarins.

1910 Birth of composer Nils-Eric Fougstedt.

1911 FP of Sir Edward Elgar's Second Symphony. Elgar conducts in London.

1912 Birth of New Zealand soprano Dame Joan Hammond in Christchurch.

1914 Birth of Italian baritone Giuseppe Valdengo in Turin.

1918 Death of American tenor Evan Williams.

1918 FP of Bela Bartók's opera Bluebeard's Castle at the Budapest Opera.

1919 Death of Russian pianist and composer Nadezhda Rimskaya-Korsakova in Petrograd.

1921 Birth of Italian tenor Giuseppe Zampieri in Verona.

1922 Birth of composer Sadao Bekku.

1924 Birth of Czech soprano Milada Subrtova in Lohta.

1924 Birth of composer Donald Aird.

1926 Death of Polish tenor Nikolaus Rothmuhl.

1927 Birth of Polish soprano Jadwiga Wysoczanska in Prague.

1927 Birth of Italian bass Paolo Washington in Florence.

1930 Birth of German flutist and composer Hans-Martin Linde.

1932 Birth of soprano Elaine Malbin.

1936 Birth of American pianist and composer Harold Budd, in L.A. CA.

1936 Death of Italian soprano Claudia Muzio.

1937 FP of Hau's "Tartuffe" Basel.

1939 FP of Elliott Carter's ballet Pocahontas at the Martin Beck Theater in NYC. Fritz Kitzinger conducting.

1941 Birth of German composer Konrad Boehmer in Berlin.

1941 Birth of composer Brian Dennis.

1944 Death of bass Paul Aumonier.

1948 FP of Benjamin Britten's orchestration of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera in Cambridge, England.

1952 Birth of English mezzo-soprano Fiona Kimm in Ipswich.

1955 Birth of American composer Philip Fried in NYC.

1957 FP of Gardner's "The Moon and Sixpence" London.

1957 FP of G. Antheil's "Venus in Africa" Denver.

1960 Birth of English conductor Paul McCreesh.

1962 Death of mezzo-soprano Cloe Elmo.

1968 Death of American composer Bernard Rogers in Rochester, NY.

1969 FP of Per Norgaard's Voyage into the Golden Screen.

1970 Birth of baritone Michael Chioldi.

1970 FP of Andrzej Panufnik's Universal Prayer for soprano, contralto, tenor, and bass soloists, chorus, 3 harps, and organ, composed 1968-69. Leopold Stokowski conducting at St. John the Divine Cathedral in NYC.

1974 Death of American composer Edward Kennedy 'Duke' Ellington in NYC at age 73.

1975 Death of English baritone Redvers Llewellyn.

1996 Death of American composer Jacob Druckman.

#classicalmusic #musichistory #todayclassical #today in music history #on this day

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arsenalhistory · 8 years ago

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On This Day

On this day in 1891 Royal Arsenal had a friendly match against London Caledonians at the Invicta Ground. Humphrey Barbour scored the goal that gave the Royals a 1-1 draw.

Glasgow Rangers were in Plumstead for a friendly today in 1892. Bernard Shaw and Jack Graham both got in the goals for Royal Arsenal but the Scottish side won the match 2-3.

It was Caesar Jenkyns and Charles Hare that scored for Woolwich Arsenal at White Hart Lane today in 1896 but north London beat south as Tottenham Hotspur ran out 3-2 winners.

Woolwich Arsenal travelled to play local rivals Millwall Athletic on this day in 1898 in a post season friendly. The Arsenal failed to score and were beaten 2-0. Having played his final league match seven days before, captain and winger Gavin Crawford donned an Arsenal shirt for the very last time. The Scotsman had played 138 matches for Royal and Woolwich Arsenal and scored 17 times. On the 3rd of April 1897 he became the first player to make 100 appearances for the club. He left to join Millwall Athletic, played for Queens Park Rangers and after retiring from playing he became head groundsman at the Valley for Charlton Athletic.

In the last match of the London League Premier Division season today in 1904 Woolwich Arsenal failed to score and were beaten 1-0 by Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Silverware for Woolwich Arsenal today in 1906. Percy Sands scored the only goal in the match against Reading to make it 0-1 and win the Southern Professional Charity Cup.

Today in 1908 Woolwich Arsenal’s amazing Scottish tour finally came to an end with a 2-1 victory over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. Harold Lee got both the goals for the Gunners. Eight matches had been completed between April the 21st and 30th.

When Woolwich Arsenal travelled to Ilford for a post season friendly today in 1910 they were beaten 3-2. Albert Beney and Charles Lewis' goals were all to no avail.

Woolwich Arsenal were invited to play Norwich City in the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital Cup. 6,683 spectators watched a Henry King masterclass as he got a hat trick for Woolwich Arsenal to win the match 0-3.

On this day in 1920 inside forward Paddy Sloan was born in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. He joined Arsenal from Tranmere Rovers in 1946 and played 36 matches, scoring once. In 1948 he was sold to Sheffield United before leaving to play for numerous clubs in Italy.

Defeat for Arsenal today in 1921 in the penultimate match of the Division 1 season. They failed to score at St James' Park and were beaten 1-0 by Newcastle United.

At Highbury today in 1927 Arsenal faced Birmingham (not yet City). James Brain, Bob John and Reg Tricker all scored in a 3-0 victory. Leaving aside the FA Cup final victory Arsenal had now won their last five league matches.

1932 and today Middlesbrough must have regretted turning up in Islington and after being beaten 5-0 by Arsenal at Highbury. Jack Lambert and Cliff Bastin helped themselves to two goals a piece and Boro even helped out with an own goal to compound their misery.

Today in 1938 Arsenal beat Liverpool 1-0 at Highbury courtesy of an Eddie Carr goal. With one game to go Arsenal had a one point lead at the top, but Wolverhampton Wanderers had a game in hand.

Football but not Arsenal. In 1952 today continuing the regular end of season fixtures at Highbury, The British Olympic XI played England B Trial XI and the England team won the match 0-3.

The representative match at the Arsenal Stadium today in 1954 was an England XI versus Young England. The youth side were narrowly beaten 2-1.

In the final match of the season today in 1955 Arsenal were at Fratton Park where a David Herd goal was not enough to avoid the 2-1 defeat by Portsmouth. Arsenal could only finish in 9th place as Chelsea won the league. Don Oakes played the final time today. In his ten years at the club he only managed 11 senior appearances in which he scored once. He scored 68 goals in 158 Football Combination appearances however and did win league honours in 1952/1953. He was forced to retire at the end of this season with rheumatic problems.

Arsenal were at Twerton Park for a friendly today in 1959. Tommy Docherty, Len Julians and Jackie Henderson all scored but the non-league side still won the match 4-3.

Also on this day in 1959 Ian McKechnie signed his professional papers with Arsenal. He signed as an amateur outside left in 1958 but was transformed into a goalkeeper, and became the the first Scot to be chosen to play for the London Youth XI. he played 25 times for Arsenal before leaving on a free in 1964 to join Southend United.

It was a 1-0 defeat by West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns today in 1960 in the final match of the season. Arsenal finished in the bottom half of the table in 13th position.

Arsenal Football Club was saddened today in 1964 to hear of the death of former goalkeeper Ernest Williamson from pneumonia in Norwich. He guarded the net 113 times for the club between 1919 and 1923 before moving to Norwich City where he retired and became a publican.

Midfielder Eddie McGoldrick celebrates his birthday today. McGoldrick was born in Islington in 1965. The Republic of Ireland international joined Arsenal in 1993 from Crystal Palace. He played 57 times and scored once before moving on to Manchester City in 1996.

Also on this date in 1965 Arsenal kicked off a three match tour of Italy in a match against Torino at the Stadio Olimpico. Goals from Jon Sammels and Tommy Baldwin kept it to a friendly 2-2 draw in Turin.

While Arsenal were away in Italy, Highbury was in use today for England to meet Young England in a Representative Match which ended in a 2-2 draw.

Villa Park was the venue today in 1966 and Arsenal failed to find the net and were defeated 3-0 by Aston Villa.

Only 11,262 turned up at Highbury today in 1968 to watch Arsenal take on Sheffield Wednesday. It ended 3-2 to the Gunners with David Court, John Radford and Bobby Gould getting the goals. It was part of a five consecutive win run taking the club to the end of the season.

On this date in 1969 John Roberts signed from Northampton Town for £35,000. The Welsh centre back played 81 times for Arsenal and scored 5 times along the way. He was with the club during the first double season winning a league winners medal but did not play in the FA Cup final. He left in 1972 to join Birmingham City.

Today in 1974 was a happy and a sad day. In the final match of the season it ended 1-1 between Arsenal and Queens Park Rangers at Highbury to leave Arsenal finishing 10th in the league. The happy part was the goalscorer was Liam 'Chippy' Brady getting his first for the club on his way to becoming a fan favourite. The sad part was this being the final match for two great Arsenal names. he legend that is Bob Wilson played his final match between the posts. He played 308 times and is second in the keeper appearance list only to his future protege David Seaman. The other name to leave Arsenal after this match was the great Ray Kennedy. Ray scored 71 in 212 appearances for the Gunners before (in what goes down on of one of the worst decisions) being sold to Liverpool for £180,000.

Arsenal made it six wins in seven matches today in 1977 when they got a 0-2 win over Newcastle United at St James' Park. Malcolm Macdonald and John Matthews got the goals.

Defeat to Watford at Vicarage Road today in 1983. Brian McDermott did score against the Hornets but Arsenal lost 2-1.

On this date in 1984 former Arsenal midfielder and captain Jimmy Logie died. Between 1939 and 1955 he played in 328 matches and scored 76 goals for the club. His life after Arsenal is somewhat hard to trace. We know he was a player/manager of Gravesend & Northfleet, but also that he had a gambling problem and ended up selling the evening newspapers in the West End.

At Hillsborough today in 1988 Arsenal took on Sheffield Wednesday. Arsenal had beaten Wednesday in the League Cup by a Nigel Winterburn goal en route to Wembley but this was a routine First Division match. 16,681 hardy souls were rewarded with Wednesday racing into a three goal lead, only for a Paul Merson brace and a single Alan Smith goal to save a point for the Gunners.

This date in 1993 saw the untimely death of Tommy Caton from a heart attack aged 30. Between 1983 and 1987 he had played 95 matches for Arsenal and scored 3 goals from centre back. He had retired from football just one month earlier. He left a wife and three children.

Into the Premiership era and today in 1994 West Ham United came to Highbury and grabbed a 0-2 win over Arsenal.

Finally, on this day in 2012 Lukas Podolski agreed to join Arsenal for around £11m at the start of the transfer window. Although initially a firm crowd favourite he seemed to fall out of favour with Arsene Wenger and in January 2015 moved out on loan to Internazionale.

#arsenal

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thebayeuxtapestry-medievalworld · 8 years ago

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Depicted above: coronation of Harold as King of England

The Bayeux Tapestry is the most famous piece of English embroidery. Through complete luck the tapestry has survived for almost 1000 years. With nothing but needle, thread, and a linen background, the Bayeux Tapestry tells the story of the Norman conquest of England. The Tapestry boasts 626 human figures, 190 horses or mules, 35 hounds or dogs, 506 other animals, 37 ships, 33 buildings, and 37 trees or groups of trees.[1] But what makes the Tapestry so powerful is its function as both a Latin cartoon and a well written piece of Medieval Latin text.

The Tapestry was commissioned in 1067 by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, half-brother to William the Conqueror, and was believed to have been hung in the Bayeux Cathedral, but this seems unlikely due to its secular nature and its sheer size. More likely, the Tapestry was kept in Odo’s hall, and hung in the nave of the cathedral for feast days and other special occasions.[2] Because of the brief period between the events of the Norman conquest of England and the Tapestry’s production, it is considered an accurate documentation of events.

The earliest written record of the Tapestry is from 1476 in an inventory of the treasury of Bayeux Cathedral.[3] It escaped the iconoclastic efforts of the French Huguenots in the sixteenth century, and it was not until the early eighteenth century when it was first properly identified by Dom Bernard du Montfaucon, a Benedictine scholar, in 1729-30, in his Les Monuments de la Monarchie française. Sometime in the eighteenth century, the traditional belief that the Tapestry was created by Queen Matilda as a gift for William, her husband, began to appear.[4] In 1792, the Tapestry was confiscated as public property and was to have been used to cover military wagons were it not for the intervention of a Bayeux lawyer named Léonard Leforestier. It was briefly displayed in the Louvre early in 1804, and after this it was returned to the people of Bayeux who made it available for scholarly study. During the Second World War, it was briefly being evacuated to the Louvre, and since February 1983, it has been on display in the seventeenth-century Old Seminary, now a part of the Bayeux Municipal Library.[5]

The story of the Tapestry begins with King Edward I of England sending Harold, the Earl of Wessex, to Normandy, most likely to reaffirm a promise that Edward had made to William, then Duke of Normandy, that William would succeed Edward to the English throne.[6] Later, upon Edward’s death, Harold seizes the crown, denying William what he believes is his rightful crown. In response, William invades England with his Norman fleet, and defeats Harold at the Battle of Hastings, fought on October 14, 1066. The Tapestry ends with the English army fleeing the battle, but the Tapestry appears to have lost two sections. These sections most likely depicted the coronation of William as King William I, the first of the Norman kings of England.

[1] Charles H. Gibbs-Smith, The Bayeux Tapestry (New York: Phaidon, 1973), 6-7 .

[2] Ibid, 5.

[3] John D. Anderson, “The Bayeux Tapestry: A 900-Year Old Latin Cartoon”, The Classical Journal 81 (1986): 253 – 257. Accessed Feb. 11, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3297235

[4] Richard Rex, trans., The Bayeux Tapestry (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2005), 14.

[5] Ibid, 15-16.

[6] Gibbs-Smith, Bayeux Tapestry, 10.

Depicted in order of appearance: (1) Norman preparations for an invasion of England; (2 & 3) Normans sailing for England; (4) detail of Battle of Hastings; (5) death of King Harold during Battle of Hastings

The politics of the Tapestry are biased, as it was commissioned by a Norman.[1] The Tapestry, while meant to commemorate William’s triumph, also functions as propaganda, providing justification for William’s invasion of England, beginning with the broken promise of the English crown.[2] One of the strongest arguments for this theory can be found in the border of the Tapestry, with the portrayal of many of Aesop’s fables. Fables were an important Medieval genre of literature, and their use in the Tapestry creates discursive meaning.[3] For example, the greatest concentration of the fables appear during Harold’s journey to and while in Normandy. The fables portrayed all center around themes of treachery, greed, betrayal, and trickery. When the Norman perspective of the Tapestry is considered, these themes heavily present around Harold provide more evidence for the Tapestry’s purpose as propaganda. The Tapestry was produced in such a way as to make it easy to transport and display publicly.[4] Additionally, the portrayal of Aesop’s fables requires a familiarity with the stories of the fables to understand their full impact, indicating the original audience of the Tapestry to be elite and noble members of Norman society, who would have had the education to recognize their meaning. It was these noblemen and women who would have been greatly concerned and been the most upset by William’s invasion of England.[5]

These powerful connotations seem very odd to have been found in an art form, but the Tapestry’s use of Latin inscriptions also verifies its status as a textual document. The use of Latin also provides an interesting window into the politics of the time following the Norman conquest in England, as the use of Latin is a sudden, marked change from the use of the Anglo-Saxon vernacular in English art and literature that had been encouraged under King Alfred the Great.[6] Perhaps this could have been a request of the Tapestry’s Norman patron, but regardless of the reason, it is still a marked departure from the status quo of English art and literature.

The Tapestry is remarkable in its incorporation of everyday Medieval life alongside the epic tale of the Norman conquest. The scene depicting the Norman preparations for the invasion show the array of weaponry and armor that were utilized during the Medieval period. There is a portrayal of a farmer plowing his field with a mule while another uses a slingshot to scare off a bird. Later, the Tapestry shows a baker during the feast of the Normans before the Battle of Hastings. The detail of the armor on the soldiers during the Battle of Hastings provides an accurate image of what armor worn then was like and how it functioned. The scene of William’s army feasting before the battle shows what common foods were on campaign during this time. Whether intentional or not, the Tapestry provides a window into the culture and society of Medieval Europe.

[1] “The Bayeux Tapestry”, Dr. Kristine Tanton, accessed Feb. 8, 2017, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonial-americas/medieval-europe-islamic-world/a/bayeux-tapestry

[2] Suzanne Lewis, The Rhetoric of Power in the Bayeux Tapestry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

Depicted in order of appearance: (1) baker baking before Battle of Hastings; (2) deer hunt; (3) farmers plowing and sowing field; (4) Normans feasting before Battle of Hastings; (5) close-up view of armor and weapons worn by English forces; (6) Norman preparations for invasion, showing different weapons and armor worn

The golden age of English pictorial art ran from around the year 966 to 1066.[1] English needlework and embroidery was prized throughout Europe. Historians believe that the Tapestry was produced by people in the monastic life, specifically from St. Augustine’s monastery in Canterbury, which can be supported when comparing the style of images from the Tapestry to the style of images found in manuscripts from the same period at the monastery.[2] Experts believe that the Tapestry was produced by teams of embroiderers and took approximately two years to complete. The Tapestry is designed as multiple pieces of linen with specific scenes portrayed. These smaller pieces of linen would have been produced separately and then stitched together to create the final product.

The Tapestry is a combination of two popular styles employed by English embroiderers. The “Utrecht” style, based off the famed Utrecht Psalter, which has elegantly written Latin inscriptions of psalms accompanied with stunning illustrations. The Winchester style, so named because of its association with the so-called Winchester School, had three distinct characteristics. First, Winchester style had an overwhelmingly profuse use of gold and heavy colors to create an incredibly lavish visual. Second, the artists using Winchester style were just as concerned with the overall decorative effects as they were with the story itself. Third, the surrounding frame was not only an enclosure, but an integral part of the composition. The Bayeux Tapestry itself has five distinct stylistic features. First, the Tapestry has a pervasive naturalism, liveliness, and lightness of spirit. Second, there is a great fondness for decorative patterns. Third, the Tapestry’s style of embroidery is a combination of the Utrecht and Winchester styles discussed earlier. Fourth, the borders of the tapestry play various roles as the story of the Tapestry progresses. Finally, the distinctive use of a continuous, sequential narrative arranged on a peculiarly shaped textile set the Tapestry apart from other embroideries that have been produced.[3]

The Tapestry’s background is a white linen. The embroideries are of wool thread in eight different colors, adding to the aesthetic prowess of the Tapestry. The colors were achieved through a variety of resources, mostly mineral based or plant based dyes and pigments. The main style of embroidery used is laid and couched work. This style of stitching is most effective and efficient when large areas need to be covered, so this style is found mostly on people, buildings, and other large areas of color.[4] Surrounding these larger areas, embroiderers employed stem and outline stitches, usually in black or a darker color to give definition to the figures. These darker colors also contrast starkly with the bright, white linen background.[5] The style of the Tapestry is quite unique, making it difficult to compare it to similar works. First, the Tapestry portrays a secular subject. Second, the technique that the embroidery is worked in is sufficiently distinctive from that of other embroideries from this time. Third, the Tapestry’s long, narrow form is unusual.[6] The Tapestry’s survival to modern times is, by far, its most unique feature, as there are no similar pieces that have survived to modern times. Any surviving embroideries are usually horribly neglected fragments that have deteriorated and faded over time, and the Tapestry’s survival as a full piece (except for the two missing pieces from the end) sets it apart.

The Bayeux Tapestry, while not truly a tapestry, has survived for nearly 1000 years, through the French Revolution, both World Wars, and countless other conflicts. Today, it is visited by millions, experts and simple tourists alike, and its splendor captivates all. Its position as a direct source and commentary on both the Norman conquest of England and everyday Medieval life is a marvel. And the Tapestry’s double function as an artistic feat and a historical text only add to its merit and magnificence.

[1] David J. Bernstein, The Mystery of the Bayeux Tapestry (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 60-70.

[2] Ibid, 60-70.

[3] Ibid, 70.

[4] Sir Frank Steton et al., The Bayeux Tapestry (London: Phaidon Press, 1957), 40.

[5] Ibid, 41.

[6] Ibid, 48.

#medieval world #medieval art #bayeux tapestry #research #images #norman conquest #william the conqueror #everyday medieval #king harold #propaganda #embroidery #not really a tapestry #laid and couched stitching #history

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Text

JoAnne Akalaitis

Mac Wellman

Jack Thorne

Mfoniso Udofia

Jessica Hagedorn

Tom Hiddleston in Pinter’s “Betrayal”

In this eclectic opening month of the New York Fall theater season laid out below, legendary theater artists Mac Wellman (74),JoAnne Akalaitis (82), and Peter Brook (94) each get showcases for their work; Wellman a whole festival. Three shows are opening on Broadway, including a Harold Pinter revival that marks the Broadway debut of Tom Hiddleston (best-known to movie fans as Loki), and a new play by Florian Zeller starring Jonathan Pryce and Eileen Atkins. Off-Broadway, there’s a new play by “Harry Potter” playwright Jack Thorne as well as the latest installments in Mfoniso Udofia nine-play cycle about Nigerian-American immigrants, and a new musical by Filipino-born novelist Jessica Hagedorn. .

The shows described below — on mothers, wives, or infidelity; on AIDS, anxiety or immigration; or on no other subject than theater itself — are organized chronologically by opening night, except the festivals and those shows that don’t have official opening nights. Each title is linked to a relevant website for more information

Color key: Broadway: Red. Off Broadway: Purple, blue or black. Off Off Broadway: Green.Theater festival: Orange.Puppetry: Brown. Immersive: Magenta.

September 1

Dream Up Festival (Theater for the New City)

The tenth annual Dream Up Festival continues, presenting 25 shows through September 15. One of its shows premiere today: Shirley Chisholm, Robert E. Lee & Me

September 3

Felix Starro (Ma-Yi at Theatre Row)

A musical with book and lyrics written by Filipino-born novelist Jessica Hagedorn (“Dogeaters”) about a Filipino faith healer peddling hope to sick people in San Francisco’s Tenderloin Distric

September 4

Tech Support (59E59)

In this time travel comedy by Debra Whitfield, Pam’s world is soon turned upside down when, instead of providing assistance with her printer, the tech support guy offers her choices for different centuries

September 5

Betrayal (Bernard Jacobs Theater)

The fourth Broadway production of Harold Pinter’s enigmatic play that tells the story of an extra-marital affair in reverse order. It stars Tom Hiddleston, Zawe Ashton, and Charlie Cox, all of whom are making their Broadway debuts.

Boogieban (13th Street Rep)

The lasting effect of war on two soldiers of different eras, who go on parallel journeys.

September 6

Performance For One (Untitled Theater Co #61)

Edward Einhorn’s Untitled Theater Company #61, celebrating its 25th anniversary, presents this one-on-one theater performance (one performer, one audience member) in 10 minute slots at various venues across Manhattan. (See schedule at link)

The Ringdove (Mettachee at St. John’s)

Puppet artist Ralph Lee’s Mettachee River Theatre Company presents this show at Cathedral of St. John’s the Divine drawn from THE PANCHATANTRA, a collection of allegorical tales whose origins reach back over 2,000 years, to ancient India. The central characters are a crow, a rat, a turtle and a gazelle, whose adventures, behavior and relationships reflect many aspects of human nature.

Bad News: I Was There (Skirball Center)

JoAnne Akalaitis creates a site-specific processional performance exploring the monumental impact of the messenger character from classic drama.

September 7

Sincerity, Forever and Bad Penny (The Flea)

Two of the five plays from The Flea’s “Mac Wellman: Perfect Catastrophes “festival.” In Bad Penny, “ “a man and a woman sit in a park. They appear to be a couple, but aren’t. The man is clutching a car tire. The woman has picked up a penny and put it in her pocket.” It gets crazier from there. “Sincerity, Forever” is a comedy about a group of young residents from the fictional southern town with a prominent community of KKK members. Part of ”

September 8

American Moor (Red Bull at Cherry Lane)

In this two-character play written and performed by Keith Hamilton Cobb, an African-American actor in an audition room responds to the demands of a white director presuming to have a better understanding of Shakespeare’s iconic black character, Othello.

L.O.V.E.R. (Signature)

Lois Robbins’ solo show explores what goes on behind closed doors and between the sheets.

Play! and Theatre in the Dark: Carpe Diem (TINATC at Theater Lab)

The theater company that calls itself This Is Not A Theatre Company presents two plays in repertory — “Play!” an interactive homage to the importance of radical play for a healthy society, and “Theatre in the Dark: Carpe Diem,” which takes place in the dark: Hear, smell, taste, and touch your way through this nourishing ode to joy

En El Ojo De La Aguja (The Tank)

The Spanish-language version (with English supertitles) of In The Eye of the Needle, a personal, social, and political exploration of conflict resolution (or the lack of it).

September 12

As Much As I Can (Joe’s Pub)

hundreds of gay and bisexual men from Jackson, MS, and Baltimore, MD contributed their stories to this piece about the AIDS epidemic now, which has a five-day run.

September 14

The Talmud (Target Margin Theater)

Drawing from a century of kung fu films and a single chapter of The Talmud–a 5th century text of Rabbinic Judaism — the show explores “sacred wisdom and how ancient traditions survive the dangerous journey across generations.”

September 15

Darren Brown: Secret (Cort)

British mentalist and illusionist Derren Brown brings his mind reading, persuasion, and psychological illusion to Broadway for the first time.

September 16

Wives (Playwrights Horizons)

From the brawny castles of 16th Century France, to the rugged plains of 1960s Idaho, to the strapping fortresses of 1920s India, all hail the remarkable stories of Great Men! — and their whiny, witchy, vapid, vengeful, jealous wives. Playwright Playwright Jaclyn Backhaus untethers history, and language itself, from the visions made by men.

All The Rage (The Barrow Group)

A revival of Michael Moran’s solo show about a crime he experienced as a child that made him set out on a quest around the globe to answer the question:How is it that one moment we might reach out in compassion and the next…kill?

Who Killed Edgar Alan Poe? ( RPM Underground.)

Subtitled “The Cooping Theory 1969,” the immersive show has the audience join a new generation of the Poe Society at a cocktail party to commemorate the anniversary of the mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe. Then a cc seance goes awry.

September 17

Fern Hill (59E59)

Three couples in their golden years who are close friends gather at Sunny and Jer’s farmhouse to celebrate milestone birthdays that span three decades. Their companionship is put to the test, however, when a marital betrayal is discovered.

September 19

Novenas for A Lost Hospital (Rattlestick)

A communal experience to remember, honor, re-imagine, and celebrate St Vincent’s Hospital. a medical facility founded in Greenwich Village in 1849 and shut down in 2010.

18 Stanzas Sung to a Tatar Reed Whistle (FiveMyles)

The dramatization through puppetry of a Chinese epic poem written by the woman poet Ts’ai Yen 2,000 years ago. It tells the story of a young Han woman who returns home 12 years after being abducted by the victorious Tatars. The show is free, but reservations are required.

September 21

Why? (TFANA)

This piece written by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne features actors Hayley Carmichael, Kathryn Hunter, and Marcello Magni, and pianist Laurie Blundell in a combination performance, lecture and bioplay about experimental Russian director Vsevolod Meyerhold, who was executed in 1940. The play asks: “Why theater? What is it for? What is it about?”

September 22

Kingfishers Catch Fire (Irish Rep)

In this play by Robin Glendinning, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty pays a visit in 1948 to the man who was his adversary during World War II, the infamous Nazi Herbert Kappler, in the Italian prison where Kappler is serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity.

September 23

Sunday (Atlantic)

In this play written by Jack Thorne (“Harry Potter…”), friends gather for a book group, anxious to prove their intellectual worth, but that anxiety gets the better of any actual discussion as emotional truths come pouring out

Runboyrun and In Old Age (NYTW)

Two new plays from Mfoniso Udofia’s nine part The Ufot Cycle,” which follows a Nigerian family who immigrated to the US.

September 24

The Height of The Storm (MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman)

Jonathan Pryce and Eileen Atkins star in a play by Florian Zeller (The Father, The Mother) about a couple who for 50 years have been filled with the everyday pleasures and unfathomable mysteries of an enduring marriage, until suddenly their life together begins to unravel,

Caesar and Cleopatra (Gingold at Theatre Row)

A rare revival of George Bernard Shaw’s comedy about these two historic figures who did indeed meet. “An early draft of the Eliza/Higgins relationship in Shaw’s Pygmalion.”

September 25

Mothers (Playwrights Realm at the Duke)

In this play by Anna Moench, the moms at Mommy-Baby Meetup are used to competing — whoever’s the most devoted to her family, has the best-behaved child, and the most satisfied husband wins. But as the chaos of the outside world encroaches on their turf, passive-aggression falls by the wayside, and each mom will have to decide just how much she loves her child.

September 27

The Green Room (Sargent Theater)

A backstage musical illustrating the journey of four best friends in college determined to make it out of the Green Room and on to the Off-Broadway Stage.

September 28

Basic Principles of Incantation (Sinking Ship @ Greenwich House Music School)

A performance-based interactive theater game about linguistics and magic. Players take on the role of students of the Esoteric Arts at their first lesson conducted by Professor A. Sibly.

September 2019 New York Theater Openings In this eclectic opening month of the New York Fall theater season laid out below, legendary theater artists Mac Wellman (74),JoAnne Akalaitis (82), and Peter Brook (94) each get showcases for their work; Wellman a whole festival.

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