April 29, 2005

• Midrash Jazz Quartet

  

  Harvard’s Barry Mazur likes to quote Aristotle’s Metaphysics.  See 1, 2, 3.

  Here, with an introductory remark by Martha Cooley, is more from the Metaphysics:

  The central aim of Western religion –

  "Each of us has something to offer the Creator...
  the bridging of
                   masculine and feminine,
                        life and death.
  It's redemption.... nothing else matters."
  -- Martha Cooley in The Archivist (1998)
  

  The central aim of Western philosophy –

                   Dualities of Pythagoras
                as reconstructed by Aristotle:
                   Limited     Unlimited
                       Odd     Even
                      Male     Female
                     Light     Dark
                  Straight     Curved
                    ... and so on ....
  

  “Of these dualities, the first is the most important; all the others
  may be seen as different aspects of this fundamental dichotomy. To
  establish a rational and consistent relationship between the limited
  [man, etc.] and the unlimited [the cosmos, etc.] is… the central aim
  of all Western philosophy.”
  
  – Jamie James in The Music of the Spheres (1993)

  “In the garden of Adding
  
  live Even and Odd…
  
  And the song of love’s recision
  is the music of the spheres.”
  
  – The Midrash Jazz Quartet in City of God, by E. L. Doctorow (2000)

  Harvard University, Department of English:

  • The Morris Gray Lecture, a reading by E.L. Doctorow. Wednesday, April 27, 6:00 PM Thompson Room, The Barker Center CANCELED

  Today’s birthday: Jerry Seinfeld.
  Related material:
  Is Nothing Sacred? and Symmetries.

  • 10:10 am
  • Leave a comment