St. John's College (1962)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] I a [Music] la [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] therefore the devil's party without knowing it but Blake didn't mean that devil that ugly little black horse only it's the horse that or the devil that persuaded Prometheus to revolt against the gods that push [Music] [Music] of there was chaos and it was bad and there was darkness and it was bad and it was night and it was scary then night moved across vast tarous where was not earth nor sky nor air and from the ancient Whirlwind conceived an egg the egg L Mike can we take it back to um uh the place where the Fanfare is I can't hear the girls yeah to the hear then here then of the birth of the Gods and of final Darkness [Music] I say again that daily to discourse about virtue and of those other things about which you hear me Examining myself and others is the greatest good of man and that the unexamined life is not worth living Socrates here seems to be talking directly to us when he says that daily to discourse about virtue is the greatest good of man and that the unexamined life is not worth living we ought to reflect about that a little why should we examine Our Lives to make them worth living certainly we we can live without examp examining anything uh but living as men in the full sense of of the term cannot be done without examination and if we are to be merely animals then well what kind of notion of what a man really is do you suppose he has so that he can say that a man in order to live has to examine his life certainly it sounds to me as though it's a lot of talk that's what the first part of it seems to say we all spend our life talking talking about virtue and other things but talking I know a lot of people would say well that's mere talk is it so clear that talking is that important it's fun well not just talking as such but what is said and what is trying to be accomplished I mean you can just go out and gossip this is not what he wants but he's he's not simply Socrates he's saying this is what makes life livable almost implying that that one is not uh fully living unless one uh examines what what life in general and that is rather a startling statement when you come to think of it it isn't what most people would say is it well it it's not startling uh considering Socrates and that that's that's what he does but he says this is by implication he says it's for all men and that's almost suggesting that most men aren't alive but most men would say wouldn't they that it is important to to somehow know that you are living right or somehow strive toward doing the things that you think are right I think that most men would say that and then to carry that on further is just the question well how do you know if you don't if you don't question you don't examine wouldn't most people say that their life is worth living if they're having a lot of fun isn't isn't that in general what what people would say I don't know if they were honest I don't know what having having fun you mean just in a very sort of superficial thing of you mean of why do you call it superficial well I was thinking of more opposing it to to perhaps the philosophical concept of happiness or something is much different than what most people think of as having fun and do you think most people would think that the that kind of a life is worth living which one the life of Socrates no [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] Shad of death a universe of death without being able to comprehend has that any relevance to the words s Mr I was going to say that you might possibly say man is born for freedom and everywhere just to paraphrase this we see see him under bad government living under bad governments and that's what the chains are that's somewhat of extreme jump from the literal sentence and at least well I'm not sure if it is an extreme jump in except in so far as We're translating three as meaning for freedom but the interesting thing is that Mr matlin's offered a completely different interpr interpretation of this metaphorical expression in Chains I think it means the chains of bad civil government do you agree with that not not it's not a statement of moral indignation and he's not saying that everywhere we see men in the state of slavery but that everywhere we see men living under badly managed governments that make them slaves what did you understand D far by how did you what literal interpretation did you give to D Miss gab well I guess on on sort of on the basis of the rest of the the Treatise that it meant some kind of political slavery so then the whole thing becomes political and means man is Born Free uh meaning by according to Mr Matlin for political freedom and everywhere he is in political bondage I think that makes a certain amount of sense because he later on says that he's going to examine the social order [Music] well I break off as well here so let me ask what is the theme of this invention well I think it's in the first eight measures uh in the top two voices in the in the interplay of the top two voices and especially where they seem to be punctuated you mean the whole of these eight measures yeah especially because it's repeated almost exactly at the very end of the The Invention see I I would just say that I don't think that there is a theme as such I think there's a rhythmic pattern of with well an interval in rhythmic pattern that's repeated throughout the piece in all three voices and the fact that um the right hand uh is inter in is very closely tied with the left hand excuse me hand is not a musical concept what you mean the right hand oh um the treble clap and and the uh uh the middle voice together um uh would not constitute a theme alone and uh the repetition I think uh is only to uh bring back the G minor is to emphasize the return to G Miner what is this that doesn't constitute a theme alone it's not the first eight eight bars that do you mean the first five notes in in the the first five notes in the top as this [Music] I don't see how that could be a theme why not it's um hardly um to my mind a profile of the whole piece you would that this is sort of an important thing through all the piece yes this idea and he works with it and the octave here becomes for instance later the octave becomes [Music] what that's not an it's a seventh so the oct a seven he works it quite elastically but anyway this whole this pattern somehow is important all through the piece so why do you not call it a theme a theme excuse me is sort of a statement of something a statement of something you're actually you're actually it it's like a sentence it's complete in itself and yet it can be developed and this isn't complete in itself at all well using your analogy of a sentence though then this little pattern could be called I guess the the important word in the sentence what is a sentence here you talk about me the first eight measures would constitute a sentence now if you have a sentence in language that what is said in the sentence holds it together so say is it and gives it sort of unity and meaning now what holds that together holds the first eight bars together [Music] well it seems that you have this uh rhythmic pattern of the first five notes and there and it's uh repeated in in the second measure but in the third and fourth it seems that somehow you've gone on to to an additional what we can we say a word yeah an additional word which is also rhythmic and has a certain pattern this seems to be used throughout the uh invention also you mean this started thing yes also a certain quite permanent all the way through so it's a combination of these two things yes and they are often played at the same time they are kind of I I think here they are kind of material which builds the whole of these eight measures and what where is the what ties the eight measures together beyond the repetition of material the Rhythm largely no there's also there's also an octave there from uh so the fourth note in in the treble is a is what is a g isn't it yeah yeah and and then the first note in every major following that in in the same in the same voice is f e d [Music] c on to G up to well down to well dynamically 8 7 six how wait a moment 8 that's just a point 8 7 6 5 4 3 [Music] 2 desire to manipulate history for some for your own greater glory but rather uh the private life pier and Natasha relationship which is a free relationship was there such a thing as a life which is uninfluenced by history hey [Music] B [Music] about Hey Jo where you going with your money and your [Music] hand Makia Valley is completely right in everything he says no he's not absolutely not he's morally wrong no he's not morally wrong the point is that he doesn't say anything about moral woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees and that write grievousness which they have prescribed to turn aside the needy from judgment [Applause] [Music] Sarah Sarah what is it throw down aredes please just minute here it is [Music] thanks models show well they try to represent what light is what do you need models for to show that well since you can't can't see light what do you mean you can't see light well you don't ever see what light is you see the reflections then how do the models demonstrator helped to explain what light is I don't understand well they're purely hypothetical there is a willow grows a slant a brook that shows his Hy in the glassy stream there with fantastic garlands did she come of crowlers nettles daisies and long purples if b^ 2 - 4 a c = 0 will have an ellipse Delta = 2 * thean 4 a prime C Prime frime [Music] well that's a physical phenomenon that uh I mean they are just five well now how does how does uid start he has definitions that we could we might be able to say he defines things into existence and yet you say well there are only five regular solids the five regular solids that he has derived from he's definitions axioms and postulates you say well that's a physical fact wait a minute let me see if I'm understanding you here it seems to me on the one hand there was a a notion of a mathematical system beginning with axioms definitions and postulates which in a certain sense we haven't said exactly how determine the course of development because of what is given to begin with but now Mr rasmuson has put another um another aspect I almost said to mention another aspect to the problem uh when he says that the thing is limited by the physical I thought this was pure mathematics Mr rasm well any mathematics is limited by the postulates and definitions that it begins with well then is this the way these two things come together are you saying that ukids axioms definitions and postulates are somehow related to the space that we EXP experience and that the 13 books are an exploration of three-dimensional space they can't possibly be just an explanation exploration of a three-dimensional space because of the fact that many of the propositions don't relate to spatial Concepts I mean in in books seven and five especially the the concept of ratio while you can see two lines which have certain Dimensions or certain lengths and are in certain ratios go I don't think it's it's there's much that's physical about at least those books and other some of the other propositions also well all right to say we'll leave the problem of the definitions for a minute your first statement was that somehow these solids uh are in the only five solids are in the physical world where have you ever come in contact with any of the five regular solids in the physical world well I can construct them this of course is the great Galaxy and the constellation Andromeda mesier 31 you'll notice in this picture the two companion galaxies which are quite unlike our own companions these are elliptical galaxies and our own melenic clouds are of course IR regular galaxies next week at our next session Bill Harvey will deliver a report that he's been preparing for the last few weeks on this galaxy uh until that time I'm afraid our own time has run out this week and we'll have to call this session of the astronomy club quits [Music] [Music] pap [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] f account wants to see this again he doesn't believe you have to see it with your mind's eye not with a thousand sens of your mind's ey see there I can't imagine that thing no no the thing is if we can get it to turn itself on and then turn itself off of All Points equidistant from the origin which is in ukian space is the sphere that comes in the manosi space the hyper formed by rotating propos rather than propos it seems me that he weeps now any good syst has got to have a good arm a good turntable and a good amplifier I think my weather's turntable's about the best on the market yeah and my 40 Watts will drive anything around yeah it drove me out of the dorm last night okay but what does it mean [Music] 63.4 63.4 right [Laughter] all right there 847 I'm beginning to think this clock only has one number 846 that's a 40 cm yes 849 all right Barbara oops we didn't have the clock running that time let's try it again ready yes 0.846 seconds all right we have a set of data now and a graph relating distance and time that we've measured for the simple pendulum I think the problem which presents itself to us at this point is to ask whether there's some precise mathematical function which would describe this motion if I label the figure o a and this distance uh of the Bob from the center of motion I call S the function would be in the form s = s of T I think I remember a function that uh work in here uh the U if you take a sign function generally uh its second derivative is proportional to the function itself and that's pretty much what this says uh and let me try it and see what happens if I take uh s of T to be the sign of some constant time t uh first derivative would be uh uh choose using these letters Omega cosine Omega T the second derivative would be uh Omega s uh time minus the sin Omega T but to make it look better like the one down here uh I'll put the minus sign in front and now uh it looks like I might have solved the equation because uh uh here if I write this a little differently and say that it's equal to uh minus g/ L * s s is the function that we took the second derivative of here's a constant with a minus sign in front of it now here's the constant here's the function that the original function was uh and I'm taking the second derivative of you want to identify your two constants and here's the constant this constant is this one and there's the minus sign uh anybody see anything wrong that I don't well have we really solved the original problem though silich uh we wanted initially to get a function s equals s of T and you've now offered one but it was to tell us precisely what the positions of the simple pendulum would be as a function of time that is I think it presupposed Galileo's faith that nature is mathematical and that this function was a was an exact description but is the is the problem actually within within the mathematics itself or is it within nature itself this is the problem I want to put before us really uh what are we doing when we take such take a mathematical science with all its rigor and apply it to data taken from nature or apply it to a problem in nature uh do we expect to make that that fit well the great man has a choice any man has a choice of either fighting nature or becoming it Ally uh if one fights nature one is not a great man one's just destroyed in the in the onward movement but to become Nature's a lie means to means to be to truly understand what the way things are and by any standard it seems to me understanding is a necessary characteristic of a great man we never call an ignorant man great but I don't think I was saying that um Kut was Nature's El but rather he was Nature's tool and not only a tool but a non-acting tool simply that through which nature allowed its forces to flow he didn't have the Dignity of an ally but that's not M Shaw's view is it no I I think it's much more active than that because otherwise in the same sense then Napoleon 2 is in alive nature I mean nature I mean how would you distinguish between the way nature might flow through Napoleon and through C of there's a there's a parallel in in t story remember that Napoleon is like a child who sits in a carriage uh pulling at the strap by the door and thinking that he's driving the carriage well we're all it seems to me beating around uh the conception of Napoleon who in the history book seems to be running everything and yet in this novel uh accomplishes is totally ineffectual as far as one can tell that's why I don't quite understand your uh um contrast between the life and the political life because in fact it seems to me in this book there's no contrast whatsoever the political life is in a sense non-existent and in another sense all life is political life but there are political effects to the to the uh actions of these men only that the effects are not the type that that they would try to bring about for instance uh kiso has a political effect merely through his inaction does affect politics I thought that uh he was merely by his inaction not affecting it in any direction which he felt it ought to flow but merely allowing the flow to go as it would yes but well so in a sense he didn't affect anything well a sort of negative effect in that he doesn't attempt to impede the direction in which it's going well could he is the as far as I understand it the only effect an attempt at impeding the flow of History has is that the individual gets crushed in the onward March you mean that is to sto's opinion yeah there there is in fact doesn't toll sto use the notion of the infinitesimal calculus that the curve of history is made up uh simply of the very insignificant accomplishments or value of accomplishment of each individual each individual event which is totaled up by the calculus has a wide very wide freedom [Music] [Applause] [Music]