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diff --git a/extra/structure_art_pure_mathematics.tex b/extra/structure_art_pure_mathematics.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd8cb61 --- /dev/null +++ b/extra/structure_art_pure_mathematics.tex @@ -0,0 +1,156 @@ +\chapter{Structure Art and Pure Mathematics (1960)} + +In some art---music, visual art, poetry, and the rest---there is a tendency for +"structure" to predominate. When structure tends to predominate in art, then \emph{if} the +artist wants the interest of the structure to predominate, wants to communicate the +interest of the structure, I will say that the art is "structure art." Much structure +art is a vestige of Serious Art; for exemple, of medieval music, which was conceived +to be a metaphysical science. Now consider, for example, a piece of structure music, +a serial piece. The "structure" of the piece is \emph{not} (in) the sounds in (a performance +of) the piece. It is a categorization of the sounds, that represented by the score +together with that typically given in the first instance by the composer in an "analysis" +of the "piece" (actually the analysis is more a part of the piece). Thus if I speak +of the "intended structure" of a piece it will be the composer's categorization; and I +will speak of others' categorizations, the audiences' categorizations, as "associated +structures" of the piece. (To some extent the composer can work to the audience's +background so that one association is more probable than another.) Many structure +artists do claim "that the structure (particulerly the intended structure) is in the +sounds" in that, for example, there is an objective relation between the categorization +and the sounds. This claim is unjustifiable; I will return to it later. There is an +important division of structure art into two kinds, exemplified by the fugue and total +serial music, according to how the structure is "appreciated." In the case of a fugue, +one is aware of its structure in listening to it; one mentally imposes "reletionships," +a categorization (hopefully the intended one) on the sounds while listening to them +that is, there is an "associated artistic structuring by oneself." In the case of total +serial music, the structure is such that this cannot be done; one just has to read an +"analysis" of the music, a specification of relationships. Incidentally, there is +another, less important kind of art in which the important thing is categorization; +the art involving conceptual cleverness, play with the concepts of the art-form such as, +in music, "the score," "performer versus listener," "playing a composition." In +structure poetry, there is a lack of concern with syntacticel structure. The poetry +is mere phonemes or graphemes with an artistic structure. + +The following is an attempt at a formal definition of "artistic structure." +The artistic structure of a production is a division or segmentation of the raw work +(the body of material), a grouping of the segments, and a "weighting" of the subgroupings +in this grouping (according to their"structural importance"); that is, it is a system +of definitions. When structure is regarded as the most important aspect of the +production, the production is merely a diagram illustrating the description of its +structure. Certain pieces of music are merely acoustical diagrams of their structures. +Such a production consists of the production proper together with a concept poem, a +body of definitions. Here is a canonical method of specifying such structures. +Given the raw work, the informal description of its structure is as follows. The +segments are blocks of color; the first two are grouped together, and each of the +others is grouped separately; the weights of the successive groups are $5, 2, 4, 2, 4$ +(2 is the weight of \eg\ a bridge passage in music). The formal specification is +$(AB)_5(C)_2(D)_4(E)_2(F)_4$; that is, the production is structurally a "$(AB)_5(C)_2(D)_4(E)_2(F)_4$." + + +The method, then, is that the terminology for a certain structure is formed from +letters corresponding to segments, parentheses to indicate grouping, and numerical +subscripts to indicate weights. (Does the method need to be elaborated to take into +account relations between segments?) It can be seen that this kind of structure is +definitional, stipulational, like logical syntax; it is not intuitive and statistical +like an individual's use of inflection in speech. I now turn to the analyses of +the structure of a production made by critics, what I call "associated definitions of the +structure" (in line with the terminology of the previous paragraph), Consider the +following examples. + +\includegraphics[width=4in]{img/structure_art} + +In each example, the actual sounds, the body of material, is exactly the same. +The difference is in the different structures defined on the material. The examples +substantiate my contentions thet the structure is not in the sounds; that the composer's +analysis of the piece is really a definition and a part of the piece; and that the +critics' analyses of the structure are definitions attached to the piece, not discoveries +of intrinsic properties of the sounds. As another example, consider the difference +between hearing the "Sanctus," \opustitle{Missa Prolationum} of Ockhegem, in no meter (by +a non-European listener), in one meter (by a lay European listener), and in four +meters (the intended structure). Arguments such as the one over whether the structure +of Webern's music is "really" motivic or serial are absurd, since Webern himself did not +define this point. Many academic structural analyses of art have been irrelevant +to the aesthetics of the works. + +The purpose throughout all this art is dual; structure or concept art tries to be, +first, music, visual art, or whatever (which suggests that it is to be listened to, or +looked at), \emph{and}, something else entirely, to be valuable for its structure or conceptual +cleverness. Then when the structure is "hidden," "unexperiencable," when it can only be +appreciated by reading the "analysis," why put emphasis on the body of sound, light, or +whatever, why listen to structure music, why look at structural visual art, why even call +them "music," "visual art"? Why not throw away the bodies of sound, light, or whatever, +and keep the "analyses" of the structure as the works of art? In general, logic, and +experience (with the results of the artists' efforts), show that the dual purpose of +structure art consists of irreconcilable objectives; that one can be attained only at the +other's expense. Which objective are the structure artists trying to attain?---they +obviously have no idea. Structure art represents obsolete, confused categories of +activities, categories which by now are obscurantist. Structure (or concept) music, +for example, needs straightening out, first, by ceasing to call it "music," and starting +to say thet the sound (or activity) is used only to carry the structure or conceptual +cleverness, and that the real point is the structure or conceptual cleverness---the +categorization---and then it will be seen how limited, impoverished the structure of +these productions trying to be music are. When you make the change, then you are led +to a far more consistent, integral activity, the same one arrived at below through +a consideration of pure mathematics. Games of intellectual skill such as chess fall +into this same category; since, after all, they can be regerded as formalist mathematics. + +Neryt I will discuss pure mathematics. Originally, mathematics was a system of +beliefs, a doctrine, about the entities numbers, points, polygons, and so forth (Pythagoras, +Euclid, Platonic geometry). As mathematicians became skeptical, and thus less desirous +of resting the importance of mathematics on the validity of these beliefs, they changed +their minds about what the purpose of mathematics is. The purpose became for the theorems +to be true if the axioms are. In the nineteenth century, as a result of e.g. the ideas +of Riemann, they became unconcerned to claim that their axioms are true. They began +to say that the value of mathematics is "aesthetic." Here is when mathematics becomes +a subject for this essay; when it becomes pure mathematics, when its value is not claimed +to be that of technology or natural science, but rather more an aesthetic value, when it +becomes "adoctrinal culture." Mathematics becomes something to be considered alongside art. +When I became interested in contributing to pure mathematics, for reasons of taste I wanted +to de-emphasize discovery in mathematics, mathematics as discovering theorems and proofs. +(Such discovery bored me.) The first way I thought of to de-emphasize discovery was that +since the value of pure mathematics is now regarded as conceptual interest, aesthetic +rather than scientific value, why not try to make up aesthetic theorems, without considering +whether they are true. The second way was to find that the conventional claim that +theorems and proofs are discovered is unjustifiable; I will return to this point later. +In the twentieth century, as a result of the ideas of Hilbert, and then Carnap, +mathematicians became unconcerned to claim that mathematical "statements," the +mathematical object language, are (substantive) assertions having truth value (as are +English statements). Rather, they are "merely" series of signs formed according to +certain rules: formalist mathematics. Then my third way of de-emphasizing discovery was +to open up unexplored regions of formalist mathematics. The resulting mathematics still +had statements, theorems, proofs, but the latter weren't "discovered" the way they +traditionally were. + +Now exploration of the wider possibilities of pure mathematics opened up by me +tends to lead beyond the form of "making statements," "proving," and the like, so thet +the term "pure mathematics" becomes completely incongruous. The category of pure +mathematics---a vestige ultimately of the old system of beliefs canonized by Plato +(hence the form of statements, proving, and the like)---is an obsolete category. My +contributions to pure mathematics lead to an integral, general activity of which the +point is categorizations (having the value of being "well-formed"); the contributions +need to be classified as such an activity rather than as pure mathematics to escape +confusion, Traditional mathematics (mathematics as discovery), reformulated, explicated +to take my findings into account, would be an untypical, small but intensively developed +part of such an activity. + +The proponents of structure art, pure mathematics, and chess make similar claims +for them. I have mentioned the claims that structure is an objective property of things; +and that mathematical theorems and proofs are discovered; and there is a similar claim for +games of intellectual skill. Two important notions associated with these fundamentally +identical claims require comment. There is the notion that contribution to structure +art, pure mathematics, and chess requires high intelligence, the discovery of implications; +the notion of intelligence as the ability to discover implications. Then, there is the +notion that structure (as in mathematics pre-eminently) is an objective property of things, +capable of discovery, demonstration, rational cognition---with particular reference +to language, art, and the like---whereas meaning, expression, and emotion are not. +(These pretensions are traditionally an essential aspect of structure art, pure mathematics, +and chess.) Both notions come down to the belief that there can be an objective relation +between a name and its referents; for example, an objective relation between the +metamathematical term "true theorem" and certain theorems, or an objective relation +between "having serial structure" and a body of sound, or between "checkmate" and +checkmates. As I said, these notions are discreditable, as can be seen from my +\essaytitle{Philosophy Proper} and \essaytitle{Primary Paradox}. Thus the notion of intelligence, pretension +of intellectual superiority, as what mathematicians, chess players, and the like have; +and the prejudice in favor of structure; cannot be defended. It is about time that +these notions be discarded. + + |