Aristotle's Horse

Horsing Around

Its a less known tale about Aristotle … something that most would ignore … about the great teacher. A report of it is here*1 at the University of Minnesota. Its an account of how a lady friend of Aristotle spotted him prancing like a horse … on all fours … in the garden. She called to him and in an exchange between the two … he let her ride on him … like a horse … while he is reported to have galloped all around the garden.

 

The cause of academia in the world … is a significant one. It is the basis of civilization. And those of us who search for a source of it in the world … encounter the most curious suggestions of its beginnings. Its a lesson in epistemology … and it creates a great understanding of knowledge … its basis … validity … and its continued applicability in our lives. Its the source of the laws … and as judiciary … is the third branch of the tenets … we hold as a vital part … of social organization.

 

But there really isn't a lot to fuss about the basis of knowledge. The early folks who initiated learning … took the job of learning away from the program of apprenticeships. They set up schools and began a tradition known as Sophism. Essentially it brought a record of work … documented in books … and required the student to learn … of a trade … based on a report of how it is done. In the past … an apprentice received the daily guide … encouragement … and support … of some one skilled in a craft … on a hands-on approach to learning.

 

The difference between the two is quite significant. We raise children today with the guide of the father and mother … and the child is persuaded to do as the parent does … by the bond of the relationship … that exists naturally between them. Its a critical start to the process of learning … its the first step …. in assuring the mind of the child … that the knowledge is necessary. Its an experience of acceptance … without question … founded on the notion of sharing.

 

As a social responsibility … such guides … convey themselves from one generation to another … and as parents … we sometimes see that in what we do. As a senior person … we encounter attitudes from people around us … at the cafe … the grocer … the barber shop … at church or temple … that carries with it a certain expectation. It comprises an enthusiasm … a respect … hope … and the attribution it creates … of the knowledge and experience … that such a senior represents.

 

But what of the senior himself? There are no apprenticeships for senior social members … and the role they play. There are no books for such a responsibility. We may have been active in our time .. and as we view our experiences … we realize its as much … our own hopes and expectations … and the way we managed them. We may have relied on a certain light of the gnosis … the Garrick*2  … of decision making … and coming to know of things as they are.

 

Its useful … at these times … to understand what academics themselves … consider is knowledge. From the days of the craftsmen … who felt the light from their minds … that interacted with their needs … engaged materials … used tools … and created a design of a product … that became useful to consumers … in fulfilling their needs. How we made a report of ' how to … ' and disseminated the information to others. Today … we must remind ourselves … that it began with one person.

 

 Our societies continue to grow … and the needs sometimes change. As a living member … we find it our place … to create a support and contribution. We may not know everything but we can provide a view and an opinion. We can write stories … songs … that conveys a sense of our encounters and the way we managed ourselves with issues. It involves delving into our self … and discovering how we did that … create a socially cognizable expression for it … and communicate it to others.

 

No doubt it engages a certain style. The term sophisticated is derived from the use of the term sophist in an earlier context … that referred to people who had learnt a craft from books … and translated it into a career. The styles are considerable … and each creates a different appeal to our child natures … where the common experience of the child … seeks all that is good … but is yet untrained … on the specific needs of its life … in the identity and location … it resides in.

 

There's a greater calling to these endeavors. It reveals itself in the way … we receive the light … bring our common sense to it … our individual condition … and vary the way that we receive the light in our natures. As the gnosis … it has a formidable … impact on our natures … and refers to its profound source in creation. I seem to recall how I was engaging in some dreaming … at one time … and had my father knock some sense into me. It caused me to lose contact with it … but in re-discovering it … it informs me … my father did for me what I should have done for myself.

 

We find that same father in us today … and good old Ironsides … may have mellowed a little from the days I was young. That's because I had insisted that … there ought to be a better way to deal with kids … the next generation … and society. It is possible to do it with some understanding … not the belligerence of how we have weathered life. He however insists that … he continues his presence in some way.  Its for the rattlesnakes he says.

 

The first light of creation … touched upon life … in all its mighty intensity … and produced the animals. Quite often when I am engaging it … it presses me away from too much self will and to simply accept. Its at the base of the spine and it creates a pressure of being prone … like an animal on all fours. On such occasions I straighten up and exercise my views on my needs. Aristotle on the other hand may have gone a huge distance with it … or maybe he was just trying to meet the girl next door. 

 

*Notes:

*1       Aristotle's Fall  :  http://iconics.cehd.umn.edu/Aristotle/Lecture/default.html

*2       Garrick at Christmas : http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/Dayran/1461130/