He was one of the most notable intellectual figures of the Dutch Golden Age. Descartes is also widely regarded as one of the founders of modern philosophy.
Science –
He discovered analytical geometry (1619).
He also developed a universal method of deductive reasoning based on mathematics, which applies to all sciences.
In Dioptrix he discovered the law of refraction. In meteorology he has explained the rainbow nicely.
He formulated the first modern version of mind-body dualism. This method, which he later applied to the Discourse on Method (1637) and formulated the rules of the direction of the mind (written in 1628 but published in 1701).
For the time and use of truth-seeking
He also provided moral code.
Innate Knowledge –
He argued this theory that all humans were born with knowledge through the higher power of God.
In psychology he is most known for his Concept of Dualism.
Kelidar : Encyclopædia Iranica praises its “heroic, lyrical, and sensual” language.
❤️ An Iranian Storyteller’s Personal Revolution 🔼
After being arrested in 1974 by the Savak, the shah’s secret police, the Iranian writer Mahmoud Dowlatabadi asked his interrogators just what crime he had committed. “None,” he recalled them responding, “but everyone we arrest seems to have copies of your novels, so that makes you provocative to revolutionaries.” 💙 Mahmoud Dowlatabadi (Persian : محمود دولتآبادی, Mahmud Dowlatâbâdi) :-
(born 1 August 1940 in Dowlatabad, Sabzevar) is an Iranian writer and actor, known for his promotion of social and artistic freedom in contemporary Iran and his realist depictions of rural life, drawn from personal experience. In 2020, he wrote and recited a work called Soldier (Half-Burned boots) for the Art of Peace global project, composed and arranged by Mehran Alirezaei. He has collaborated with this project.
Mahmoud Dowlatabadi
💜 Missing Soluch (Persian : جای خالی سلوچ Ja-ye Khali-ye Soluch; 1979) is a novel by Iranian author Mahmoud Dowlatabadi.
First Edition
Dowlatabadi wrote it in just 70 days, after he was released from prison, having composed it in memory while in jail. It was the first novel of the author written in the everyday language of the people, Persian and was hugely influential at the time of Revolutionary Iran for its sympathetic depiction of the proletariat, which was new in modern Iranian literature. It was Dowlatabad’s first novel to be translated into English (2007).
In Missing Soluch, an impoverished woman raises her children in an isolated village after the unexplained disappearance of her husband, Soluch. Though the idea for the novel first came to Dowlatabadi in prison, its origins trace back to his childhood. “My mother used to talk about a woman in the village whose husband had disappeared and had left her alone. She was left to raise several children on her own. Since she didn’t want the village to pity her, she would take a bit of lamb’s fat and melt it and then toss a handful of dry grass or something into the pan and put this in the oven, so that with the smoke that would come out of the oven the neighbors might think that she was cooking a meat stew for her children that night,” he told an interviewer. Missing Soluch was his first work translated into English.
🤎 Influence :-
Dowlatabadi is celebrated as one of the most important writers in contemporary Iran, particularly for his use of language. He elevates rural speech, drawing on the rich, lyrical tradition of Persian poetry.
He has also garnered praise internationally, with Kirkus Reviews calling The Colonel, “A demanding and richly composed book by a novelist who stands apart.” The Independent described the novel as “passionate,” and emphasized, “It’s about time that everyone even remotely interested in Iran read this novel.”
The Colonel is a novel about nation, history, and family, beginning on a rainy night when two policemen summon the Colonel to collect the tortured body of his daughter, a victim of the Islamic Revolution. Dowlatabadi wrote the novel in the 1980s, when intellectuals were in danger of execution. “I hid it in a drawer when I finished it,” he said. Though it is published abroad in English, the novel is not available in Iran, in Persian. “I did not even want to have this on their radar,” he said. “Either they would take me to prison or prevent me from working. They would have their ways.” The novel was first published in Germany, later in the UK and United States.
Famous photograph of Stravinsky on grand piano by Arnold Newman
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💚 Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky :-
(17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century, and a pivotal figure in modernist music.
Stravinsky’s compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets… first performed in Paris by Diaghilev’s Ballet’s Russes : The Firebird (1910), Petrushka(1911), and The Right of Spring (1913).
The Rite of Spring is among the most controversial ballets ever written, causing spectators to call out during its first showing in Paris. Today, the ballet still blurs the line between classical ballet and modern dance, thanks to both the music of composer Igor Stravinsky and the choreography of Vaslav Nijinsky.
Here Stravinsky pushed the boundaries of musical design. This is the revolution of music.
Group of supporters and members of
the Ballets Russesin 1911
Igor Stravinsky’s period of productivity lasted for an exceptionally long time, extending over some 60 years. A prolific composer, as well as a true original, he was an active participant in the various currents that crossed his time. Stravinsky was undoubtedly one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, imposing by his stature, his adaptability and his astonishing creativity.
Russian period (c. 1907–1919) :- Aside from a very few surviving earlier works, Stravinsky’s Russian period, sometimes called primitive period, began with compositions undertaken under the tutelage of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, with whom he studied from 1905 until Rimsky’s death in 1908, including the orchestral works Symphony in E♭ major (1907), Faun and Shepherdess (for mezzo-soprano and orchestra; 1907), Scherzo fantastique (1908), and Feu d’artifice (1908/9). These works clearly reveal the influence of Rimsky-Korsakov.
This exemplify not only Stravinsky’s return to the music of the Classical period but also his exploration of themes from the ancient Classical world, such as Greek mythology. Important works in this period include the Octet (1923), the Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (1924), the Serenade in A(1925), and Symphony of Psalms(1930).
In 1951, he completed his last neoclassical work, the opera The Rake’s Progress.
Serial period (1954–1968):-
In the 1950s, Stravinsky began using serial compositional techniques such as dodecaphony, the twelve-tone technique originally devised by Schoenberg. He first experimented with non-twelve-tone serial techniques in small-scale vocal and chamber works such as the Cantata (1952), the Septet(1953) and Three Songs from Shakespeare (1953). The first of his compositions fully based on such techniques was In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954). Agon(1954–57) was the first of his works to include a twelve-tone series and Canticum Sacrum (1955) was the first piece to contain a movement entirely based on a tone row.
Innovation and influence :-
Stravinsky has been called “one of music’s truly epochal innovators”. The most important aspect of Stravinsky’s work, aside from his technical innovations (including in rhythm and harmony), is the “changing face” of his compositional style while always “retaining a distinctive, essential identity”.
Igor Stravinsky’s period of productivity lasted for an exceptionally long time, extending over some 60 years. A prolific composer, as well as a true original, he was an active participant in the various currents that crossed his time. Stravinsky was undoubtedly one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, imposing by his stature, his adaptability and his astonishing creativity.
Stravinsky and Pablo Picasso collaborated on Pulcinella in 1920. Picasso took the opportunity to make several sketches of the composer.
