- Reason
and Passion
Western
Art always tended to be predicated upon the
distinction
between feeling and reason: Passion and rationality
are considered as separate, at the opposite ends of a
spectrum.
The Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus represent this
polarity.
By contrast, Chinese philosophy emphasises the wholeness
of
things. Lao Tzu described the Tao as stillness within
motion,
strength within gentleness, much as the centre of a
wheel
remains still while the wheel turns. Reason alone does
not
govern analysis. The Way must be sought intuitively, at
each
moment in life.
The Western World has placed a disproportionate emphasis
on
analytical problem-solving, with its concomitant emphasis
on
rational thought.
What the Greeks personified as Apollo, modern thinking
has
termed left-brain activity. The tool is in a sense the
product of
left hemisphere dominance, a logical, analytical response
to need.
Right-brain thinking is non-verbal, spatial and
intuitive- the seat
of creativity and play.
This is not to suppose that any one side of the human
brain may
be seen to be superior. In rediscovering the importance
of toys,
it is not necessary to denigrate the importance of
tools.
Dionysus and Apollo have much to contribute to each
other,
and in so doing, offer humanity momentary harmony
in the form of, among others, ToolToys, drawn from
the
resources of both spheres.
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