The Science of Leonard: Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance

In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig/Phaedrus wanted to explore philosophy before it bifurcated into the primary subjective/objective ways of looking at things. He called this state of thought "Quality," and looked to the pre-Socratics for its historical antecedents. Fritjof Capra suggests, I think, that really Leonard Da Vinci is the prime example of the man what represents Quality in all senses of the word, including Pirsig's metaphysical Quality, the first and foremost example of l'oumo universale, the man who "can do all things if he will." Pico's Oration on the Dignity of Man says that "God made men at the close of creation, to know the laws of the universe, to love its beauty, to admire its greatness. He bound him to no fixed place, to no prescribed form of work, and by no iron necessity, but gave him freedom to will and to love." If anybody exemplifies Pico's vision of man, it is Leonardo, who, if Capra is to be credited, really represents the apotheosis of what it means to be a human in the fullest sense of the word. Leonardo came at at time when it was possible to loosen the fetters of old thinking and learn to see and to think for himself, coming up with observations that would not be repeated for sometimes hundreds of years.

"Five hundred years before the scientific method was recognized and formally described by philosophers and scientists, Leonardo Da Vinci singlehandedly developed and practiced its characteristics." Leonardo combined detailed skills of observation with his exceptional drawing abilities to puzzle out many phenomena before science developed the language to see and deal with them. He was at that unique vortex in time before the different branches of knowledge went in their various directions, requiring more and more specialized knowledge, and so he could hold a more holistic view of the world. He combined those close observations with a deep awareness "of the fundamental interconnectedness of all phenomena and of the interdependence and mutual generation of all parts of an organic whole." (This sounds suspiciously like co-dependent origination to me.)

In addition to discovering the scientific method and anticipating many of the advanced principles of mathematics, such as calculus or topology, or establishing a neurological theory of visual perception, or by anticipating some of the modern findings of cognitive science, Leonardo was the first "deep ecologist" who intuitively understood the gaia hypothesis and saw the "underlying conception of the living world as being fundamentally interconnected, highly complex, creative, and embued with cognitive intelligence." Leonardo was a deeply spiritual person in whom a sense of "all life is holy" reigned supreme.

Leonardo's a fascinating character, obviously, and Capra presents a fairly unique way of approaching him through the notebooks, where Leo uses his drawings to express what would words or the mathematics of his time could not. Perhaps there was something in his visual perception and conception of the world that allowed him to see the unity in things, as Capra asserts. But ultimately, I'm not convinced. For me, Capra was not able to express in words what Leonardo saw. Perhaps Capra is a bit too enthusiastic in his presentation, maybe a little journalistic? In any case, I didn't feel the depth of knowledge to be ultimately satisfying. Perhaps in making connections between seeming disparate ideas--Leonardo and modern science, Buddhism and modern physics (in the Tao of Science) there are really too many points, too many dissimilarities at the end of the day, that get glossed over. The book succeeds in piquing my interest in Leonardo and perhaps as seeing him more of a precursor to modern thought than I would have supposed, but ultimately the book doesn't convince me, doesn't make those connections with the depth and authority needed to make the argument. I bought the book last year for the high school library, and that's about the right level for this book. Somehow, I expected more from Capra.

Author: Capra, Fritjof

Date Published: 2007

Length: 352 pp

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The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age

Sometimes I should know when to stop. I was really taken up with Dame Yates' exposition of Giordano Bruno and the whole development of Renaissance Neo-Platonism as developed through Ficino and Pico. I was a little less impressed by the Arts of Memory, but I really dug into the Rosicrucian Enlightenment.

This book occupies a place between Bruno and the Rosicrucians, a fascinating period, especially for some of the implications of the influences. But overall, this book as a real disappointment. Yates repeats herself over and over and uses some pretty tenuous connections between images to bolster her arguments. This book could have been much shorter and I suspect that it would not withstand serious scrutiny by someone really familiar with the sources.

In any case, she begins her exposition with Pico and his cabalistic theses. Pico sought to Christianize Cabala, combining it with neo-platonism and hermeticism to come up with the new renaissance philosophy of man--made famous in his oration on the dignity of man. He was a magus who felt that it was safe to call down daemons and astral influences since the Cabala would guard from any evil influences. These ideas was taken up by the Franciscan monk Giorgi but really developed by Agrippa who also dabbled in alchemy. John Dee picked up on Agrippa's ideas and used them to further the cult of Elizabeth as the purifier of religion and the leader of a new world order. His ideas were influential on Raleigh, Sydney, and Spencer, but his star fell after his mission to Bohemia, where his ideas crystallized into Rosicrucianism, and Elizabeth pulled back from some of her foreign adventures.

When James took the throne, believing in the reality of evil and witchcraft, Dee's ideas became suspect. The witch hunts of the counterreformation really took off about this time, and Dee's influence on the continent waned with the crushing of Rudolf and the beginning of the Thirty Years War. The heart of the book then develops influences on Spencer’s Faerie Queen, reaction by Marlowe who ridiculed Dee and Agrippa in Faustus and stirred up strong antisemitism in the Jew of Malta, and Shakespeare's play with the ideas of the magus and Rosicrucianism in the Tempest. Yates also points to parallels with Bacon's New Atlantis, and Milton's use of the ideas of inspired melancholy in his poetry. Also interesting connections to the reintroduction of the Jews in England after Cromwell and the Puritan emphasis on the Old Testament, perhaps inspired by sympathy with Cabalism. A lot of interesting connections and influences, but certainly not in the league with her other books.

Author: Yates, Francis

Date Published: 1979

Length: 222 pp

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