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The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School Nurturing Excellence

VERITAS E

| Issue V R

Spring Term 2017 I

S IssueIssue V

95 Autumn Term 2016 Spring Term 2017

VERITAS

The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School Theoloy hlosohy oral

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CONTENTS

rodcos 6

T eare er A eor 13

re es 15

or School ssay oeo 18

or School oery 30

ddle School ssay oeo 33

Sh or ssay oeo 48

A ere h r Halo 69

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CONTENTS

A ere h eered Brado 72

A eer ro ord 74

A eer ro r arey 77

Acadec Arcle 79

A Good Read: ‘Practical Ethics’ 85

A Good Read: ‘Mere Christianity’ 89

Socal eda 94

Veritas | Issue V | Introductions

INTRODUCTIONS

MR CAWLEY

I HAVE HAD it in mind to do something on this theme of Music, Maths, Morality and the Structure of Reality for some time and am so grateful to Mr Lawrence and his team for bringing my initial musings to fruition.

It is both perplexing and exhilarating to consider the connectivity that exists at the most basic levels of reality. One’s response will largely depend upon one’s worldview assumptions about the extent to which such objective structures exist, whether they are accessible to human perception and the plausibility of alternatives which might propose, amongst other things, that such ‘structures’ are merely the constructs of the human mind.

So I’d better come clean and admit that I myself am convinced that such objective structures do exist, independently of the human mind. Moreover, I also maintain that the human mind has the capacity to perceive such structures. Granted this assumption, it then becomes a source of great excitement to consider how academic subjects relate to these structures and

Veritas | Issue V | Introductions

whether such structures are useful for maing lins between disciplines.

ow it is perhaps not too difficult to see the connections between athematics and usic the importance of symmetry the way that adusting ratios can generate harmony or discord in campanology ell ringing and so forth. As G.W. Leibniz said, ‘The pleasure we obtain from music comes from counting but counting unconsciously. usic is nothing but unconscious arithmetic.’

It is also clear from moral arguments for the eistence of od such as those of .S. ewis and .. raig that many see moral structures as being as basic to this unierse as the laws of physics. ut how are we to connect music maths and morality

erhaps it is through beauty. e spea of elegant solutions noble character and music which resonates in the depths of our being. ould it be that the concept of beauty is fertile ground for maing such connections If that is true our academic study should be about producing something beautiful perhaps only then will we achiee real creatiity and aoid being suced into a uagmire of pragmatism. I hope that this edition of eritas maes some contribution to that end. eep thining

1 Why not read CS Lewis, Mere Christianity and Tony Crilly, The Big Questions: Mathematics.

Veritas | Issue V | Introductions

LAW

L as ‘the leasre the han sol eeriences ro contin ithot ein aare that it is contin’. The relationship between this journal’s topic, usic, aths, oralit and the tructure of ealit, for me boils down to the soul and the soul’s encounter with the structures underlin usic, aths and oralit.

While studin usic ALeel, was mesmerised and left haunted by Music’s ability to infiltrate the soul. One of m ALevel pieces was Berlioz’s ‘Harold in Italy’. maine this a melancholic character named arold in the mountains, a loe scene, a roup of pilrims and wild and danerous compan in a taern. was fascinated b the ariet of moements and the marinalised solo iola portrain the character arold as a distant obserer to the intense human actiit bein presented. t was throuh the analsis of this piece that became ripped b the wa in which usic brins to life emotions, moralit and human nature.

hae reall enoed the passin conersations with students this term on the connections between usic, aths, oralit and the tructure of ealit. The lins between these will no doubt be dependent on our own worldiews and whether or not a structure to realit eists in our search for the truth.

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Last year played the violin with the Bridewater infonia, an orchestra in ertfordshire made up of local professional musicians which aims to enrich the cultural life of the county. The repertoire included Ravel’s toa d orin, Vaughan Williams’ ona noi a with the Chiltern Chamber Choir and Elgar’s llo onrto in inor with soloist Matthew harp. would ure anyone readin this to seize the opportunity to mae Music and enjoy the pleasures that come with it. elish the memories that Music creates and the Theoloical reflections that it provoes. s lato said, ‘ial trainin i a or otnt intrnt tan any otr a ryt and arony ind tir ay into t inard la o ol on i ty itily atn iartin ra and ain t ol o i o i ritly datd ral’.

Veritas | Issue V | Introductions

Word rom The Editor

CV R, ETRCE

TE RCE compiling this year’s edition of the school’s annual Theology and hilosophy ournal rita has been a truly fulfilling one for both myself and my wonderful senior editing team of dam and abriel. t has been wonderful nowing the etent of the enthusiasm for Theology and hilosophy within the school, given the record number of volunteers offering to help edit the ournal, along with another fine selection of scholarly articles.

t has always been the role of both hilosophers and Theologians to grapple with the great uestions that the universe has to offer and thus we felt it was vital to allow boys this year to eplore some of the most basic, yet fundamental aspects of our eistence. This year’s theme has baffled thiners with the paradoical nature of its utterly simple beauty and the incomprehensibly comple nature of the finished product of aths, usic and Reality three strands which stretch into the lives of all people across the world.

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This year’s theme has allowed, as it has previously been difficult to achieve, articles to pour in from interested pupils who are not limited simply to the Theology and hilosophy department hilosophy, after all literally means ‘a love of knowledge’ and this is an interest which stretches far beyond the academic discipline itself, with boys specialising in both athematics and usic being given the opportunity the put forward their thoughts on how it is that the emotions of a human can be altered by a series of sounds being brought together into a single compilation, whether usic is simply an appealing athematical series or something more, with an innate aesthetic beauty

t is necessary to give one final, yet crucial thanks as part of this editorial, for without the incredible commitment and hard work of our staff editor, r awrence, this showcase of intellectual thought would not have come to fruition Through his consistent passion for the subect, he has made this ournal into something that has exceeded everybody’s expectations, by arranging and organising the publication from the editing of various articles to doing the obs that nobody else has thought to do n behalf of all those involved with this year’s Veritas team, we thank you for everything and all agree that you deserve all the praise that will duly come your way

will leave you with a word from udwig Van eethoven, one of humanity’s greatest ever composers, a man who spent as much time contemplating the value of usic as

Veritas | Issue V | Introductions

he did composing it is words encapsulate exactly why it is that we are exploring usic in a ournal dedicated to Theology and hilosophy

‘Music, in truth, is the mediator between spiritual and sensual life.’

Veritas | Issue V | Reviews

T TT , T

V , , along with other students, ld aberdashers and teachers, was lucky enough to attend the ixth orm Theology and hilosophy inner

The evening started off with drinks in ldenham ouse eception, and we subseuently made our way into the ld efectory for the meal e were served our first three courses this meal was of outstanding uality and a pleasant assortment of tastes was enoyed by all

uring the meal, we were seated in groups of around eight, and since we were not with our friends, our known interests only overlapped in one area Theology and hilosophy This meant that the maority of the conversation that occurred was T related, aided by the philosophy related pictures and cards placed on our tables

veryone was welcomed by r awrence who gave thanks to Mr Cawley for his support of the evening’s

Veritas | Issue V | Reviews

event an for his outstaning ontriutions to the heology an hilosophy epartent over the last ten years as he leaves us at the en of this ter everen ranon sai grae an y this tie isussion was well unerway

r reen introue our guest speaker philosopher Nigel Warburton, famous for his work on “Philosophy Bites” amongst other things, was the highlight of the evening e gave us the hoie on what he woul talk about: either Sartre’s Existentialism or Mill’s Liberty. owever the roo eing ivie pretty uh evenly etween the two topis he eie to talk to us aout oth of these within the tie he ha he ieas an aneotes he share were first lass an thought provoking fter a short reak for offee an isussion he opene the floor to uestions an as per usual the uestions that the oys aske were ople an pose an interesting hallenge for arurton to answer

he evening was a super opportunity for oth heology stuents an hilosophy stuents to oine an share ieas an refletions on the two suets eing stuie at evel t was eellent to weloe ak l aerashers urrently stuying heology an hilosophy at university an to hear a philosopher speak on philosophy for life as well as the aaei ontent he presente n ehalf of all the oys woul like to thank Mr ennon an all of the heology an hilosophy teahers for aking the ith or heology an hilosophy inner suh an eellent oasion an a speial thanks to igel arurton for his engaging an entertaining after inner speeh

Veritas | Issue V | Future Events

Leel onferene for ear

STARTING A LEVEL THEOLOGY

With Dr Peter Vardy, Dr David Webster and a live interview with Dr Bernard Hoose

Friday 10 February 2017, London

ear heology stuents will loe this intensie eent exploring big uestions in the Philosophy of eligion an Ethis with r Peter ary an r ai Webster. esigne to support the NEW E LEEL heology ourse an fousing on topis speifie entrally by the fE for stuy at both S an Leel, this eent is esigne to bring ourses to life an open up the possibility of ontinuing the subet into higher euation.

Veritas | Issue V | Future Events

Sessions will include…

 eligious Experiene—efleting on the aliity of basing religious belief on other peoples’ aounts of religious experienes, inluing personal testimony, Sripture an the uestion of the plaes of authority an reason in faith.

 rguing for o—Exploring Aquinas’ famous ways to o, considering why he rejected Anselm’s ntologial rgument an the strengths an weaknesses of his osmologial an eleologial rguments.

 he Problem of Eil Suffering—Explaining the logial an eiential problem for religious belieers an ealuating two popular theoiies.

 Natural Law—Analysing Aquinas’ approach to eision making an fining out about moern eelopments of Natural Law from ohn innis an Bernar oose.

 Debate: “This house sees legalising Euthanasia as the most loing response to suffering!”

Veritas | Issue V | Future Events

E DEATE

S S

ednesday arch am in The Ase all

ears and T students

ndew oson enn

hief ecutie, ritish ellow at the ford umanist ssociation entre for hristian poloetics

resident of the ormer awyer and nternational umanist olicy Adiser and Ethical nion and trustee of the ax studied aw and nternational umanist olitical cience at Trust Australian ational niersity Andrew studied lassics and Ancient and odern

istory at the niersity of xford

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ss oeiion o e uesion

is usic w is is lue nd w does i en

s lce

AA AA,

AD T TE xford Dictionary, music is ocal andor instrumental sounds combined to produce a beauty of form t also states that music is a sound perceied as pleasingly harmonious, but this isnt necessarily true, and is subject to the opinion of people and indiidual perspecties oweer, this meaning goes a lot further

The alue of music is subject to opinion, whether you lie music or not, and depending which musical genre is in question t also depends whether you are taling about the monetary alue or thining about musical alue in a different way usic can be seen as ery aluable and contribute to general wellbeing and happiness, if you lie it or find it relaxing t is often used in therapy to help patients through recoery

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ice on usic

an you put a price on music owadays, you can The monetary alue of music is mostly dependant on the piece of music in question and the amount of people, including who, it appeals to ne of the most common examples of this in our day to day lies is pop music All of us will have CD’s or download music files at home, which we hae purchased, and a large number of us listen to music on the radio This is just a part of how music relates to our lies usicians, whether classical or contemporary who write and compose music can become ery rich if their music appeals to the masses and so the alue to them will be in monetary terms as well as their own satisfaction from the composition and performance

usic as a part of our enironment can influence our emotions and decisions e see this in public places or shops where the olume can be turned up higher This strategy coerces us into buying things because we feel good about ourseles

Music is a means of communication and it is “The niersal anguage of anind”. No matter where you are from or what language you spea you can appreciate music usic can be interpreted as many different things, depending on what is played n harlesamille aintans arnial of the nimals, all of the instruments are playing the part of an animal, whether this is the sounds they mae, to do with how they moe or their characteristics or example, the swan is depicted in what seems to be graceful and calm by a

enry adsworth ongfellow

Veritas | Issue V | Junior School

cello, which ives the effect of a swan effortlessly lidin over a lae. icturin the swan, it can mae some eole feel calm and dishearten others, main them thin that the swan is dyin. The wan ives me the imression that the swan is lidin across the lae and the comosition is relain.

omethin slow and flowin, in a maor ey mostly hay can seem eaceful and harmonious, whilst somethin in a minor ey which seems sad can e calmin as well as sad. Different instruments and instrumental families can ive different effects a violin could lay slow relain music or sound fired u and eneretic, with a fast temo. Music which includes vocals can usually e interreted directly, ust y listenin to what is ein sun, whether it is a o son, oera or roc music, which often tell a story. To me, music can have many meanins deendin on the iece. find slower, sweet and flowin music relain and most fast ieces fiery and eneretic. would define music as a series of sounds rouht toether to form a comosition.

Veritas | Issue V | Junior School

usic nd eoies

ometimes music can ive you chills. hen you hear a song that you haven’t heard in a while, it stirs up memories of ast events, eole and laces. The riht son can ive you real leasure ecause your uils dilate, your heart rate increases, lood flow increases, your temerature rises and neural athways across your rain fire u and you et that tinly feelin down your sine. esearch has shown that this haens more for sons from the ast that you hear infreuently than sons you hear on a reular asis. o you can e transorted ac in time and relive the emotions you felt.

The neural architecture of musicevoed autoiorahical memories. anata . Cereral Corte. Nov

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igure shows the ativation o neural pathways red, orange, yellow and lue regions aross the green rain when listening to usi

eligions oten have their own style o usi, easily reognisale, along with their dierent usial instruents that aopany the here are lots o types o dierent religious usi whih we see in our everyday lives hyns are religious usi or eaple, a tala or haroniu is used to play ih or indu usi, whilst an organ is generally used to play hristian usi lie erusale in a hurh

hrough this essay have highlighted the ey points aout the value and interpretation o usi n our lives we hear usi all o the tie whether it is ird song in the orning, shopping in a store or listening to it when we are relaing at hoe n y opinion usi should e an iportant part o our lives and is iensely valuale also thin that usi does help our health, welleing and ood n y personal opinion, usi is inredily valuale when play, listen or dane to it, as it gives e great pleasure

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llustration b ubert iale,

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nd lce

“Music’s ony purpose shoud e the gory o God nd the recretion o the hun spirit.”

“Everything e do is or the purpose o pointing peope to God”.

a vital role in our lives and alost all world religions t is hard to ind any religion without its own dierent usi ulture ro wo to grave, usi grows an inseparale eleent o lie yle ro iroes to ihael ason, usi has enountered very dierent ors ro the deep down depressing usi o the anient gyptians to odern virtual reality music being a combination of traditional and today’s tehnology

usi is a vivid struture o sound, lie an oean it an oe in any dierent diensions eing vital to nearly every religion in the world, usi is the ey to harony as there will e oplete unity in silene when a eautiul usi is eing played usi an dierentiate etween glee and sadness ost slow usi indiates a sad oent, while upeat and heerul usi eans happiness. It’s a creation or gift of God whilst being onteplated to e an art, a sport, or even a hoy

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“Music is a powerful force. It can comfort us when we’re down and cheer us when we’re sad. Music can change our mood and een change the spiritual atmosphere.”

hese are the ery own words of ohann ebastian ach the musical genius composer of the th century. It is certain that music will be neerending and eternal as there will always be some sort of sound. usic is so powerful that there is een music and sound in light. usic can epress eery feeling in the world humans and een some animals too can recognise patterns of music.

“Music makes people to come together……” (Quote from a song Madonna)

his is ery true as lots of people from different wals and parts of life gather to hear wonderful music being played in concerts and recitals all oer the world.

God can use any form of music.

e has no musical style or preference.

ewish music is uite dierse and dates bac thousands of years whilst Muslims’ belief is that the divine created melody and harmony of life created by llah.

usic is a part of hristian worship een ‘rap music’) thansgiing and celebration showing how worshippers

Veritas | Issue V | Junior School

feel towards od Music unites the conreation so that od is worshied with one voice wide variety of music is used in hristian worshi includin hymns salms choral music osel sons contemorary music and instrumental music layed for meditation and reflection

Music bein the heart of ancient induism it nurtures the belief that the first sound of music was the sound ‘OM’ or ‘AUM’ with which this entire universe was created Music is a daily ritual in worshi throuh ‘bhajans’ hymns and ‘kirtan’ the musical chantin of mantras ord hiva is deicted as a atron of music and hymns have eisted since the oldest survivin tet of Hinduism ‘Rig Veda’ dated between 1700 and 1100 ‘Isvara Gita’ (meaning Lord Shiva’s song) has been found in the ancient indu oa tets

Music is a very valuable item and an accessory in today’s life as eole in this world today will resect you if you resect lay and areciate music he better you are at music the more reconition and raise you will et n conclusion music is an art of sound which eresses every emotion ever used he value of music eceeds and is beyond any amount of monetary value or leasures that money can ive hereas money is a factor which can cause hainess oy and yet deression and sadness music will always result in eace and harmony which will always result in euhoria Music is a lanuae – a universal code to create unity in our lives

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d lce

SHA AMR AAR 7S

o me music is MUS S OO or the soul t is a treat or the imortant as ood and brain t is the most water one rovides ancient orm o nourishment to the entertainment and sel body the other eression certainly enriches the mind and one o the most ulits the soul interesting or centuries every culture has used music to ree and rela the minds o eole Hence it is no wonder that musical instruments are among the oldest arteacts nown to man Almost all music has erect structure its collection o comle harmonies melodies and rhythm maes most music o one ind or the other enoyed by everyone Music has been and will always be the most areciated orm o art and one that is continuously evolving and eanding into new realms Music aects our state o mind in the most ositive ways ossible listen to music almost every day or me and many others music is a orm o relaation a athway to escae the stresses o the real world o me music is imortant as ood and water one rovides nourishment to the body the other enriches the mind and ulits the soul

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or many eole music can rove to be an erstwhile comanion t is an abstract orm that almost everyone can engage with Music can be a source o motivation insiring you to constantly dig dee within yoursel to mae the imossible ossible to ta into that reservoir o strength you never new you ossessed be it the ield o battle or sort Music constantly motivates us to do better at simle everyday tass such as eercising and studying to name ust a ew t has the ower to mae boring tass such as household chores and driving enoyable here is strong evidence that suggests that learning and listening music increases the listener’s intelligence and creativity ndeed many schools o thought will tell you that music can have healing owers Music can teach great lielessons and morals Many songs even tell ascinating and historical stories For me it’s so astonishing that there are so many unique genres o music such as o a and classical to name some More delightully it is an ever eanding universe to which new orms o music are constantly being develoed and added

Music is invaluable and has meaning or all its listeners whether it taes the orm o a devotional song or a o anthem. I think of music as an ‘abstract messenger’ delivering simle lie messages oten drawing your attention to imortant and roound messages A simle song, like ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ by Bobby McFerron can instantly ulit you and has the ower to wie away all of ones’ worries. Other songs like ‘Africa’ can draw

Veritas | Issue V | Junior School

your attention to the plight and despair of those less fortunate then us.

Music is a natural and popular past time it can cheer you up in moments of distress, it can gie you hope in moments of despair and it can bring people together. hink about a world without music. he confetti coered dinosaur float wheeling down the road in silence, the empty concert stages and the silent barbecues. How empty would the world be without music hat is how important music is to the world. Music is so amaing and naturally lends itself to dancing which is the purest form of physical epression, is it any wonder babies dance before they walk, react to music before they talk. an you isualise a world without dancing or music, wouldn’t it be a gloomy and dismal world

I think music is one of the greatest gifts that humanity has been gien, and I think it is important that its power and utility not be underestimated.

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S S

at is music

s it ust te laying o te iolin,

e blowing o a tuba,

r te strumming o te guitar

o, because music is a eeling,

way to sow an eression

usic can mae one oyous,

t can mae one melancoly,

ut only i te iece is owerul enoug

n act, music as suremacy,

reat wisdom in te world

ne sould not master music,

or tat means tey ae not let music arrie naturally,

ne sould let music master tem

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o does music mean anyting

s it a true reality

r is it ust an unreacable dream

usic is one o, i not

The most important aspects of many people’s lives.

t can mean eace and armony,

long wit war

What are music’s emotional values?

an you ut a alue on emotion

r can you simly gie someting u to get eeling

beliee tat music does ae a alue,

oug one greatly struggles to get it or a rice

or music as unlimited alue

usic as te ower to control oters wit its beauty

nd to bot turn eole wea

r mae tem stronger

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or me music is inefinitely important.

poner aout hat coul o ithout it.

usic is lie an unstoppale force

That lives to serve our hearts.

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ss oeiion o e uesion ‘You have to be a good Mathematician to coose beautiful music.’ Discuss. s lce

TT are intrinsically line the ualities of one are reflecte in the other hether it e the ave patterns of the notes in a maor chor linin up or searchin for the aility to escrie eauty an completeness in the eleance of the orl. n eneral those ho sho an aptitue for mathematics are commonly fascinate y the nature of music an reat musicians are often foun to have a hih level of innate mathematical aility – inee this is shon in their music itself – ut the uestion of necessity of mathematical nolee an aility for successful musical composition is slihtly ifferent. s the aility to create eautiful music purely limite to the mathematicians amon us?

The first uestion that arises hen attemptin to etermine this relates to hat a mathematician actually is an hat maes the ifference eteen a oo

Veritas | Issue V | Middle School

–

– when asked whether he had shown signs of being a ‘child prodigy’, stated that any person who shows a significant

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fields aniil rifono, a yong, accoplished pianist and coposer, eorised aps of cities in his infancy and early childhood eorisation itself is not a prely atheatical feat, and does not really correlate with atheatical ability, bt in this particlar instance, the spatial awareness and cognitie ability reired to be able to eorise city aps with sch ease at sch a yong age is telling, and he has said that as he traels the world fro concert to concert it is rare for hi to eer feel nfailiar with where he is as he has already eplored these cities in his ind

here is an argent, howeer, that it is only the copling of innate ability and theoretical knowledge that leads to a beatifl sical otpt, which cold be ore plasible he history of sical and atheatical deelopent, as well as st abot anything, show a clear progression, with people looking to iproe on the work of those before the, sing ethods that had already been deeloped to ake breakthroghs ithot this ethod of progression, progression itself wold not eist, becase eeryone is starting fro scratch, and any breakthroghs ade wold ake a negligible difference withot people then looking to frther deelop pon that breakthrogh ith music, it is hard to avoid being exposed to ‘theory’ – eery sond yo hear is haing an ipact on yor sical nderstanding, howeer cople the sond or yor nderstanding ay be, and so people with an innate ability will achiee this copling to an etent, and if they are forally sically edcated, they will thrie and achiee this to an een greater etent hen referring to ‘innate ability’, I consider mathematical and sical ability to be no different to one another – they are both based on the recognition of pattern and

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striving to obtain order, and in this ay, the subects themselves are no different from one another

Is it possible for beautiful music to be composed ithout an extraordinary ability in a person though f course, a great piece of music can come about by chance, especially hen the composer has been musically educated and is aare of basic ideas, as shon by arl Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’, which is considered by many to be a coincidental strie of brilliance – a clear cut above his other ors livier essiaen as no doubt a composer ho possessed an extraordinary ability, but he also documented his methods behind his or, hich are striingly mathematical his usage of modes of limited transportation and nonretrogradable rhythms, hich are mathematical ideas developed in a purely mathematical ay from the notes of the estern scale and the simple nature of rhythms, form the basis of his or, almost in a ay that he ust placed these ideas together and a beautiful music came out of it, such as in his ‘Vingt regards sur l’enfantJésus’. Of course his talent for placing these ‘rules’ together in such a profound ay as hat made his music so amaing, but essiaen himself stated that the rules themselves ere hat made his music beautiful, so could anyone not ust simply play ith these ideas and compose beautiful music

eturning to the original statement of having to be a good mathematician to compose beautiful music, it is true hen looing at it from a number of ays if a mathematician is considered to be a person ho is simply theoretically ell versed, then, if they are ell versed in the theory of music, they have the tools that they need, and it is easily possible for them to compose

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beautiful music, but if a good mathematician is considered to be a erson with an etraordinary innate ability, then not only is it ossible for them to roduce beautiful music, it is liely that they will be able to hae a sustained outut of beautiful music, articularly if they hae studied the wor of reious comosers which is liely as such a erson will liely tae a deeer interest into the subect. oweer, without any of these things, it is much less liely for beautiful music to be comosed, but it is still robabilistically ossible, so it is not eclusiely necessary to be a good mathematician in order to comose beautiful music, but it is considerably more liely for a good mathematician to comose beautiful music.

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nd lace

OB , J

“MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC, the most sharply contrasted fields of scientific actiity which can be found, and yet related, suorting each other, as if to show forth the secret connection which ties together all the actiities of our mind, and which leads us to surmise that the manifestations of the artists genius are but the unconscious eressions of a mysteriously acting rationality.” –th century erman hysician and hysicist ermann on elmholt, Vortrgeund eden, Bd. Braunschweig, , .

hat is beauty ccording to the Oford ictionary, beauty is defined as “A combination of qualities, such as shae, colour, or form, that leases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight”. This seems to be somewhat unsatisfying howeer, hilosohers hae been eually inconclusie about the true nature of beauty since the ncient rees. n any case, there aears to be a ast incongruity between beautiful music and mathematics and yet these two seemingly contrasting fields are intrinsically lined musical sound can be described by mathematically and many elements of fundamental music theory are closely related to time and freuency. But does that mean that one has to be arithmetically roficient to create beautiful music

mathematician might say that maths is ure truth, and is not secifically about anything. ually, unlie other artistic mediums such as aintings, oetry and literature music does not necessarily resemble anything in the real world. aintings loo lie things, oetry and

Veritas | Issue V | Middle School

literature tal about things, and een teleision and film attempt to portray a reallife set of scenarios. This similarity has been further eplored by Clifton Callender of lorida State Uniersity, Ian uinn of ale Uniersity and Dmitri Tymoco of rinceton Uniersity in their geometrical music theory in the April issue of the ournal Science. This collectie group conceied a mathematical technique hich maps out music as coordinates as a graph. They concluded that for music made of chords ith only to notes, all musical possibilities, in terms of a graph, taes the form of a Mobius strip a surface ith one continuous side formed by oining the ends of a rectangle after tisting one end through essentially a tisted rubber band. Chords containing three notes tae the shape of a cone, and chords ith notes are mapped out as a pyramid. All gien chords, ith any gien amount of notes, can be mapped onto this graph. Equally, the golden ratio a number that allegedly is contained ithin nature the shape of leaes for eample hich eplains hy components of nature are aesthetically pleasing also demonstrates a strong lin beteen maths and music. The oertone series is a natural order of notes that is played by horn instruments and found in other instances in music, and if you diide an octae by a perfect fifth, , you get the golden ratio. If you diide a perfect fifth by an octae, , you get the golden ratio. oth these mathematical concepts demonstrate to some etent that music is simply mathematics that e listen to “Music is the pleasure the human soul experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting” erman mathematician and philosopher ottfried ilhelm on eibni ho codiscoered calculus.

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oweer this oes not therefore mean that ou hae to be a goo mathematician to compose beautiful music ust because there is a lin between two things oes not mean that ou cannot be goo at one without the other or instance an oil painting is might be mae of oil but its beauty is not because of the oil. The term “good mathematician” is ambiguous in itself. s being goo at maths an inherent talent or an attribute that has to be learne f being a goo mathematician means practising maths an learning about the subect then most composers who hae create conentionall beautiful music eethoen Moart agner etc were obiousl not goo mathematicians since the eicate their time to music not arithmetic n if it is an intrinsic abilit then hpotheticall speaing if lbert instein or lan uring i not hae an eucation an i not een now what a number was the woul still be classifie as goo mathematicians itionall the word “good” is a relative descriptor; does “good” mean achieing an at maths or haing a h at a worl renowne uniersit

his uestion can be answere empiricall using obseration or experience to support an argument not b using pure logic but onl if one can show that a ast maorit of composers who prouce beautiful music were at least mathematicall competent oweer this can only be done by defining what the word “beautiful” means eaut the most elusie of abstractie concepts is seemingl subectie beaut is in the ee of the beholer of course oweer there are certain pieces of music that hae been accepte b societ to be masterpieces hese beautiful pieces of music include “Requiem Mass in D minor” (Mozart) “Come Sweet Death” (Bach). Evidently, our individual

Veritas | Issue V | Middle School

perception of beauty must have some relationship with others if certain pieces of music are collective seen as brilliant. owever, if what constitutes beauty as what many people thin is aesthetically pleasing, it is logically unsound ust because many people believe that something is true or beautiful, doesn’t mean it is. nd even if the word can be defined, empirical evidence cannot “prove” anything, if proof literally is showing that something has to be the case that there is no possibility for a contradiction. n any case, Einstein was proficient at both the violin and piano and was said to thin in terms of music, and ohann Sebastian Bach, a man who has conventionally described to be among the greatest composers of all time, had an etremely rigorous mathematical approach to his music. Therefore, the argument could be made that mathematics is a ey component in composing, and one that is perhaps subconsciously and unnowingly practised by other great composers.

nd yet, beauty must be uneplainable. t is ethereal, ephemeral and alien to humanity. Beauty is outside the natural law, maths is surely too crude to enable us to understand an abstraction so comple. Music must be more than ust numbers, or at the very least, an understanding of the maths behind music is not the understanding of music. brilliant musician does not thin in terms of mathematical theory, he imagines the harmony of a unified group of sounds and he groups them together in a way that brings oys to the ears that are blessed with the music. Being a brilliant composer seems to be an innate ability, one which goes past practice or musical theory, and instead a sill that cannot be learnt or understood. erhaps a genius mathematician can become a competent composer, but

Veritas | Issue V | Middle School

he cannot create beautiful music without a natural talent. onversely, this commonly held belief may be ust cognitive bias trap we want beauty to be more than ust maths because we need to feel that the universe is not so crude and mundane. owever, from the conventional human perspective, beauty is transcendent and ineffable and impossible to understand.

learly there is a lin between maths and music in the very nature of musical sound waves and mathematics of how they “work”. The Golden Ratio is a simple example that demonstrates this lin. athematics is pervasive in all things from physics to life itself and it is no surprise we see it in music. ut the uestion is not one of maths being the prereuisite to music but more specifically beautiful music. he sounds of ocean waves rolling onto the shore has long been held as beautiful if not music, and yet it is random and inconsistent. here are no mathematics involved and yet a human being hearing those sounds feels the beauty of the sea. his highlights why we cannot loo for beauty. hen one listens to beautiful music, be that Bach’s Brandenburg concerto or ohn rusciante of the ed ot hilli eppers playing alifornication on guitar, what we hear maybe ust soundwaves, but our perception of how those soundwaves mae us feel is a different thing entirely. composer does not have to be a good mathematician to compose beautiful music, the ability to produce such melodies is inherent and a special gift that the composer possesses.

Veritas | Issue V | Middle School

d lace

T GB,

TG TR R clear similarities between music and mathematics, there is no scientific eidence to proe a direct relationship between music and maths. oweer, the two fields are clearly connected in seeral ways. or example, music computer prorams are usin mathematical shapes to create pieces, which use specific mathematical concepts.

n example of this is ronoorph which is a computer proram used to easily compose music pieces. hown below

The proram was desined as a eometrical and isual structure of rhythm and repetition, based on two main mathematical principles perfect balance and bein well formed. t shows how shapes and patterns can be translated into musical pieces. ombinations of reular

Veritas | Issue V | Middle School

polyons like euilateral trianles, suares, and reular pentaons are used to create new compositions.

Two hundred years ao, a mathematician called ariste Galwar discoered a new mathematical idea called field theory inolin around prime numbers the basis of a number of modern deelopments includin phone calls, broadband and s. sin this mathematical idea, ohn ostas , created a piece of music usin prime numbers, which had absolutely no repetition this was the first piece eer to hae such a structure.

historical example of a classical composer introducin mathematical ideas into his music is the fuues of ohann ebastian Bach .

Bach’s Fugue No. 16 does not look like a very mathematical piece, howeer, when you look at the

Veritas | Issue V | Middle School

loer iece you see that Bach is inverting ars n the ass cle he has inverted the irst to and the three green and red ars each sound siilar layed in slightly dierent ays. hen you listen to the iece each tie a attern aears Bach changes the coination o the to voices eaving elodic thees and adding etra notes and atterns to ake it sound aealing. his thee as taken u in a aous ook y ostadter del scher Bach n ternal olden Braid hich links the usic o Bach to the atheatics o urt odel and the oodcuts o scher.

erhas the ost aous usical atheatician as lert instein ho layed oth the violin and iano. e once said “I I r nt a hsiist I rbab b a siian I tn think in si I iv aras in si I s i in trs si.” is second ie lsa as also a strong atheatician and reorted that i she as stuck on a hard aths role she ould sit don and lay the iano.

lthough there does not see to e a direct connection eteen usic and atheatics usic deinitely contains atheatical ideas in it. For eale an

Veritas | Issue V | Middle School

. have to decide quite carefully who those ‘other people’ . to be an important part of a child’s education, so for ‘background correlation’ between the two groups. .

. than others having a better ‘ear for music’. Just as . child’s education, just as a mathematician would have

Veritas | Issue V | Middle School

had a strong mathematical education and probably have been encouraged to pursue the subject.

n conclusion, it is not necessary to be a good mathematician to compose beautiful music. owever, it helps to understand the maths behind certain musical concepts. lthough they both revolve around patterns, in music, even the best composers often use trial and error and estimation to find the correct note for the bar, however in maths trial and error is rarely used. lthough there is no clear evidence showing a relationship between the two, mathematical ideas can certainly be used to help write music. here have been many beautiful and famous musical pieces, which have been written by musicians who were not good at mathematics, and there have definitely been musicians who have not ecelled at maths and some who have hated it, therefore you do not have to be a good mathematician to compose beautiful music.

Veritas | Issue V | Sixth Form

ssa ometition o the uestion

‘Music, Maths and Morality all reflect the underlying Structure of Reality.’ Discuss.

st lace

J , J

s it physical, metaphysical or both an we even be certain that we eist at all ow do we know that we are not simply brains plugged into a computer which shoots electrical impulses into our brain, forcing us to live in a dream world

From indirect realism to Berkeley’s idealism, there have been many arguments trying to answer these fundamental questions about what is – and what is not. herefore, think it is a fundamental matter of philosophy to approach the question of reality before answering any further questions.

n order to understand our relationship with reality, one must first find out what reality is. or when one asks the question, “How do we perceive reality?” the question

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makes sense, ut cannot e answered without an understandin oth o what reality is and what perception is However, it is very clear what perception is, since it is our immediate understandin o the world hen watch ack kick a ootall, have a perception But the question is, in rait, is ack kickin a ootall – and do ack or the ootall eist in reality at all? o I eist in reality? hat is reality?

In order to understand reality, let’s work backwards rom what we perceive hat perceive is ack kickin the ootall ur supposed understandin o reality, accordin to physics and the amain scientiic advancements o the th and st century, states that there is actually no colour or solid here, as such n act, o everythin is ust empty space toms are all that eist, and o them are space too he only thin, thereore, that stops everythin rom collapsin is the speciic characteristics o these particles, namely that they are held apart y special orces or enery ndeed, liht itsel is ent around these orces, and so we do not ust perceive empty space, ut instead perceive colour and ‘solid’ objects. So reality has no colour and looks rather dierent to our perception But, it is the same atoms in ack that kick the same atoms o the ootall, supposedly anyway hereore, in our supposed reality, ack and the ootall eist and ack is kickin a ootall

he question which most oviously ollows asks how we can e sure that they eist? he most ovious answer is

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that we perceive the throuh our senses. e can touch and eel the ootball and pick it up, uch in the sae way that we can hear ack and see ack and sell ack. his surely shows that they eist, since we can sense the. owever, there are plenty o ties durin which our senses have ailed us. hen a thirsty an in the desert has a hallucination o an oasis, or when phanto pains strike aputees, our senses are no loner correct – they have ailed us. Indeed, it is an analysis o phanto pains which shows that indeed there are actually “real sensations [which] originate in the spinal cord and brain.” ayo linic Sta, bviously, there is no actual lib, althouh phanto lib is eperienced by a nuber o aputees, so our senses are creatin both a phanto pain and a hallucination o our lib still bein there. nlike phanto pain, hallucinations are ar less understood. lthouh lots o research is oin into the, there are no deinite eplanations or the. ost hypotheses and eplanations reardin hallucinations ocus on soethin bein wron in the brain, thus, supposedly, causin a istranslation between senses and perception. here are no actual neurons or sensations causin the hallucination – that sees to be enerally accepted.

hat does this show us It shows that there see to be two types o isrepresentation o reality – one caused by neurons bein ired incorrectly phanto pain and the other not caused by real sensations, rather it is caused by probles in the brain itsel and thus the

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interpretation o sensation by the brain. course we do not now whether these sensations are actually isrepresenting reality or not since we cannot chec our sensations against reality – but that is eactly the point. ur sensations are siply not good enough to proe that ac and the ootball eist – we are not een sure i they are accurate representations to reality since we cannot chec the against reality and een i they are then our sense o sight is wrong when we eel there to be a phanto lib – our eel and sight directly contradict one another.

o we do not now whether ac eists. e do not now whether our sensations which show us ac are accurate representations o reality so we cannot trust the. n act in searching or reality we hae only coe to one good solid conclusion we do not now what reality is. ut is this actually true

urrently whilst you are reading this you are no doubt haing a thought. oes this thought eist he answer ust be yes. nlie ac or the oasis or the phanto libpain our thought ust eist. e can be sure o its eistence because we do not sns it we ust thin it. e create the thoughts – we are their origin. iilarly we now that we eist – i anything siply because “cogito ergo sum”, Descartes’ wellnown phrase describing our existence, meaning “I think therefore I am”. We cannot be sure that our physical body eists in reality and een i it does that it loos in reality as it appears to us. oweer we can be sure that our ind

Veritas | Issue V | Sixth Form

is in realit, since it must exist. If I am thinking, then m mind and its thoughts must exist. s Descartes once said: “on osse nobis dubitari, uin existamus dum dubitamus atue hoc esse rimum, uod ordine philosophando cognoscimus.” Descartes, We cannot doubt our own existence – because to doubt our own existence, we must exist.

It does make sense though – something exists, that has to be certain, since there is something rather than nothing. herefore, m mind exists, since we do erceie something, een if it is not realit. herefore, the onl thing we know exists in realit and which must do so is m mind, and along with it, m thoughts beliefs and knowledge.

ne common itfall is that since we all think this therefore surel roes that we all exist. oweer, the roblem is that we do not know that eerone thinks, unlike ourseles. he could be a construct of the mind and so could siml be false sensations which cause us to erceie eole telling us that the think therefore the exist. We are onl doing our own thinking, not theirs, and so we cannot do Jack’s thinking about Jack’s existence, so we cannot roe that ack exists, unless one is ack.

he original roof can be shown as such

o be able to think or doubt, one must exist.

I doubt m own existence.

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: hereore, eist.

t is true that know premise two, and premise one must be analticall true. t is a alid argument, since the premises lead to the conclusion. hereore, it is a sound argument.

n the other hand, the argument that eerone eists since we all think is as ollows:

: o be able to think or doubt, one must eist.

: e all doubt our eistence.

: hereore, we all eist.

lthough it is as alid an argument as aboe, it is not a sound argument since do not know whether or not Jack reall does doubt his own eistence since do not know whether Jack thinks as I do not think Jack’s thought, but do think m own thoughts. do not directl perceie Jack’s thoughts in the same way I perceive my own thoughts, so premise two is not necessaril true.

o, m mind and thoughts eist. oweer, the are not phsical obects which eist. hereore, the are metaphsical obects which eist. hereore, there is a metaphsical ontological leel, since metaphsical obects cannot eist without there being a metaphsical ontological leel in eistence. his nonphsical leel must eist since the mind eists and the mind includes belies, knowledge and memor and makes decisions, mulls things oer and can work out basic logical

Veritas | Issue V | Sixth Form

inerences and inerences rom tets these things cannot be physica ootba is supposedy a physica thing – but a beie cannot be a physica thing imiary, it cannot be supposed that our abiity to make decisions is hed within neurons and brain matter, nor that our uniue and individua way o ooking at the word, or our perception o the word, since it is not what is supposedy there in reaity, is not actuay there at a

hen I cose my eyes and imagine something, that imagination is ceary an image nd it is there – but it is on the nonphysica scae, in the same way that beies and doubts and decisionmaking and emotions are non physica ow can we suppose that these images eist i not in the nonphysica scae eary, they do not eist in reaity or so we think, so either they do not eist or they eist esewhere It is my beie that they eist in a nonphysica ontoogica eve, athough the direct reaist denies their eistence at a owever, the concusion which I come to is based on the oowing argument

I imagine an image o a dog

here is no physica dog

hereore, the imagination and the image are not physica

he imagination o an image o a dog actuay happens

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– “There is no physical dog.” If we cannot be this the “veil of perception” which we are trapped

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I iagine an iage of a dog.

The iage of the dog is not a physical dog.

Therefore the iagination and the iage are not physical.

o the conclsion that we can coe to is that other than or own ind and ideas we cannot now anything else abot reality. e do not now if the niverse eists or whether we siply live in a atri lie world. It is perhaps a startling thing to realise bt at the sae tie it is logical that all we can dedce abot reality is this.

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nd lace

T I technology sch as new irtal eality headsets are becoing widely available throghot the world and have ltiple ses fro gaing to edcation. These vastly change the reality of whoever is sing the they encopass alost all the senses perhaps creating a new reality. ro this the estion of the trth of or reality arises. o ay be sitting at hoe reading this article in hard copy or ay be reading it on a copter screen how do yo now that this eperience is real ow do yo now that in reading the article yo are not in fact part of an advanced copter creating virtal reality in a style ain to The atri fil series In these fils hanity is trapped in copter progras that silate what the progra thinks to be reality, such that we exist “behind a veil of [our] own perception”. To quote Freddie Mercury’s opening lyric of Bohemian Rhapsody “Is this th i is this st ts” How can we know what is reality and what is not

t first glance srely scientific evidence can prove or reality It is easy to identify tangible obects – for instance chairs tables trees eist as they can all be proved to eist via scientific eperientation at least in the opinion of a realist. Intangibles ay be harder to identify bt they still eist – for eaple an easeent

Veritas | Issue V | Sixth Form

a right benefiting a parcel of land, a right to be repaid if you lend money. ntangibles can include self confidence, responsibility and a recession. These are all recognised situations and concepts used umpteen times in our society. n abstract concept can be difficult to define but it is still real. Take legal concepts such as rights and obligations – or mathematical concepts such as i. t may be difficult to use scientific evidence to prove that some of these abstract concepts are real. They can come into existence on their creation and usage.

onversely, if something is not real, it may be conured up in our imagination – for instance, witches, ghouls, uidditch – the sport from the iarding orld of Harry otter. n idealistic idea of something – for instance an imaginary dream holiday on a desert island – is not real. The idea can exist but the imaginary activity itself does not exist.

supposition assumption, hypothesis, estimate or theory is not real until shown to be correct. on veridical perceptions such as dreams and hallucinations are also not real, although they can appear to be so. xperiences such as these have a deceptive appearance. They can confuse reality leading to an illusion or false idea or belief – for instance, mirages and visions. ometimes our minds can play tricks on us. e can be so desperate for a certain result that we can believe we have achieved it when in reality we have not. s humans we are not infallible we can be guilty of selective

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–

– Hitler’s delusional behaviour. This can be illustrated by – agree whether the moon is beautiful. As people’s imaginations act in different ways, people’s ideas of

Veritas | Issue V | Sixth Form

a large group believe in something, this does not mae it real. They may have been brainwashed or influenced by stories. A famous eample would be the och ess monster there is no scientific evidence to prove the eistence of this mythical beast ecept for a few obviously fae photographs, however this has not stopped many from actually believing in its eistence. The character of uper Hans from the hit hannel sitcom eep how uite humorously summaries that “You can’t trust people, they like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis.” However if we tae the eample of the shape of the arth, it was once believed that the arth was not round but flat. The concept was widely accepted as fact in ndigenous American, ree and arly uropean cultures. or these cultures, this was the reality, as they truly believed they had evidence to prove it looing out onto a flat horion for eample. Although their beliefs were ultimately debuned, this was their reality at the time. This does indeed suggest that reality is not about scientific truth, but more about the common beliefs of a society people collectively deem what reality is, at a moment in time. e can conclude that, with hindsight, certain historic beliefs can be disproved and our current beliefs about reality may be debuned as false in the future.

ene escartes went on to say in his editations that the only thing that he nows eists was his mind, and his mind only. He concluded this by firstly very simply stripping away all of his prior nowledge and beliefs so that he had no evidence to prove any reality eists at

Veritas | Issue V | Sixth Form

rd lace

suective oective oective oective suective

oective

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ust created

–

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knoin

assue if

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he roles of hilosophy

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hy "just as good" as each other’s. Wrong again. Morality is “objective” mo

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resemblance to the morals o that one secies o ae on just one lanet around a airly unecetional star in a airly unecetional galay. eole consider one secies alone rom one lanet alone and roject that onto everything else. ooing at the concet o morality and its urose morality is a ay o maintaining human ellbeing. his may be valid but ho decided that human ellbeing is hat is imortant es e did. uman ellbeing is all about our emotions and reerences and thereore has to be subjective.

o conclude ill e ever no i moral ruths eist hether e ollo them or not he anser is simly no. here is no doubt in my mind that e humans ollo subjective morals hoever it is unnon to us truly i objective morals overla our on morals. ruths are similar to od. heir eistence cannot be roved using logic and reasoning as there is no concrete emirical evidence or their eistence. it is argued that ruths descend rom od it simly leads bac to the uthyhro dilemma elained earlier. he uestion "o objective moral eist" may be unanserable ith clear evidence lie many other hilosohical uestions but eistence does not cease to eist because it is undiscovered.

Veritas | Issue V | Interviews

nterie ith the eadaster

M M

Veritas’ Jonathan Stelzer (JS) intervieed the eadmaster M on this year’s journal theme.

o you lay any musical instruments

M o never have. he reason really is because didn’t have the opportunity growing up. oever ould most certainly change that i could. eel that not actually being able to lay has allowed me to appreciate other’s musical talent to a greater degree.

What is your avourite iece o music

M It would have to be Debussy’s Preludes and Nocturnes. However, Schubert’s Song Cycles in

Veritas | Issue V | Interviews

erman contain an element which I appreciate due to its representation o dierent periods o time. lso rom a more relaed, jazzy perspective, I enjoy illie Holiday.

JS hat is the importance o music to you

H bviously the downtime is a ey part, but attempting to loo into the mindset o a composer appeals greatly. usic is something that essentially transposes language.

JS Is there an overlap between maths and music

H bsolutely. aths, music and linguistics are all codes.

JS here do you see maths in your day to day lie

H I don’t see it as much as I should. My Tesco shop is the only time really.

JS Do you believe people have an inbuilt sense o orality

H I don’t believe that people are born evil, but they can become evil. nvironment has a strong impact on morality.

JS Who’s your favourite philosopher and why?

H riedrich Nietzsche. His language is poetically stunning. He truly is a master o words.

Veritas | Issue V | Interviews

What do you thin holds more importance Music and its creativity or Maths and its certainty?

M Maths is certain to a point which can be comfortin for some, whereas music can often be unsettlin. owever, I would say that as a combination, they hold admirable merit.

What is your favourite uote?

M “Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose” eanaptiste lphonse arr.

Who is your role model?

M This may not be a popular answer, but I would say apoleon. t the heiht of his power he brouht about reat chane to society. is social and cultural impact and his very successful campains durin the evolutionary Wars can only be admired.

Veritas | Issue V | Interviews

nterie ith the halain

Veritas’ Gabriel Wheway (GW) nteee eeen anon on this year’s journal theme.

hat s ou aoute pece o musc

Bruckner’s 8th mphon

hat s the mpotance o musc to ou

t sas moe than os

o oul ou sum up ealt n thee os

e to hope

s thee an oelap eteen maths an musc

es usc s the echo o numes

Veritas | Issue V | Interviews

GW Where o you see maths in your ay to ay lie

B y trael car to an rom school is . a week.

GW o you beliee that eole hae an inbuilt sense o morality

B es. Because want to.

GW Who’s your favourite philosopher and why?

B Wittenstein because o his beetle bo.

GW What o you think hols more imortance music an its creatiity or maths an its certainty

B usic because it rees you.

GW What is your aourite uote

B In John’s Gospel, Pontius Pilate asks “hat is truth”

GW Who is your role moel ow hae they aecte your iew o morality

B tanley Bater. e was actually the irst erson to imersonate the ueen.

Veritas | Issue V | Letters

etter ro ford

Studying Maths and hilosohy t niersity

I ,

ear eader,

he drait is a siple line drawin, whih is well known to any students of philosophy oonly eployed as an eaple of an illusion, it depits a fiure whih an either e interpreted as a duk or a rait When enterin the philosophial real however, its eanin deepens, as it is used as an eaple of how our ind arves out an understandale iae fro what on paper is siply lines ihard orty in his ook, he irror of Nature, presents it as an aruent for the ultural relativity of knowlede, in partiular listin our lanuae and onepts as the tools whih interpret the underdeterined lines It is this whih leads hi to claim that we employ ‘language as a tool rather than a mirror’. Our use of language does not simply reflect and

Veritas | Issue V | Letters

relay what we perceie it is the tool which forms that perception. ithout it the raw empirical inputs are nothing but a ‘blooming, buzzing confusion’ (William ames.

his type of argument is also presented y ittgenstein and can e formulated as follows

. When I hold up a pen and explain, “This is tove”, you have a private mental image of ‘tove’. . f a priate mental image is sufficient for meaning, you would know the meaning of ‘tove’. . You do not know the meaning of ‘tove’ for you do not now whether it means lue pen or plastic. . herefore priate mental images are not sufficient for meaning ut must e interpreted y our concepts.

t shows how our prior nowledge shapes our perception of the reality around us.

s part of the aths in my degree hae opted for a doule module which focuses on athematics ducation. he first of the two modules proides a road framewor to help us in the second which inoles teaching in a local school. t includes uestions ranging

Veritas | Issue V | Letters

from ‘What does it mean to learn Maths?’ to how the discilines of sychology and sociology imact the teaching of Maths in the Within this first module, we came across an interesting idea, which echoed bac to the drabbit or many rimary school students, when learning what a triangle is, they eerience their teacher drawing a horiontal line, a second arbitrary line from one of the endoints, and then finally comleting the three sided shae as we would eect s a result, their concet image of a triangle necessarily includes the original horiontal line and so in some cases, they refuse to give the label ‘triangle’ to a three sided shae which does not have this line

n this case, it is secifically their mathematical concets which have shaed their ercetion and concetion of a triangle his can also be illustrated in other eamles, such as rimary school students refusing to identify a suare rotated by degrees as a suare, because according to them, it is a diamond Whilst some argue that Mathematics is at the basis of the reality of our universe, hilosohers lie orty and Wittgenstein in conunction with sychological studies hel to show that our nowledge of mathematical concets is very much at the centre of our ercetion of reality

ours sincerely,

oni tone

niversity of ford

Veritas | Issue V | Letters

R RM MR R

ear aberdashers,

reetings from the other side I’m delighted to have been ased to scribble a few reflections on life after abs and esecially if that means I’ve been forgiven for moving to Merchant Taylors’. I’m fascinated by your theme for eritas this year usic, aths, orality and the tructure of eality. I guess you’re eloring things lie the rhythm of life and the atterns which we find when we investigate the world around us Moving to a new school has meant lots of new rhythms for me as I’ve had to adjust to a new place, new lesson timings and the absence of bells (it’s so quiet!). It’s been great fun trying to blend the best of abs with the routines and ideas that Taylors’ have, as I’ve tried to establish a new structure for my new reality too

enoyed seeing lots of you at the odd fiture this term, although I’m not sure I’ve forgiven Mr Kerry and Mr harlwood for banning the st criceters from seaing to me when came over to say hello My new reality over in orthwood has many similarities to the one enoyed at abs bright uils asing challenging uestions, a mi of sort, music, arts and academia, and a similar cultural mi too My new deartment are

Veritas | Issue V | Letters

een to investigate the same challenges that we enjoyed at abs what is the meaning of life ow should I live How can I know the truth? It’s these questions that I put to the ith orm in my first assembly of the year as I challenged the lads to be living wholehearted, flourishing lives, full of the virtues which ristotle espouses. It can be a challenge to juggle all the competing demands on our time, be those music, maths or just trying to live a moral life. ach one of us needs to find a rhythm which wors for us and eeps us engaged and enthused, without being ground down or ehausted. nce we wor out what we can accomplish in the time we have, then the structure of our reality will become selfevident and we can flourish as we were intended to.

ood luc with your continuing studies, and eep asing those challenging questions. ou may not always get all the answers you want, but the process of asing them and developing your understanding is as important as the end result.

ress on!

Veritas | Issue V | Academic Article

I I

S S R, R S SM SR R R

ie arurton is a writer phiosopher an pocaster His ost recent ook is itte Histor o hiosoph ues ans is poic irector at the entre or the Histor o the otions at ueen ar niersit o onon He is the author o hiosoph or ie an ther anerous ituations

igel arurton There’s been a lot of interest in reiin toic phiosoph recent particuar the therapeutic aspects of it. I’m skeptical about this, as in iew phiosoph is priari the attept to unerstan an as such is an actiit o enquir There’s no guarantee that discovering how things are wi eneit us pschooica it iht in act ake thins uch worse s rierich ietsche pointe out it iht not een e possie to conront the eeper truths o reait heaon hat wou ake huan eistence unearae hat o ou think?

ules ans: Personally, I’m not arguing that a phiosoph is therap ut rather that ancient reeks an oans iewe phiosoph that wa as i an Inian phiosophers he eeope arious

Veritas | Issue V | Academic Article

practical techniues which they said would help transform suffering, that were part of a comprehensive ‘philosophy of life’. These techniques weren’t simply positive thinking, rather they argued that we need to see the world as it is, in all its instability and adversity, and accept it. ome of these techniues have now been rediscovered and tested out by empirical psychologists, who have found that they do indeed transform emotional suffering. I want to communicate this as much as possible, because ancient philosophy really can help people overcome suffering – and that’s to the credit of philosophy, which as you know is a much maligned and underfunded subject these days. Don’t you think the more we communicate that, the higher philosophy’s standing and relevance in the world will be

ow, do I think that wellbeing is a higher value than truth o. I hope I would never cling to something because it made me happy, if I suspected it wasn’t true. Philosophy involves a restless search for the truth, an unceasing examination of one’s assumptions. I enjoy that search, which is why I didn’t stop at Stoicism, but have kept on looking, because I don’t think Stoicism is the whole truth about reality. ut what gives me the motive to keep on looking is ultimately a sort of Platonic faith that the truth is good, and that it’s good for me. hy bother searching unless you thought the destination was worth reaching

Veritas | Issue V | Academic Article

bviously, not all philosophies of life work equally well. ou mentioned that there is some empirical support for the psychological techniques that you find in some ancient philosophy. ould you be more specific about this

ognitive behavioural therapy T is one of the few talking therapies that is approved by the UK’s ational Institute for ealth and are xcellence I and provided by the ational ealth Service. Its two inventors, the S psychotherapists lbert llis and aron eck, both told me they were directly inspired by Stoicism. Specifically, T is based on the Stoic idea that our emotions are connected to our thoughts and beliefs, and we can learn to attain a ‘cognitive distance’ from our automatic beliefs and see them as just thoughts rather than the truth. T also took specific practices for transforming our thoughts from ancient philosophy, such as using a journal to track and challenge habitual thought patterns using maxims to memorise and habituate insights using visualisation techniques to change perspective using fieldwork or behavioural ‘homework’ to turn new beliefs into habitual actions, and so on.

Isn’t that an argument for using psychological techniques such as T rather than for going back to ancient Stoicism ristotle was a significant proto scientist, but presentday scientists would be illadvised to base their practice on his…

Veritas | Issue V | Academic Article

If you have an acute emotional disorder, is certainly the place to start owever, leaves out important stuff. Firstly, it’s less beautifully written than the works of, say, arcus urelius, ucretius or eneca, and beauty has a power over the soul econdly, instrumentalises the ancient techniues and leaves out any idea of the ethical goal happiness, inner peace, virtue, justice, etc). Thirdly, CBT doesn’t consider how ethics is connected to physics – the ancients try to answer and at least remind us that this is an important uestion ourth, is designed to be a shortterm, eight to week intervention rather than a philosophy for life, ie something you practise your whole life ut it wouldn’t be appropriate for a therapist to impose an ethical philosophy on you as a cure for depression or aniety – they give you the basic selfchange techniues, but it’s for you to choose your broader lifephilosophy

I suppose this all turns on what you think philosophy is I see philosophy as an activity of thinking critically about what we are and where we stand in relation to the world, an activity with a long and rich history hilosophy is concerned with how things are, the limits of what we can know, and how we should live It is anti dogmatic and thrives on uestioning assumptions o serious philosophy is likely to leave the philosopher unchanged, but that doesn’t mean that the change will be for the better or more consoling to think otherwise is begging the uestion here are huge dangers of self deception here, in thinking that philosophy is some kind

Veritas | Issue V | Academic Article

of panacea that will mae us all better, saner people. ust to give one eample, impeccable logic from false premises can lead you very far astray. ow do you see philosophy

approach philosophy as a sort of pragmatism – have a set of values and an idea of how the world is, and try it out and see if can live by it, if it fits reality, if it leads to an epanded sense of flourishing. nd reality including other people) feeds bac to me, lets me now if I’m living wisely or foolishly. That twoway process is always changing, you’re always adapting and revisiting assumptions. But no one can be entirely antidogmatic – one needs a set of values and opinions to live by. thin you must have one too, no? I’m sure it has changed over time but if you were a complete septic, lie yrrho, you wouldn’t know whether to get out of bed or not.

es, of course we must tae some things for granted. But everything in principle can be uestioned, though some beliefs are more firmly rooted than others. lie your idea of a reflective euilibrium between ideas and lived eperience. hat values do you try to live by as a result of this approach

try to live by humility, indness, reverence and creativity. But if you new how badly lived by those values you would laugh at me. ow about you

I like Bertrand Russell’s message to the future, delivered on the BBC in . e boiled down his

Veritas | Issue V | Academic Article

philosophical values to two principles. irst, try to look solely at the facts on any issue, rather than at what you would like to be true. o easy task, of course. econd, and this is another hard one to live up to: ‘Love is wise, hatred is foolish.’ We have to learn to put up with the fact that people will say things that we don’t like, detest even. To live together, we need to be able to speak freely, and tolerate others who do that too. ike you, I obviously fail to live up to these values much of the time, but these are good principles, nevertheless.

This interview was originally published online httpsaeon.co and kind permission has been given by igel arburton to include in this edition of eritas.

Veritas | Issue V | Good Read

Practical Ethics: What’s Wrong with Killing?

, L

“People often say that life is sacred. They almost never mean what they say”

Peter Singer’s “What’s Wrong with Killing?” is an eyeopening read in any ways. He doesn’t attempt to reah one allonlusive, arguentending answer of why we should or shouldn’t kill he realises that suh a task would e ipossile. nstead, he looks at the idea of killing fro a wide variety of different angles. e uestions our asi intuitive ideas: of the ‘sanctity’ of life whether we have a right to life what a huan eing, or a person etween whih, he argues, there is a sharp differene atually is and our ideas of personal identity. e draws on the knowledge, eliefs, epertise and writings of a nuer of philosophers: fro lato and ristotle in nient reek ties, to onteporary

Veritas | Issue V | Good Read

merican phiosopher ichae ooey. He eamines scrtinies and at times he een criticises popar thoght.

He begins this chapter of his book, “Practical Ethics”, y defining in his own secar way what is actay meant y the Peter Singer is an straian “sanctity of life”. He mora phiosopher who writes: “People often speciaises in appied ethics say that ife is sacred. approaching most proems hey amost neer from his own secar mean what they tiitarian perspectie. He is say…If they did, killing aso Professor at the entre a pig or ping p a for ppied Phiosophy and caage wod e as Pic thics at the ahorrent to them as niersity of eorne and the mrder of a some of his most famos hman eing. hen works include “Animal peope say that ife is Liberation” and his essay sacred it is hman “Famine, Affluence and ife they hae in Morality” mind…We may take the doctrine of the sanctity of hman ife to e no more than a way of saying that hman ife has some specia ae a ae ite distinct from the ae of the ies of other living things”. He moves on to consider what exactly do we mean by the term ‘human being’, and comes to definitions: a memer of the species Home sapiens which can e eamined scientificay and a being who possesses ‘indicators of humanhood’, such as “selfawareness sefcontrol, a sense of the future…”

Veritas | Issue V | Good Read

he clash between these definitions gives birth to a problem for popular societal beliefs a foetus is clearly a human being in the biological sense, but it is far from selfaware, or with any measure of selfcontrol. o, is a foetus a human being Is it a person oes it have the same rights as fully functioning adults inger differentiates between the two definitions by referring to the biological being as a ‘human being’, and the self conscious, selfaware being as a ‘person’

inger finds that there is actually no value in the life of a human being in his sense of the word during reek or oman times, there was no respect whatsoever for the lives of slaves and ‘barbarians’; disabled, or ‘deformed’, babies were left to die on hilltops, exposed to the elements Plato and Aristotle both supported stateenforced killing of deformed babies. Although popular attitudes towards disabled people have changed, this is ust one example of how being a human being is not enough to spare one from being killed it is in fact, being a person, which does the trick.

When assessing the value of a person’s life, Singer touches on both classical and preferential utilitarian views, which cover ideas such as we can’t kill a being with a sense of the future, as then we could be denying them their chance to fulfil their desires for this future they can imagine a being which is not aware of the future cannot be denied this chance. He discusses the views of .M. Hare on the two types of moral reasoning we have at our disposal intuitive and critical, and how

Veritas | Issue V | Good Read

these tpes of reasoning interact with, and have shaped, popular attitude towards killing Singer explores whether a person has a right to life and, b extension, the question of ‘what is a right?’ He examines the difference between conscious life the life of most animals and selfconscious life the life of humans, and then considers whether these lives can be compared in value

Singer’s approach to such a controversial topic makes this article a fantastic read he uestions ever belief we hold so dear as a societ that we never even stop to uestion them We all agree that killing is wrong, but Singer digs deep into this psche and uestions where these beliefs come from, how the came about, and whether the actuall stand up to critical analsis, rather than ust intuitive analsis is logic is clearl explained, and at times, hard to disagree with short read which would highl recommend to anone with an interest in thics, or anone who has ever uestioned popular social beliefs

Veritas | Issue V | Good Read

r hristianit

C. S. Lewis’ r hristianit provies an insight into the concept of faith an an opportunit for elievers an nonelievers to consier a rational case for the hristian faith ewis explores the lieralism accounte to hristian elief an the increase freeom of elief which it permits him susequentl to his conversion from theism to hristianit

ewis consiers arguments for the existence of o from moralit which ultimatel persuae him from theism to hristianit through an awareness of a moral law of right an wrong puling outlook from an unusual perspective is provie ewis appears not to seek to isprove an faith nor oes he seek to iscreit an as false he exciting perception of the worl an faith create ewis provies the reaer with a well roune view of the common misconceptions that are

Veritas | Issue V | Good Read

e wii e is iie eii. e questioning of one’s own beliefs proves to be an ei ee ii e sese questioning oneself in one’s entirety.

C. S. Lewis – ws iis eis e ei Cisi is. e e ei siis e Cee ee Cee Cie. e is es w is ii w esei e Sewe Lees h hronils o arnia ii Cisi eis s s r hristianit irals h rol o ain.

Veritas | Issue V | Quiz

our wors wi all ean very ifferent tings about life an uanity. ltoug are tey ore siilar tan eets te eye

. i person sai te following ‘Music is te mirror of reality’?

a on ennon

b arl ar

rieri ngels

uwig an eetoven

. e earliest eviene of ateatis so far is notes in an sango bone in fria representing tallies. e sango bone is te fibula of wat anial

a eer

b aboon

olf

oat

Veritas | Issue V | Quiz

ic famous matematicia sai ‘There is eometry i te ummi of te stris tere is music in the spacing of the spheres’?

a uler

rcimees

c ytaoras

ucli

Who attacked the ‘regression of listening’, which tey eliee to e i te ole of moer merica?

a alter eami

eoor roo

c re aermas

imu reu

Who said, ‘Music is a moral la t ies a soul to te uierse is to te mi flit to te imaiatio a carm to saess a life to everything’?

a ocrates

ristotle

c lato

eraclitus

Veritas | Issue V | Social Media

W WE

ews, links and articles relating to Theology and hilosophy

asTand asoys

Veritas | Issue V

ta itor

itorinhi

itors

T T

islair

t is the editorial policy of ritas to write out God’s name in full (as opposed to d This is not a reflection of individual author’s preferences or eliefs