Cinquecento Anni – Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) – The Practical Philosopher

The content of today's mass-media and social-networking appears an ever increasing black-hole of juxtaposed nerve-wracking news and facile trivia.

[NB. investment-auto-motives is resolutely apolitical, thus any observations are purely from empiracal, objective experience. That stated...

...Between the two worlds abovementioned lies (quite literally) the now numerous existence of morally moribund 'social actors'; themselves typically willing yet ignorant real-world pawns, manipulated by manufactured social agendas, social-pressure and so group-think,  enabled through the now culturally expansive media, and use of the 'psycho-sociological, to create ever more 'social actors'. So much so society itself becomes a continually toxic experience.

The old adage "the first victim of (social) war is truth" has never been so obvious given the falsity of today's very warped supposed civil society.

If alive today, Leonardo da Vinci (and many other great people who fought for truth and decency of all sexes, colours and creeds) ,would be both insightfully aware and simultaneously appalled at the pernicious 'left vs right' ploys].

Most obviously, present  news fears are regards a 'no-deal' Brexit escalate, the insecurity of a Northern Irish 'backstop' with the potential to re-fracture previously placated neighbourhoods, prompted by the 'New IRA', whilst as a consequence of such turmoil, UK inward investment in the Auto sector from the Japanese, Germans, French and Indians shrinks and consequential job losses and short-time working.

A renewed ethno-centrism is on the rise – even the Shetland Isles now celebrating their Viking-Pagan roots – the zietgeist likely to stir more troublesome others unhappy with the status quo, from the old faction fringes of Basque Separatists to, if continually stirred, new troubles in the Balkans.

Europe is not quite the 'tinder-box' of 1914 or 1939 – with Brussels seeking to re-consolidate the EU ideal to avoid breakdown - but internally concerns have grown at the rise of friction and factions.

Let is hope national leaders and peoples “see sense”.

Modern Europe is intrinsically interwoven with Roman, Medieval, Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe. The very fabric of classical buildings as homes to learned institutions, testament to the rise and cultural power of European civillisation; an imbued culture that spread from as far apart as The East Indies to remotest regions of Central and South Americas.

It was built by the hands of the masses to the orchestration of the intelligentsia; who for the most part through Administration, the Applied Sciences and the Arts.

At home and abroad, that idealism sought to create cultural stability and social improvement.

The very origins of the modern Capitalist system, operating from the Medici supervised Italian “tavalo / banco' stalls, was in large part based upon the financial returns of innovation and exploration. So from the very start – prompted by loss of influence over the Silk Road trade route in 1453 - the notion of academic research as underpinning process, product, social and political betterment, to realise profit and spread wealth, was very well understood.

From the design of hulls of ocean-going 'carry-trade' ships (the term's origins) and those of the war-ships that protected them, to the need to try and cure new foreign diseases, to the requirement to create more efficient cities and highways through more analytical regional and urban planning, to thereafter the manner in which such newly dynamic economic growth regions might be protected from foreign interests.

Everything in the man-made and natural worlds was to be studied in minutia, for the sake of understanding and improvement. So as to gain both critical competitive advantage and so cultural ascendency.

Those efforts directed by the likes of the Alberti, Medici and other city-state and principality counterparts, was predicated upon the questioning personas, exploration, discoveries, and new insightfulness. Advancement predicated upon the dedication and innate brilliance of a relatively few men.

Men who themselves had saturated themselves in learning, whether formally through advantageous social structure, or informally through an autodidactic drive; or ideally via both with the Patronage System, which directed funds to look after those whose ideas would in turn look-after entire peoples.

Many of those people are forgotten, but the name Leonardo da Vinci – and its omnipresence in modern society – has since his own rediscovery, been lauded as the very model and archetype of “genius”.

British Airways may be celebrating its centenary this year, but a man died four hundred years previously who would – as just one interest of many – investigate the principles of manned-flight to emulate the natural world around.

His sketch-books and writings, scattered around the world's museums and held from The Vatican to Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, illustrate the vast spectrum of his studies stemming from Natural Philosophy.

From the flow of rivers and water-courses (Fluid Dynamics) to the character-types of people as embodied in their faces, gesticulations and habits (Anthropology); with a raft of disciplines between: spanning simple mechanics for various applications, to advanced theorems derived from observation of light, dissected animals and human cadavers to under-water habitation, the principles of effectively mated town-planning and architecture, depicted by way of expanded principles of drawn and coloured perspective.

[NB. Most of his mechanical 'inventions'  were actually basic developments of well known and utilized engineering. Hence his 'forerunner of the tank', was hardly revolutionary in concept, given previous Roman use of 'tortoise-shell' gathered shield mobility of their legionares, and as the drive-train the use of mated rotating components, long seen in irrigation and elsewhere].

And obviously beyond these exploratory efforts, the creation of sublime artistry commissioned by church and patrons. In which whilst the master-pieces are astounding, it is the initial 'cartoons' plied with soft materials that often best convey nuance and meaning.

Yet... this is mere repetition of what has been stated countless times before from brief gallery to glossy large coffee-table tome.

As anyone highly proficient in their discipline will attest – whether artist, scientist, sportsperson, et al – it is the process of exploration, learning and discovery that is perhaps as – if not more - fulfilling than the final output.

For unlike a singular item of output, the process itself provides one with a continual self-enabling to 'see' and 'represent'. The person then the very embodiment of the art-form, hence arguably even more precious than the produced item itself.

From well before the Medici, all socio-economic systems have known this, and hence so as to control and direct, creation of formal employment systems from the Medieval Guilds Apprenticeships to the constructs of the modern highly skilled professional position, from Neuro-surgeon to omnipresent CEO.

The innate problem being that unless the creator can also operate as comfortably independent, s/he inevitably becomes resentful of such a structure, as income from inevitably fluctuating company budgets fails to consistently support the highest minds.

Such inconsistency of financial support to such truly talented peoples inevitably restricts commercial, cultural and human progress.

This even more so when an individual is able to:

1. Deploy critical learning from one discipline and set of circumstances to another.

2. Span a multitude of disciplines and so able provide new connective conceptual theorems.

3. Understand both macro and micro environments in detail to form a credible 'Grande Plan'.

In a world that has become ever more subject-centric, so as to deepen, direct and control such learning, fewer and fewer such polymaths exist today.

This is an enormous shame and a detriment.

And although there may be the appearance of deep broad learning across various subject matter – such as the participants of BBC's University Challenge – the fact remains that this is all too often almost 'rote learned', with the disciplines themselves rarely absorbed in full.

Leondardo da Vinci – and no doubt similar forgotten others of his era - was the very opposite – the true polymath.

He studied his subjects on and to an almost spiritual level, so as to absorb and make conceptual connections both within and across his (non-silo'd) study disciplines.

This is not to say he was always correct, since – from our modern perspective and learning – he made some naïve errors in assumption and belief.

Yet even with his errors, he remains the innate personification of the polymath, seeking understanding in everything and questioning the basis of then current belief; from 'the 4 humours' that supposedly ruled physical and mental health, through to realisation (in an almost buddhist and zen-like way) that perfection cannot (and perhaps should not) be attained between the man-made and natural order.

This starckly learned when one hypothesis regards human proportion and 'golden rules' would not accord to that of square and circle geometries. The Vitruvian Man (and so the mathematical constructs of nature) were expected to perfectly fit simultaneously in both perfect circle and perfect square.

But, to make the figure fit – and so demonstrate to the church of understanding 'god's ways' – the figure (not obviously simply pose) of the man had to be altered to have him fit within the geometrical boundaries.

This almost a metaphor of himself, though closer than nearly all to 'the mind of god', he himself had to contort his life to fit the very much sub-optimal man-made society he existed within.

Just as he sought to create a bird-inspired, single-person, flying-contraptions, so he obviously wished to fly intellectually ever upwards into the heavens.

The innate irony being that the tallow candles and olive oil soaked wicks he used to light his sketch-work and writings of such human flight, would be superseded by crude oil, gas, electricity, and later highly refined kerosene blends and solid- fuels that could produce a man-made 'jet-stream' of its own.

Using those sources, by 1960 experimental rocket-packs had been created.

And today in exploratory form, the evolution of those first early tests with use of 3D-printed strap-on jet-propulsion-packs; single-person flying devices either launched from the ground or when dropped from the sky.

Such advancements have come from the compilation of linear, parallel and lateral thinking.

Leonardo da Vinci would be both amazed by what has been invented by the brightest minds of today, and perhaps just a little saddened.

Precisely because five hundred years on, so many remain essentially bereft of true education and enlightenment.  People still operate upon principles little removed from their ape ancestry, far closer to monkeys than gods.

Leonardo's candle of European Enlightenment still flickers, but seems weakened, as so many of modern society's own 'currents and eddies'  form an increasingly dumbed-down and dismissive near mono-culture, which runs counter to the ideal of personal and social betterment : the very heart and central nervous system of European history.

Today, more than ever, we need the singularly combined multi-aspect minds of the scientist and artist, able to imbue much needed Practical Philosophy.

The advancement of society, via well orchestrated Capitalism, depends upon it.