Squaring the Circle

[Hardeman]

To Any who will square in,

I agree with Nick’s “Moby-Dick has an underlying, irrational and transcendental structure. The circle” However I come from the perspective of the human psyche and the symbolism that our minds create cross culturally that appear to have a universal base. The significance  of  circles and squares as having "transcendental structure" underlying their practical usage can be understood as the metaphysics of geometry. 

Symbolically circles in the West and East  represents  the notions of wholeness, perfection, spiritual oneness,  and eternity. The square is associated with mankind’s creations that can be  measured with straight lines, laws, and intellectual structures.

Just as the ancient astrologers projected their beliefs upon the sky, the alchemists  imposed their beliefs upon the elements.  “Squaring the circle” was their way of describing their efforts in geometric terms for the process of discovery of the lapis philosophorum.

We know Melville knew how geometry can describe  physical laws as well as human understanding of oneself.. 

In the Try-Works “It is a place

also for profound mathematical meditation. It was in the left hand

try-pot of the Pequod, with the soapstone diligently circling round

me, that I was first indirectly struck by the remarkable fact, that in

geometry all bodies gliding along the cycloid, my soapstone for

example, will descend from any point in precisely the same time.”

Therefore squaring Melville’s circle with the accepted intellectual structure  I use, the irrational Pip is the Pi that relates “the circumference to its centre.” From my perspective of the human psyche the irrational that links the square of Ahab’s weltanschauung with his experience of the circle of his feeling is Pip. Pip is the the irrational experience of Ahab’s emotions that he is running from. The positive emotions he sees in Pip make his circle a whole and holy. The negative emotions he sees in Moby Dick he refuses to accept responsibility for and therefore chooses to die believing in his square view of the source of his suffering

. The key Ahab cannot integrate is  "I look, you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look."  For we all look and what we believe in response to what we see determines our emotions that govern our actions. That is how this reader squares the Melville Circle. 

"If the Sperm Whale be physiognomically a Sphinx, to the phrenologist

his brain seems that geometrical circle which it is impossible to

square."   The Nut

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaring_the_circle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycloid

Hardeman

[Stephen Hoy]

Natural philosophers have studied the center and its circumference for thousands of years. We don't have to make Pip into a Π to understand the relation between Ahab and Pip, but I am impressed with Nick's adept wordplay. I won't toss a wrench into the spokes, but we should note that pi wasn't proven to be transcendental until the 1880s. I am pretty sure it was regarded as a good candidate though.

On the other hand, cycloids--like the one describing the action of the soapstone in the try-pots--were well-defined transcendental functions, and probably included in advanced analysis at Lansingburg Academy. The wikipedia entry even cites Melville in its entry on 'cycloid', although the article foregoes any attempt at analysing the chapter's unifying philosophy. I remember posting something about Melville's esoteric allusion on old Ishmail a decade or so past. 

Fun stuff.

On Aug 9, 2017 08:59, "Hardeman" <lhp...@gmail.com> wrote:

To Any who will square off,

I agree with Nick’s “Moby-Dick has an underlying, irrational and transcendental structure. The circle” However I come from the perspective of the human psyche and the symbolism that our minds create cross culturally that appear to have a universal base. The significance  of  circles and squares as having "transcendental structure" underlying their practical usage can be understood as the metaphysics of geometry. 

Symbolically circles in the West and East  represents  the notions of wholeness, perfection, spiritual oneness,  and eternity. The square is associated with mankind’s creations that can be  measured with straight lines, laws, and intellectual structures.

Just as the ancient astrologers projected their beliefs upon the sky, the alchemists  imposed their beliefs upon the elements.  “Squaring the circle” was their way of describing their efforts in geometric terms for the process of discovery of the lapis philosophorum.

We know Melville knew how geometry can describe  physical laws as well as human understanding of oneself.. 

In the Try-Works “It is a place

also for profound mathematical meditation. It was in the left hand

try-pot of the Pequod, with the soapstone diligently circling round

me, that I was first indirectly struck by the remarkable fact, that in

geometry all bodies gliding along the cycloid, my soapstone for

example, will descend from any point in precisely the same time.”

Therefore squaring Melville’s circle with the accepted intellectual structure  I use, the irrational Pip is the Pi that relates “the circumference to its centre.” From my perspective of the human psyche the irrational that links the square of Ahab’s weltanschauung with his experience of the circle of his suffering is Pip. Pip is the the irrational experience of Ahab’s emotions that he is running from. The positive emotions he sees in Pip make his circle a whole and holy. The negative emotions he sees in Moby Dick he refuses to accept responsibility for and therefore chooses to die believing in his square view of the source of evil. The key Ahab cannot integrate is  "I look, you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look."  For we all look and what we believe in response to what we see determines our emotions that govern our actions. That is how this reader squares the Melville Circle. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaring_the_circle

Hardeman

[herm melville]

All,

   In chapter 80, "The Nut," Melville begins this chapter: "If the Sperm Whale be physiognomically a Sphinx, to the phrenologist his brain seems that geometrical circle which is impossible to square."

John G

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[Nicktalop]

A live discussion on this thread

This is just a test using Google's NoteBookLM to highlight the main question of this thread with AI.

(Thank you @Hardeman for all your profound and challenging comments about Moby-Dick…)