Spinoza describes two types of thoughts, or emotions:
The goal of every person is to intellectually love God (that is, understand Nature as much as humanly possible).
Rationalism
Rationalism is the view that reasoning by itself is a source of knowledge or proof. It is a philosophical movement that began in the 17th century, but the same ideas were also talked about before then. Rationalist philosophers believe that all knowledge can be understood through a process of reasoning, without any external sources. They do not believe that human beings can understand everything this way, but that it is theoretically possible. Rationalist philosophers attempt to understand ideas like God and the soul in this manner.
The first people to talk about rationalism were Marin Mersenne and René Descartes, in the 17th and 18th centuries. Other philosophers who are seen as rationalist today include Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant. Famous people opposed to this idea were David Hume and John Locke.
Rationalism also influenced natural law. Natural law is a theory that says that there are laws given by nature, valid everywhere. Deism was also influenced by rationalism. According to deism, a supreme being created the universe. This being, and other religious truths can be determined by observing nature, and finding natural laws. This would make religions that are based on revelation unnecessary.
List of Universal Pictures movies
This is a partial listing of movies produced and/or distributed by Universal Pictures, the main production/distribution arm of Universal Studios, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal and Comcast.
2029
2029 (MMXXIX) will be .
Elephants Dream
Elephants Dream is a short movie made using mostly open source software. Blender was the main program used to make the movie. It began production in September 2005 and was released on March 24, 2006. It was first developed under the name "Orange", then later changed to "Machina" then finally to "Elephants Dream" since the people working on the movie could not decide how "Machina" would be pronounced. The movie is 11 minutes long.
The movie has a very random and abstract nature. Despite the film's title, "Elephants Dream" does not have any elephants or dreams. It instead has Proog and Emo in an extremely bizarre construction referred to only as "the machine." Proog tries to introduce Emo to its nature, but Emo is reluctant (If a person is reluctant to do something, he/she does not want to do it.) and argues about its purpose.
Bassam Kurdali, Director of Elephants Dream, explained the plot of the movie by saying:
"The story is very simple- I'm not sure you can call it a complete story even- It is about how people create ideas/stories/fictions/social realities and communicate them or impose them on others. Thus Proog has created (in his head) the concept of a special place/machine, that he tries to "show" to Emo. When Emo does not accept his story, Proog becomes desperate and hits him. It's a parable of human relationships really- You can substitute many ideas (money, religion, social institutions, property) instead of Proog's machine - the story does not say that creating ideas is bad, just hints that it is better to share ideas than force them on others. There are lots of little clues/hints about this in the movie- many little things have a meaning- but we are not very "tight" with it, because we are hoping people will have their own ideas about the story, and make a new version of the movie. In this way (and others) we tie the story of the movie with the "open movie" idea."
Ton Roosendaal announced the film in May 2005. He is the chairman of the Blender Foundation. The Blender Foundation and the Netherlands Media Art Institute funded the project. The Foundation raised a lot of their funds by selling pre-orders of the DVD. Everyone who preordered before September 1 has his or her name listed in the film's credits. The film was released for download on the Official Orange Project website on May 18, 2006.
Chapel Royal
The Chapel Royal is a department of the monarch's household in the United Kingdom.
Incorrectly, the term is also used for the choirs of these chapels. The correct name for these choirs is the "Gentlemen of the Chapel". They are a group of priests and singers who sing church services for the British monarch (king or queen). They are helped by young boy singers called choristers or "Children of the Chapel." It is an old tradition.
Today there are two consecrated buildings at St James’s Palace, near Buckingham Palace in London served by the Chapel Royal. These chapels do not belong to the diocese (group of churches in a district). That is why they are called “royal peculiars” (“peculiar” in this sense does not mean “strange” but “special”). Services are held every Sunday except during August and September. Members of the public are welcome to go to these services. This is the only time that the public can go into the royal chapels. The choir also sing at special services, including one held every year on 6 January to celebrate Epiphany when offerings of gold, frankincense and myrrh are made on behalf of the queen.
The Chapel Royal dates back to the late 13th century. At that time the priests and choir travelled with the king wherever he went.
In the 17th century the chapel had its own building in Whitehall, which burned down in 1698. Since 1702 it has been based in St. James's Palace.
In the 16th and 17th centuries the choir was the best choir in England. William Byrd and Thomas Tallis were both organists there during the reign of Elizabeth I. Boy choristers from choirs outside London were sometimes made to join the Children of the Chapel if they had beautiful voices. These boys also took part in plays at the king or queen’s court. Charles II liked musical instruments, so the choir were often joined by violins, lutes and viols.
Some very famous composers were organists at the Chapel Royal. These include: Thomas Tallis (c.1545-85), William Byrd (c.1572-c.1618), John Bull (1591-1613), Orlando Gibbons (1605-25), John Blow (1673/4-1708), Henry Purcell (1682-95), Jeremiah Clarke (1704-1707), William Croft (1708-27), and George Frideric Handel who was organist from (1723-59). At the time Handel was appointed he was still German, not English, so he was not allowed to be a member. Instead, he was given a special title: "Composer of Musick of His Majesty's Chappel Royal".
Today the Choir rehearses twice weekly at St James's Palace. The choir consists of six Gentlemen-in-Ordinary who are professional singers, and ten boys who have scholarships to go to the City of London School where they are called Queen's Scholars.
The composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, who is Master of the Queen's Music, works closely with the Chapel Royal. He wants to compose a new carol for them every Christmas.
The head of the Chapel Royal in Scotland is a Dean. Another Chapel Royal once existed in Ireland.
Orlando Gibbons
Orlando Gibbons (born: Oxford, baptised 25 December 1583; died Canterbury, 5 June 1625) was an English composer and organist. He was one of the most important composers of his day. He is famous for his church music and organ music. He lived in the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods.
Gibbons was born in Oxford where his father was a city wait. The family moved to Cambridge and his brother Edward, who was 15 years older than Orlando, became Master of the Choristers at King’s College. Between 1596 and 1598 Orlando sang in the choir of King's College, Cambridge where his brother was master. He entered the university in 1598 and got the degree of Bachelor of Music in 1606. He married and had seven children.