From an anthropological point of view, as a sculptor my job is to make images that embody the truths for which the society I live in stands. Yet even thirty years ago there was precious little for which society stood and so I was compelled to set about finding truth for myself. After two years I had something that I could call truth and duly returned to art. Soon enough however I realised that the art world was going in a direction that I was not prepared to go. Turning to film I made a number of short films only to find that the world of film was going in a similar direction. Turning to the written word, I wrote a novella and an experimental novel, which over the years I re-wrote extensively. Learning Ancient Greek not only helped me find my artistic style, it also lead to me I being re-confronted with the problems that I had addressed in my youth. Formulating my views into a coherent system, over the course of four years, three books emerged.

Order at the Heart of Chaos: Life and Consciousness in an Exploding Universe

The work is a stop-check of scientific materialism, with the central questions being: „Is modern day materialism capable of explaining the occurrence of i) life and ii) consciousness?“ The topics covered range from physics and the biology of life, to evolution and the philosophy of mathematics. The work begins with the Big Bang of modern physics and the hugely important concept of entropy, with chaos theory and the behaviour of non-linear, dynamic systems playing a crucial role. As the work progresses, an evolutionary based view of our place in the world emerges that sees us as problem-solvers. The origins of this ability are traced back to Homo erectus and provide new foundations our sense of ethics and aesthetics. 98.000 words.

The Philosophy of Plato and the Triumph of the Renaissance

The work is intended to bring about some serious readjustments in our understanding of Plato, his philosophy and his influence on the Renaissance. In this respect the book offers a number of original contributions to the understanding of Plato (≈1/3) and shows that an in-depth appreciation of Plato and the problems he was dealing with enable a number of otherwise unexplained aspects of the Renaissance to be understood (≈2/3). The book is written in a style that makes it suitable for the general reader, students of art, philosophy and art history as well as those interested in the history of science. The original nature insights offered mean that it is also of relevance to those who are already knowledgeable on Plato and the art and philosophy of the Renaissance. 127.000 words.

Sun and Moon: the Abstraction of Time and the Birth of Philosophy

With reference to art and artefacts of the archaeological record, the work follows the succession of cultures in Europe that were developed by anatomically modern humans equipped with the faculty for symbolic thought. This begins some 40.000 years ago, with the Aurginacian and progress through to the Gravettian and the Magdalene cultures of the Upper Palaeolithic, before following the developments of Mesolithic that ultimately resulted in the culture of the Neolithic. With the arrival of the Indo-Europeans, this world was shattered and the Bronze Age was inaugurated. Where initially, simple anthropological field models are combined with methods of comparative religion and art history, soon enough, a point is reached where more subtle techniques must be applied if a ridiculously simplistic picture is to be avoided. To this effect, the insights of genetic research and etymology are drawn upon and used to look at ancient myths in new ways. In addition, Ancient Greek rites and British and Irish customs are examined. In this way, the story of the development of human culture in Europe is interwoven with overviews of the various ways in which artefacts from the past can be investigated and analysed. 88.000 words.

All three works are abundantly illustrated so that as soon as a publisher has been found for one, the other two will be on hold as the amount of graphic work is such that the projects can only be prepared for publication one at a time. Shoring up the arguments given in The Philosophy of Plato and the Triumph of the Renaissance, a translation and commentary of Piero della Francesca’s mathematical treatise Libellus de quinque coribus regularibus is in progress.