SIGHT & INSIGHT: SEEING AND KNOWING IN LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND GEOMETRY

We say “I see,” when we mean, “I know, I understand.” How much is knowing like seeing? What can we know merely by looking? What does it mean to have true insight beyond the visible world? And what do the wise fail to see even when they try their utmost? We will explore these questions reading from works such as Sophocles’ Oedipus, Plato’s Republic, and poems by Wallace Stevens, Emily Dickinson, and Elizabeth Bishop. Finally, we will look at elementary theorems in geometry to consider the interplay of thought and sight.