MCAT^® Practice Test

Excerpt from Concerning the Spiritual in Art by Wassily Kandinsky

It is no common thing to find an artist who, even if he be willing to try, is capable of expressing his aims and ideals with any clearness and moderation. Some people will say that any such capacity is a flaw in the perfect artist, who should find his expression in line and colour, and leave the multitude to grope its way unaided towards comprehension. This attitude is a relic of the days when "art pour l'art" was the latest battle cry; when eccentricity of manner and irregularity of life were more important than any talent to the would-be artist; when every one except oneself was bourgeois.

The last few years have in some measure removed this absurdity, by destroying the old convention that it was middle-class to be sane, and that between the artist and the outer-world yawned a gulf which few could cross. Modern artists are beginning to realize their social duties. They are the spiritual teachers of the world, and for the teaching to have weight, it must be comprehensible. Any attempt, therefore, to bring artist and public into sympathy, to enable the latter to understand the ideals of the former, should be thoroughly welcome; and such an attempt is this book of Kandinsky's.

The author is one of the leaders of the new art movement in Munich. The group of which he is a member includes painters, poets, musicians, dramatists, critics, all working to the same end—the expression of the SOUL of nature and humanity, or, as Kandinsky terms it, the INNER KLANG.

Perhaps the fault of this book of theory—or rather the characteristic most likely to give cause for attack—is the tendency to verbosity. Philosophy, especially in the hands of a writer of German, presents inexhaustible opportunities for vague and grandiloquent language. Partly for this reason, partly from incompetence, I have not primarily attempted to deal with the philosophical basis of Kandinsky's art. Some, probably, will find in this aspect of the book its chief interest, but better service will be done to the author's ideas by leaving them to the reader's judgement than by even the most expert criticism.

The power of a book to excite argument is often the best proof of its value, and my own experience has always been that those new ideas are at once most challenging and most stimulating which come direct from their author, with no intermediate discussion.

The task undertaken in this Introduction is a humbler but perhaps a more necessary one. England, throughout her history, has shown scant respect for sudden spasms of theory. Whether in politics, religion, or art, she demands an historical foundation for every belief, and when such a foundation is not forthcoming she may smile indulgently, but serious interest is immediately withdrawn. I am keenly anxious that Kandinsky's art should not suffer this fate. My personal belief in his sincerity and the future of his ideas will go for very little, but if it can be shown that he is a reasonable development of what we regard as serious art, that he is no adventurer striving for a momentary notoriety by the strangeness of his beliefs, then there is a chance that some people at least will give his art fair consideration, and that, of these people, a few will come to love it as, in my opinion, it deserves.

Experiencing emotion is exceptionally complex, and it is not completely understood. Many early psychologists have studied emotions and created theories about their function, origin, and meanings. From a biological perspective, it is now known that a significant number of our emotions rely on the structures of the limbic system. The limbic system, which is located in the center of the brain, is a group of structures that are related to emotional functions and memory.

Much concerning the functions of the limbic system has been illuminated by surgeons stimulating areas in it and having their patients describe their immediate emotional responses. Additionally, people with damage to specific structures in the limbic system appear to lose certain emotional traits or motivation. Aside from being responsible for emotions, the limbic system appears to be important in motivation and in the conversion of short-term memories into long-term memories.

Hemoglobin and myoglobin are well-studied and well-understood proteins. Oxygen has very low solubility in blood, so it must be carried to tissues by hemoglobin and myoglobin. Hemoglobin is an iron-containing protein that can carry oxygen from the lungs when the oxygen binds to the heme group at the hemoglobin molecule's center. Adult hemoglobin (HbA) is a tetrameric protein complex containing a heme group in each subunit. Fetal hemoglobin (HbF), like adult hemoglobin, is a tetramer that carries oxygen in blood. Myoglobin (Mb) is a monomeric protein often found in muscle tissue. Its function is to store oxygen.

Oxygen saturation of adult and fetal hemoglobin, along with myoglobin, has been heavily studied. These studies have shown that myoglobin is most easily saturated by oxygen, while fetal hemoglobin is more easily saturated with oxygen than adult hemoglobin. It is also known that each of the oxygen-carrying complexes has a higher affinity for oxygen when the partial pressure of oxygen is increased.

The human nervous system is composed of two main parts: the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The primary functions of the nervous system are sensory input, data integration, and motor output. These three functions are performed through three different kinds of nerve cells: sensory neurons for sensory input, interneurons for integration of data, and motor neurons for motor output. The central nervous system is composed of the brain and the spinal cord, while the peripheral nervous system consists of all nervous tissue outside of the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system can be subdivided further into the somatic and autonomic nervous systems.

The somatic nervous system is composed of motor and sensory neurons. The autonomic nervous system is responsible for regulating heart rate, digestion, glandular secretion, and other functions necessary for maintaining homeostasis. Lastly, the autonomic nervous system can be subdivided into two more categories, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The main function of the sympathetic nervous system is to respond to stress signals, while the parasympathetic nervous system’s main purpose is to regulate rest and digestion.

The human nervous system is composed of two main parts: the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The primary functions of the nervous system are sensory input, data integration, and motor output. These three functions are performed through three different kinds of nerve cells: sensory neurons for sensory input, interneurons for integration of data, and motor neurons for motor output. The central nervous system is composed of the brain and the spinal cord, while the peripheral nervous system consists of all nervous tissue outside of the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system can be subdivided further into the somatic and autonomic nervous systems.

The somatic nervous system is composed of motor and sensory neurons. The autonomic nervous system is responsible for regulating heart rate, digestion, glandular secretion, and other functions necessary for maintaining homeostasis. Lastly, the autonomic nervous system can be subdivided into two more categories, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The main function of the sympathetic nervous system is to respond to stress signals, while the parasympathetic nervous system’s main purpose is to regulate rest and digestion.