Thinking, feeling, reading: how not just what you read, but how you read, affects your soul and self. From the article: Recent research also revealed that “deep reading”—defined as reading that is slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexity—is distinctive from light reading—little more than the decoding of words. Deep reading [...]
Thought, language, and knowledge: does our use of language shape our view of things, and rationality? What could be more obvious than that people carry over the way they comprehend things through statements onto the structure of things themselves? Yet this opinion, seemingly critical but in reality rash, has first to explain how the carry-over of the [...]
Egyptian knowledge, health, and piety: Herodotus, the Greek "Father of History," remarks on Egyptian learning and character. The Egyptians who live in the cultivated parts of the country, by their practice of keeping records of the past, have made themselves the most learned any nation of which I have had experience. I will describe some of [...]
Of books to books: Geoffrey Crayon speaks to volumes in the library of Westminster Abbey, and ponders the ways time and technology transform our knowledge. “Language gradually varies, and with it fade away the writings of authors who flourished their allotted time…. Formerly there were some restraints on this excessive multiplication. Works had to be transcribed by [...]
4Humanities interviews Humanities Watch. Ashley Champagne asks about the origins and mission of Humanities Watch, and the humanities' place in society. From the exchange: The point of my website is to demonstrate how the humanities are also in constant conversation with these practical and present interests: science, technology, healthcare, and business. As a matter of fact – [...]
How language -- its clarity, immediacy, and nuance -- is vital to both patients and doctors, for it can overcome the split between scientific specialization and the experience of suffering. From the article: Many of the great doctors have been writers, and those who have not have required writers to set down their insights. Hippocrates, Galen, [...]
Has the age of the encyclopedic excellence passed us by, or can (or should) it be revived? The author praises the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica (1910-11) as "the last great encyclopedia." From the editorial: Its greatness derived not alone from its contributors or its organization but from the spirit infusing it. This spirit [...]
Humanities fed the soul in communist Romania: how the study of the humanities kept people alive, and allowed them to find truth when surrounded by falsehood. From the article: When I heard this story, I understood that the stereotype of the fluffy, useless liberal arts was a lie. If the study of literature or history [...]
Freedom of thought in twelfth-century Paris: how Latin learning (and love) left us a legacy of creative inquiry A good man asked the doctors of [twelfth-century] Paris if it were better to learn what one did not know or to apply what one knew, and when they approved the second, concluded upon them that they [...]
The joy of reading: can reading offer therapy to those in distress and provide a greater sense of well-being? From the article: For all avid readers who have been self-medicating with great books their entire lives, it comes as no surprise that reading books can be good for your mental health and your relationships with others, [...]
