Sense, emotion, and scientific discovery (Lewis Lapham, Lapham’s Quarterly)
How experience fosters discovery of all kinds, as well as a deeper reading of history and literature
14
04, 2017
11
04, 2017
Painting, nature, and science
Why painting is more truth-seeking than philosophy and physics
9
04, 2017
Elon Musk and the Present Future of A.I. (Maureen Dowd, Vanity Fair)
Will artificial intelligence enhance or imperil our humanity?
5
04, 2017
Memory and memorial
What lasts is not just what we make.
4
04, 2017
Death has no answer
A dialogue about life extension and limits, beyond biology and scholarship.
2
04, 2017
Caravaggio, Galileo, and the artful science of blood spurts (ResearchGate / Huffington Post)
How Galileo's theory of parabolic motion leads to a new attribution of a 17th-C. painting.
30
03, 2017
Aristotle and the modern computer (Chris Dixon, The Atlantic)
Aristotle and the modern computer: how the Greek philosopher's logic influenced the mathematical equations that underlie digital computation.
28
03, 2017
Classical literacy and modern scholarship
Classical literacy and modern scholarship: how knowledge of Latin and Greek might deepen our current understanding of things, according to a German physicist; but the effort faces widespread difficulties: "No one learns Latin and Greek anymore, and therefore everything becomes superficial." This is the complaint of most learned journals, even though they themselves are simultaneously, and insensibly, [...]
26
03, 2017
Saving the humanities through history (Rens Bod, Chronicle of Higher Education)
How understanding the humanities' past illuminates their present and future importance, as they have discovered new findings critical to understanding our world.
22
03, 2017
“Philosophia vitae magistra”: philosophy is the teacher of life
"Philosophia vitae magistra": philosophy is the teacher of life Who is unaware that human life without the liberal arts is not only destitute and empty, but indeed far inferior and worse to that of many animals? When I then turn my attention to philosophy itself, how many times have I heard from you that it in [...]