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 virtues (and folly) of science and scholarship: learning merits its laurels, but to what ends, if life (and self-knowledge) is neglected? “Envy, curiosity, and a sense of the imperfection of our present state, incline us to estimate the advantages which are in the possession of others above their real value. Every one must have remarked, [...]
The problems a poet would solve. How does a poet respond to life's problems, in politics and otherwise? W.B. Yeats records one lyrical response to Thomas Mann. ‘In our time the destiny of man presents its meanings in political terms.’ Thomas Mann How can I, that girl standing there, My attention fix On Roman or on [...]
An encounter with Renaissance art, and its consequence: Boris Pasternak reflects on culture and individual genius. The chief thing that everyone carries away from an encounter with Italian art is the sensation of the tangible unity of our culture, whatever he may have seen this in, and whatever name he may give it. How much [...]
Science, religion, and truth: Rabindranath Tagore speaking with Albert Einstein, Berlin 1930: Truth, which is one with the universal being, must be essentially human; otherwise, whatever we individuals realize as true, never can be called truth. At least, the truth which is described as scientific and which only can be reached through the process of logic—in [...]
A scientist reads the book of life, without annotations, but through imagery To read the book of life can be a great delight and an edifying experience; but only if one abstains from decorating every page with annotations in the margins and with corrections, and, even more importantly, from tearing them out and throwing [...]
Nature, time, and self-discovery: a physicist speaks about the mysteries of our lives, hearkening to Lucretius: Nature is our home, and in nature we are at home. This strange, multicolored, and astonishing world that we explore -- where space is granular, time does not exist, and things are nowhere -- is not something that estranges us [...]
Critical reason and the life of the unconscious: at what expense to our lives do we refine our reason, especially when it comes to understanding crucial matters of life and death? A man should be able to say he has done his best to form a conception of life after death, or to create some [...]
Wise fools and foolish wits: what experience should teach us, if we would learn from it: "To learn that we have said or done a foolish thing, that is nothing: we must learn that we are fools, a far broader and more important lesson." Michel de Montaigne, "On Experience"
Judgments about the arts: mind what you put in! Ben Jonson tells his audience how much they may assess what they see, depending on their means: It is further agreed that every person here have his or their free-will of censure, to like or dislike at their own charge, the playwright having now departed with [...]
