A quarrel for the ages: Past Present, and Future are at odds with each other. Past: Can you hear me? Future: I am waiting for your voice, and your counsel. Speak up! Present: What's the fuss? Past: I am trying to speak to the Future. Future: I am trying to hear the Past. Present: You [...]
Gambling on the meaning of nothing: how much do we really understand one another, even as friends? Minaccio, a witty man and a gambler, once lost his cash and his coat, too, playing at dice (he was truly poor), and sat weeping at the doorway of the tavern. A friend saw him distraught and in [...]
In a political season, Daoist thinking on keeping the measure of things. ------------------ Whoever thinks what matters is to get rich is incapable of renouncing salary. Whoever thinks what matters is to get famous is incapable of renouncing reputation. Whoever is too fond of sway over others is incapable of letting another man take the [...]
Obsessing about STEM: America seems entranced by STEM education, at the expense of our future, which requires more agile ways of thinkings that the humanities and liberal arts provide. "The United States has led the world in economic dynamism, innovation and entrepreneurship thanks to exactly the kind of teaching we are now told to defenestrate. A [...]
Thoughts of Frederick Douglass on finding the trajectory of moral and social justice in the course of history. There is, in the world's government, a force which has in all ages been recognized, sometimes as Nemesis, sometimes as the judgment of God and sometimes as retributive justice; but under whatever name, all history attests the [...]
George Washington, at the close of the Revolution, imagines the nation in concert with philosophers and lawgivers, who foster letters, commerce, and well-being. The Citizens of America, placed in the most enviable condition, as the sole Lords and Proprietors of a vast Tract of Continent, comprehending all the various soils and climates of the World, [...]
Thus the reason why certain intuitive minds are not mathematical is that they are quite unable to apply themselves to the principles of mathematics, but the reason why mathematicians are not intuitive is that they cannot see what is in front of them: for, being accustomed to the clearcut, obvious principles of mathematics and to [...]
What happens when convicted murderers are taught liberal arts? According to hundreds of US felons who have gained degrees in philosophy, literature and history, higher education is transformative for both the student and society.
Computer scientists advocate a liberal education for the future, flexing their epistemological, ontological and ethical muscles on concepts of artificial intelligence.
Looking toward the past, and the future, on New Year's Day
