April 25, 2020
This subject can be looked at from two angles: being motivated or being unmotivated. Both are expressions that we hear about every day, on different occasions and in relation to many aspects of life. Motivation or lack of motivation affect everyone, including those who have the teachings of a Philosophical Ideal available to them, but [...]April 25, 2020
It might seem that the crisis which is shaking our present civilization throughout the world and on so many fronts is something typical of our time and of enormous magnitude. However, if we look carefully, we will find crises at any time in history, and we will discover that philosophers have always examined their deeper [...]April 17, 2020
Probably the most famous of ancient Egypt’s pharaohs today, Tutankhamun was a small and short-lived king, who reigned for only ten years and died at the age of 18, in marked contrast to the later Ramses the Great, who reigned for 66 years and died in his nineties. Tutankhamun (1342 1325 BC) was one [...]April 17, 2020
Plato is typically thought of as a ‘respectable’ Greek philosopher who is widely taught at reputable universities around the world and admired for his original philosophical thinking. However, there is another side to Plato which is only explored by a minority of scholars, starting with Heinrich Gomperz in the 1930s and continuing with the ‘Tübingen [...]April 17, 2020
We all are cheered by days full of the renewing energy of spring – a beautiful time when nature awakens, the days become longer and everything living rejoices. There is a special time in the year when the Sun is exactly above the equator, hence the Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the [...]April 17, 2020
Soil is the uppermost part of the Earth’s crust, the ground of human civilization. It is one of the most crucial parts of our ecosystem. The home of minerals, nutrients, insects and other animals, our food is produced in the soil. Only half of it contains solid materials, while the other half is filled with [...]April 17, 2020
Most scientists used to be convinced that living beings were simply the product of their genes and that we were predetermined and condemned to suffer by a genetic program inherited from our ancestors. The last 20 years of research in the life sciences have completely overturned this belief. They have shown that we can have [...]April 17, 2020
In many ways, the last decade can be considered a decade of protests – starting with the Arab Spring in 2010 and the Occupy Wallstreet Movement soon after, to the still ongoing clashes on the streets of Hong Kong, Venezuela’s uprising against its leadership and the widespread protests against India’s Citizenship Amendment Act, to name [...]April 17, 2020
When I was very young, I came across a book called The Prophet, by poet, painter, thinker, but perhaps above all, a philosopher, Kahlil Gibran. I clearly remember a sense of mystery; the existence of truths about myself, beyond the known. I did not know what I was searching for, but it awakened in me [...]April 17, 2020
According to legend the word Philosophy can be attributed to Pythagoras who spoke of himself as a philosopher, a lover of wisdom, rather than a Wise man as he had been called by others. Of course, the word Philo-Sophy, the Love of Wisdom, does not give Pythagoras any innovation rights over the concept; there always [...]April 17, 2020
When we argued some years ago in our writings and lectures that a new Middle Ages was approaching, the prediction seemed exaggerated and almost fatalistic. We also explained at the time that the repetition of historical cycles did not necessarily have to be seen as a calamity or regression, but as part of the natural [...]April 17, 2020
What is the primary ethical obligation of the press? Is it not to seek the truth, actual facts, and to present it as objectively as possible? Yet, the facts alone are not the whole truth. Given the facts, there is a need to apprehend context, connect the dots, discern patterns, and collate them into statements [...]