Showing 624 articles
Ulugh Beg of Samarkand
Author: Nataliya PetlevychDecember 30, 2025
In the heart of Central Asia where fertile valleys meet ancient arteries of the Silk Road, lies Samarkand, an enchanting city steeped in legend, adorned with splendid architecture, storied past, vibrant bazaars and serene moments of contemplation beneath a starlit sky. Among its many historical chapters, one shines with particular brilliance – a luminous revival [...]
Sir Philip Sidney: Neoplatonist, Cabalist, Hermeticist and Patron of Giordano Bruno
Author: Julian ScottDecember 30, 2025
Everyone is probably familiar with the image of the glittering court of Elizabeth I, the ‘Virgin Queen’ surrounded by glamorous courtiers like Sir Walter Raleigh (founder of Virginia in America, who brought back the potato and tobacco to England) and Sir Francis Drake, whom the Spanish call ‘El Drake, the Pirate’. One of the most [...]
Is Meaning Dead?
Author: Sabine LeitnerDecember 30, 2025
I have always believed that it is healthy to question everything every now and then and to check whether the beliefs we have adopted during our journey through life are still valid. In some way, we could call this a mini-crisis of meaning because it can be quite painful, even destructive to current arrangements, and [...]
Are We Morally Prepared for Crises?
Author: Sabine LeitnerDecember 30, 2025
In March 2025, the EU advised all its 450 million citizens to prepare for potential crises like war, cyberattacks, a major disease outbreak and natural disasters. Brussels issued detailed guidelines for survival kits, including food, water, first aid items and torches to last 72 hours and some countries, like France and Germany, were distributing materials [...]
Giordano Bruno: A Mystic of the Infinite Cosmos
Author: Sofia VenutiDecember 30, 2025
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) was an Italian philosopher, mathematician and mystic whose radical ideas about the universe, God and human potential placed him at odds with the intellectual and religious authorities of his time – the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. A Dominican friar turned itinerant scholar, Bruno is remembered today as a visionary who challenged the dogmas [...]
A Nature-Based Approach to Schooling
Author: Natalia LemaDecember 30, 2025
Growing up in a city and living in one of the busiest cities in the world does not always allow us to connect with Nature in a way that we feel deeply and consciously part of it. And perhaps we don’t even notice it as we rush from place to place, become accustomed to the [...]
Romanticism or Realism?
Author: Julian ScottDecember 30, 2025
This question occurred to me as I was coming to the end of the 19th century novel Middlemarch by George Eliot (the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans). As the characters’ lives and actions came to fruition I found myself thinking: would this person’s life really have ended like this (so happily), or would they have [...]
Developing Inner Life
Author: Siobhan FarrarDecember 30, 2025
“Inner life is indispensable” – Jorge Angel Livraga Rizzi In general scientists and philosophers agree that what we call ‘Life’ is characterized by movement, and ‘inner life’ is the same, except that the movement is of an inner or invisible nature. This includes the movements of the ‘stranger within’ whom we can recognize as a [...]
The Fear of Cults and the Courage to Think
Author: Gilad SommerJuly 15, 2025
The word cult comes from the Latin colere, meaning to cultivate—a root it shares with words like culture and agriculture. It originally referred to tending, especially in the sense of worship, as in taking care of the gods. Up until the 19th century, cult carried no negative associations. It was commonly used to describe religious [...]
The Joy of Discipline
Author: Zarina ScrewvalaFebruary 18, 2025
You may ask what joy can discipline bring? Doesn’t discipline suggest a rigid, regimented life? Evoking images of hard work, full of rules and regulations enforced by others that you reluctantly follow? Perhaps, we can learn more if we ask ourselves: Is discipline something that comes from outside? Or from our own will and choices? [...]
Artificial Intelligence vs. Human Intelligence: A Philosophical Perspective
Author: Yaron BarzilayFebruary 18, 2025
When writing this article, artificial intelligence (AI) has been one of the most spoken-about topics worldwide for a while, with equally mixed views of great excitement and heavy concern, as it is a significant disruptor already involved in almost every aspect of our lives. While a wide range of incredible possibilities is opening up before [...]
The Importance of Hope
Author: Shraddha ShettyFebruary 18, 2025
The story of Pandora is an ancient Greek myth of which many different versions exist. The one written by Hesiod in the 7th century BCE, tells of Zeus, angered by the Titan Prometheus, who gave the gift of fire to humankind, was determined to exact retribution not only from Prometheus, but from all of humanity. [...]