Showing 54 articles
More than Melody – Boethius’ Music of the Spheres
Author: Siobhan FarrarAugust 27, 2017
The Music of the Spheres begins in Ancient Greece with Pythagoras who, upon passing a blacksmiths is said to have heard consonance in the different sounds of the hammer. By this he was inspired to discover the connection between vibration, frequencies and pitch. For Pythagoras the octave ratio of 1:2 is considered a symbol of [...]
Karl Jaspers: Philosopher of Otherness
Author: Julian ScottAugust 16, 2017
The biography of Karl Jaspers gives an indication of the immense scope of his work. He began by studying law, then moved on to medicine, becoming a doctor specialising in psychiatry, and finally ended up as a professor of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg. One of his first works was entitled Psychology of [...]
A New Philosophy of Life and Death
Author: Julian ScottApril 17, 2017
Life and death, like all opposites, are simply two sides of the same coin. As J.A. Livraga says in his book Thebes, in reality there is “only One Life, which glides along on its two feet, life and death.” Sometimes life is manifest, visible. At other times it is unmanifest, invisible. A tangible image of [...]
Aristotle – the Ethics of Happiness
Author: Julian ScottFebruary 7, 2017
One of Aristotle’s most famous works is his Nicomachean Ethics, so called because the work was edited by Aristotle’s son Nicomachus. It is a curious fact that none of Aristotle’s surviving works were directly written by him. They are all compilations from his lecture notes, edited by his various students. This accounts for their often [...]
Living in a One-Dimensional World
Author: Istvan OrbanFebruary 7, 2017
Ken Loach’s latest film – I, Daniel Blake – has received mixed reviews and has given rise to a lot of debate. One of the key elements of the film is how the benefits system in the UK places people in a humiliating and depressing situation, where they are no longer individuals but just claimants, [...]
John Dee – Magician, Mathematician and Angelologist
Author: Julian ScottNovember 12, 2016
Earlier this year a remarkable exhibition was shown at the Royal College of Physicians in Regent’s Park, London: Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee. Born in 1527, of Welsh ancestry, John Dee was one of Tudor England’s most extraordinary and enigmatic figures. A brilliant mathematician, he was offered the chair of mathematics [...]
Soil, Soul, Society – Rendezvous with Satish Kumar
Author: Manjula NanavatiSeptember 23, 2016
Activist, Author, Academic. Environmentalist, Humanist, Visionary. Satish Kumar believes that the spiritual aspect of our ecosystem has been lost in modern environmental debates, and has been replaced by systemic violence; towards the land, animals, mankind, and even towards ourselves. He maintains that reverence for nature is the only thread that can mend and weave together [...]
Initiation and Shamanism
Author: Istvan OrbanAugust 22, 2016
According to Mircea Eliade, the philosopher and historian of religion, shamanism is a technique of religious ecstasy. The word shaman is probably derived from the Tungusic root saman, which means ‘knowing’. What does the shaman know? Basically, shamans are priests, medicine men, singers, dancers, drummers, and they have many other skills as well; but what [...]
The Myth of the Cave
Author: Miha KosirAugust 3, 2016
In one of Plato’s most well known works – The Republic – we find a short story known as the Myth of the Cave. Socrates asks his listeners to imagine a world under the ground where people live in chains, facing the end wall of a cave. Because they are chained they can’t move or [...]
At the service of philosophy – Manly P. Hall’s life and teachings
Author: Agostino DominiciJune 13, 2016
A few years ago, while browsing on YouTube, I happened to stumble across some old recordings of lectures covering an array of metaphysical and mystical topics. I was quickly taken by the depth and breadth with which the speaker, effortlessly, delivered his talks. Soon I learned that the person behind those words was a very [...]
Is Morality Relative?
Author: Julian ScottMay 17, 2016
This is one of those philosophical questions that will probably always exist. There are no doubt many possible answers, but perhaps the best place to start is with the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Kant’s position on this question was unequivocal. In a world of relativities, there is only one thing that can be considered [...]
The Mind – a parent who just can’t say no
Author: Gilad SommerMay 15, 2016
“Nature is enough for everything she asks of us. Luxury has turned her back on nature (… ) pressing man’s intelligence into the development of vices. First she began to hanker after things that were inessential, and then after things that were harmful, and finally she handed the mind over to the body and commanded [...]