Showing 121 articles
The Barrenness of a Busy Life
Author: Tarini VaidyaJanuary 21, 2018
Last week I tried to catch up with a few friends for dinner, three to be precise. Can you believe we could not find a date when we were all free to meet until almost a month later! My friends work and I’m the only one who doesn’t work. Guess who was the busiest? Yes, [...]
Scaling An Inner Summit
Author: Vishal PahlajaniJanuary 21, 2018
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson Throughout the ages nature has time and again instilled a sense of awe and wonder within human beings; at her unparalleled beauty, at her mysterious methodology and her enigmatic laws that govern the universe. The ancient Greek philosophers, specifically the Pre-Socratic philosophers [...]
A Stoic guide to our Emotions – Pt. 2: The sentiments of the sage
Author: Gilad SommerDecember 16, 2017
Despite the popular conception of the Stoics, in their writings, the ideal sage is not portrayed as a cold, apathetic person. By reflecting on the good and the bad, and on the true nature of things, the sage develops natural, rational sentiments – Hai Eupatheiai, literally, the good passions. These are: Wish, Caution and Joy. [...]
A Stoic guide to our Emotions – Pt. 1: Can we trust our feelings?
Author: Gilad SommerDecember 16, 2017
Human beings are often said to be rational creatures, but in reality we are very much emotional creatures as well. More often than not, history is a showcase of tragic actions taken by human beings overcome by their passions. And apart from these grand-scale dramas, our everyday life is full of instances where the right [...]
A Moment to Stop and Reflect
Author: Ilanit AdarOctober 19, 2017
This article is a compilation of excerpts from the book A Moment to Stop and Reflect by Ilanit Adar Matoki to be published in Korean. In times when knowledge is very accessible and there exists a flood of information, it is a challenge to acknowledge words of wisdom. The eyes quickly pass over unimportant words [...]
Are We Human Beings or Human Doings?
Author: Archana SamarthOctober 19, 2017
This question is relevant to the times we live in. The pace of life accelerated by the need for constantly moving, rushing, or accomplishing emphasises the importance we associate with doing. Just being when the whole world seems to be caught up in a whirlwind of action, seems so passive! By doing, we feel we [...]
The importance of knowing what is good
Author: Sabine LeitnerOctober 19, 2017
If morality is the discernment of what is good and consequently the ability to choose between what is good and what is bad, then we have clearly lost our moral compass some time ago. It seems that we don’t really know anymore what is good for us. And this starts at the most basic level [...]
Epigenetics, The Science of Change
Author: Florimond KrinsAugust 16, 2017
Epigenetics is the science that studies the biological mechanisms that switch genes on and off, that make them active or inactive, without involving any changes in the DNA sequence. Having a gene switched on or off will change how the cells read the gene, read the information and how the cells produce proteins. To give [...]
Karl Jaspers: Philosopher of Otherness
Author:August 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 [...]
Dystopias in literature
Author: Istvan OrbanMay 15, 2017
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin muzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.” [...]
Simone de Beauvoir: The Second Sex and its implications for human evolution.
Author: Siobhan FarrarMay 13, 2017
In her book The Second Sex, published in Paris in 1949, Simone de Beauvoir writes about the female ontological experience from her perspective as a female philosopher. By the term ‘female ontological experience’ is meant the experience of being a woman at the deepest level (from Gk. Ontos= Being). The result is an illuminating description [...]
Open the Mind: Make the Best Ideas Ours
Author: Delia Steinberg GuzmánMay 1, 2017
Can we think absolutely by ourselves, without any influence? I think not, nobody can do that. But we can assimilate ideas of other people that align very well with our own and that we come to feel as decidedly ours. What we can do is internalize ideas, thoughts, beliefs that we feel are the ones [...]