Showing 254 articles
Toxic Fashion
Author: Sabine LeitnerJanuary 15, 2020
I would like to shine a light on the fashion industry. Even if you are aware of documentaries like Fashion’s Dirty Secrets, it is worth reminding ourselves of just some of the facts, because writing and spreading information is already a form of activism. Alongside the oil industry the fashion industry is one of the [...]
Mary Wollstonecraft and the Search for Women’s Equality
Author: Natalia LemaJanuary 15, 2020
In the mid-18th century, when London had approximately 600,000 inhabitants, a woman with remarkable ideas was born in Spitalfields. Her approach to life and her fight for equality between women and men, in a society that was far from equal, made her stand out from the crowd. Her words “I do not wish (women) to [...]
Chernobyl and the Inexorability of Karma
Author: Gilad SommerDecember 3, 2019
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. The Buddha The Truth doesn’t care about our needs or wants, it doesn’t care about our governments, our ideologies, our religions. It will lie in wait for all time. And this, at last, is the gift of Chernobyl. Valery Legasov in HBO’s Chernobyl The [...]
Human Connections Are More Important Than Digital Ones
Author: Sabine LeitnerNovember 30, 2019
Which would you prefer: meeting for a quick cup of coffee with a friend or spending the same amount of time texting back and forth about the same topic? Chances are that most of us would prefer the first but usually end up doing the second. But can 10 texts really equal a face to [...]
What’s New in the Past?
Author: Florimond KrinsOctober 14, 2019
Archaeology, a relatively modern science, took off during the industrial revolution. Not just because the scientific method allowed for better research tools, but also because the religious dogmas that had imposed their own version of the past were slowly fading. And even though the most enlightened scientific figures of antiquity knew that the earth was [...]
Religion and Philosophy
Author: Julian ScottOctober 13, 2019
Today, there is a deep divide between these two fields and, for most people, they are seen as antagonistic. Religion is about faith, or blind belief (in the popular imagination), while philosophy is about reason. Faith seems to be in contradiction with reason. Can this opposition ever be resolved? At its root, however, religion is [...]
The Temples of Ancient Egypt
Author: Agostino DominiciAugust 25, 2019
Introduction The quality of a civilisation’s culture is most visible in its art and more particularly in its architectural accomplishments, for these are usually its most complex and long-lasting forms. It’s hard to conceive of a more awe-inspiring architecture than that found in ancient Egypt. The essence and message of Egyptian architecture remained unaltered throughout [...]
The Integral Theory of Ken Wilber
Author: Julian ScottAugust 22, 2019
The American thinker Ken Wilber is well known in some circles, such as transpersonal psychology, yet despite being the author of 25 books he is barely mentioned in academia. His unconventional approach, which tries to integrate opposites such as science and spirituality has made him difficult to classify and has brought him into conflict with [...]
Philosophy and Religion: What is the Difference?
Author: Pierre PoulainAugust 20, 2019
When I write an article for this magazine, I usually pick an event from the daily news to comment on. Today I will not fail in this habit, but I have chosen to comment not on an event, but a personal experience which had occurred in a class, at the New Acropolis center in Tel [...]
Should the Focus of Education Shift from Knowledge to Wisdom?
Author: Sabine LeitnerMay 27, 2019
The concept of wisdom is deeply rooted in human history. It has been considered a virtue in all the great philosophical and religious traditions, from Pythagoras to Plato, Aristotle and Confucius, and from Christianity to Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism. But although the literature on wisdom goes back to the early days of humanity, [...]
Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasion
Author: Istvan OrbanMay 26, 2019
“I have a dream…”, “In this grave hour…”, “I do not come here as an advocate…” – the first lines of some of the greatest speeches that shaped the history of the 20th century. Rhetoric as the art of persuasion has always played an important role within societies. It is the main tool in all [...]
Ashurbanipal and his Library
Author: Pinar AkhanMarch 27, 2019
There is an exhibition currently running at the British Museum about Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria. It would not be not surprising if you have never heard of his name, as neither the king nor the Assyrian culture is familiar to most of us in the West. Ashurbanipal was the last king of the Assyrian Empire, [...]