Showing 20 articles
Capitalism and Socialism in Plato’s Republic
Author: Gilad SommerJune 24, 2023
Capitalism and Socialism are commonly portrayed as two contrasting approaches to the distribution of resources within a society. In very simple terms, Capitalism advocates for the freedom of economic activity and individual ownership of property, while Socialism promotes regulated economic activity, and communal ownership of property. Based on these basic definitions, one can understand why [...]
Without Ethics, Nothing is Going to Work
Author: Gilad SommerOctober 23, 2022
In March this year, the British Journal of Medicine, one of the oldest and most respected peer-reviewed journals in the field of medicine, published an article called “The Illusion of Evidence Based Medicine”. In a nutshell, the article argues that “evidence-based medicine has been corrupted by corporate interests, failed regulation, and commercialisation of academia.” The [...]
Bee-ing Human
Author:June 27, 2022
“If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.” This startling revelation often attributed to the physicist and Nobel laureate, Albert Einstein (1), although it has been hotly debated (2), opens our eyes to how essential bees are – as, perhaps, is each and every [...]
Crime – Can we Do Something about it?
Author: Gilad SommerJune 6, 2022
There is a plague that is wreaking havoc in our cities these days, causing distress, pain, and fear. I’m not talking about COVID, but about the pestilence of crime. In the United States it has been a political issue for big city mayors for many decades, much thought and money has been thrown at the [...]
Ubuntu: I Am Because We Are
Author: Manjula NanavatiDecember 27, 2020
One of the foundations of how we conceptualize our sense of self today, perhaps came from the 17th century philosopher Rene Descartes’ most famous maxim, cogito ergo sum or I think therefore I am. Taken to an extreme that Descartes himself may never have meant, we are conditioned to prioritize self-interest, applaud the pursuit of [...]
The Cancer of Separatism
Author: Delia Steinberg GuzmánApril 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 [...]
On the Ethics of Journalism with Anant Goenka
Author: Manjula NanavatiApril 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 [...]
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 [...]
Dunkirk – To live or to survive?
Author: Gilad SommerMarch 27, 2019
“Those men who, in war, seek to preserve their lives at any rate commonly die with shame and ignominy, while those who look upon death as common to all, and unavoidable, and are only solicitous to die with honour, oftener arrive at old age and, while they live, live happier.” (from Xenophon’s Anabasis) As production [...]
A New Model of Civilization
Author: Gilad SommerMarch 10, 2019
One of the most astounding things about ancient civilizations is the unity of their way of life. In the Art Institute of Chicago, for example, there is a beautiful stele from the Mayan ruins of Calakmul in Mexico. This stele presents a ruler in his task as a high priest, dressed in ceremonial garbs, holding [...]
The Ice Rink
Author: Gilad SommerJanuary 25, 2019
During an attempt at ice skating at the Sculpture Garden in DC, I had one of these wonderful moments where life seems to speak to you through the so-called “ordinary” moments. Watching the happy faces – of every age, race and color – go round and round, I couldn’t help but admire the beauty of [...]
The Masses in Modern Philosophy
Author: Istvan OrbanJanuary 25, 2019
In the last century, the role of the masses grew immensely in importance and affected both culture and politics. Philosophy has been using the term masses and mass societies since the 19th century, but we can find statements about masses of people earlier, even in the works of the classical Greek thinkers like Plato. He [...]