By Jacob Devaney / 09.21.2017 How Do Acts of Compassion Create Peace in the World? Our state of mind is the lens through which we experience the world around us. Inner peace leads to acts of peace and compassion, while inner discord and fear leads to violence. Both peace and violence are contagious, spreading through our social[…]
Relative positions of distant spacecraft. / NASA, JPL Caltech By Dr. Michael Strauss / 02.22.2017 Professor of Astrophysical Sciences Princeton University As an astrophysicist, I am always struck by the fact that even the wildest science-fiction stories tend to be distinctly human in character. No matter how exotic the locale or how unusual the scientific[…]
What exactly is outrage? Philip Pilosian/Shutterstock By Dr. Justin Tosi and Dr. Brandon Warmke / 06.19.2017 Tosi: Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Lecturer, University of Michigan Warmke: Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Bowling Green State University Many Americans are morally outraged that U.S. President Donald Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey, who had been investigating possible links between[…]
Figure 1. Rhodian rectangular amphora stamp with the name of Agathoklês [Delos, TD 4033]. By Dr. Nathan Badoud / 09.11.2017 Professor of Classical Architecture Université de Fribourg One day in July 1555, the great Sicilian scholar Tommaso Fazello (1498-1570) found near Heloros an amphora handle on which he read the name Agathoklês (fig. 1). Thoroughly steeped in the literary[…]
A perfume-pot made from amber and depicting cupids and a panther. Roman, Aquileia, 100-120 CE. (British Museum, London) By Mark Cartwright / 09.11.2017 Amber, the fossilised resin of trees, was used throughout the ancient world for jewellery and decorative objects. The main source was the Baltic region where amber, known to mineralogists as succinite, was washed up onto beaches[…]
Out of all these ideas, will one rise to the top? KlingSup/Shutterstock.com By Dr. Edward Wasserman and Dr. Eric Scerri / 06.22.2017 Wasserman: Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Iowa Scerri: Science Author and Chemistry Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles Scientific discovery is popularly believed to result from the sheer genius of intellectual stars[…]
Painting of David Hume, by Allan Ramsay, 1754 / Scottish National Portrait Gallery By Dr. Garth Kemerling / 11.12.2011 Professor of Philosophy Capella University Philosophy Pages Life and Works Soon after completing his studies at Edinburgh, Scottish philosopher David Hume began writing his comprehensive statement of the views he believed would contribute to philosophy no less than[…]