classics digests, reflections and reviews
In one of his essays, Plutarch accuses Herodotus, another famed historian, of malice. Whether the specific charges are true is open to dispute. However, the general signs of malice he describes is very insightful. Six Signs of Malice First, use of severe words when gentle ones will serve, derogative generalities, rather than specifics regarding the facts. For example, when he might have called Nicias “too much addicted to pious practices,” he […]
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Philosophical Foundation of Science When quantum theory and the theory of general relativity shook the foundation of physics at the dawn of the 20th century, many physicists, such as Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg, explored and revisited ancient Greek philosophy. For they suspected there might be something wrong with the philosophical foundation of classical physics. They attempted to retrace the steps in the labyrinth and find out where the wrong […]
Read moreFrom Film to Novel My taste in fiction is quite naive: If it can’t be adapted into a great motion picture, I don’t read it. For this reason, I have not read any of Dickens’s novels, as none of the movie adaptions impressed me enough to read the original. The only exception is the movie “Scrooge” (1951) starring Alastair Sim. I watched it for many years around Christmas, almost as […]
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In Iliad, Homer writes, “He sprinkled with salt divine”. Plato says in Timaeus that by the custom of mankind salt is regarded as of all substances the one most favoured by the gods. Egyptian priests, on the other hand, made it a point of religion to abstain completely from salt. Perhaps the Egyptians from motives of purity avoid salt on account of the aphrodisiac properties sometimes attributed to it. But […]
Read moreAs thinkers, mankind have ever divided into three sects: 1. The Materialist: “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” 2. The Transcendentalist: “Though we should soar into the heavens, though we should sink into the abyss, we never go out […]
Read moreDivine Justice Transcends Time and Space The notion of justice presupposes the persistence of identity, not only of individual, but also of family, race and nation. An individual goes through many changes, from a newborn baby, to a child, an adult and an old man. How can one be responsible for his past action if he is not the same person who committed it? Although a family, race or nation […]
Read morePerspectives on the Contemplative Life It is written in the Talmud, “Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” Concerning the spirit, the only life that a man has the power to destroy or save is his own, then and only then is an entire world destroyed or saved […]
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