classics digests, reflections and reviews
The Fall of Satan Confounded though immortal: But his doom Reserv’d him to more wrath; for now the thought Both of lost happiness and lasting pain Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes That witness’d huge affliction and dismay Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate: … O how unlike the place from whence they fell! … Yet not for those, Nor what the Potent Victor in his rage […]
Read moreKierkegaard evidently read Descartes, because he objected to the latter’s famous argument, “I think, therefore I am”, and the notion that doubt is derived from knowledge. It might appear that the two of them belong to different camps, but I have reason to believe that Descartes influenced/inspired Kierkegaard in his conception of “subjective certainty”. Descartes’ Certainty It was Descartes who first brought “subjective certainty” to the forefront of philosophical thought, […]
Read moreShe is the boundary of his being Kierkegaard met Regine Olsen in Copenhagen in 1837, and, by all appearances, there was a deep attraction between the two. They were engaged in 1840, but Kierkegaard immediately broke off the engagement the following year. Regina married her old tutor in 1847, and the couple left Copenhagen for the Danish West Indies in March 1855. Kierkegaard died in November that same year, having […]
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A keynote speech given by a clinician at a seminar a few months ago made a lasting impression upon me, not for the scientific content, but for a story she told: A patient, who had an advanced disease and had been receiving treatment at our hospital, came in to my office. He was a well-known physician and we had collaborated often in the past, so we knew each other very […]
Read moreGrowing up in a family of scientists, I’ve always considered a life spent in the attainment of knowledge as ideal and paramount. As philosopher KongZi (孔子) writes, “If I hear the truth in the morning, it’s all right to die in the evening (朝闻道，夕死可矣)” In the words of twice Nobel Prize laureate Marie Curie, “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.” I remember, during […]
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Many people have struggled with the idea of eternal punishment in Hell. “Punishment should fit the crime, but what crime could man possibly commit in this temporal life to deserve eternal punishment?” I’m not qualified to address that question fully from a theological perspective. Truth be told, I don’t quite understand it myself. Hopefully whoever reads this might shed some light on the issue or contribute to the discussion. All I […]
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It is written in the Ten Commandments: “You shall not steal.” “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” I’ve never thought much about the existential significance of these commandments until I read Dante. Thieves are assigned to the Eighth Circle of Hell, […]
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