I accidentally started reading about the history of clocks. First, I stumbled upon a sweet book by Swedish historian Peter Englund. Unfortunately, majority of his books are written in Swedish and aren’t translated into English…
Karl Popper on the Difference Between Successful and Creative Thinking
“It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover”, said Henri Poincaré, a famous French mathematician. As an expansion on Poincaré’s succinct thought, Popper gives an unsurprising explanation of the intuition part of creativity…
Jiddu Krishnamurti on Fear – What is Behind the Fear of the Unknown?
The First and Last Freedom is an odd book. Being a collection excerpts from Krishnamurti’s public talks and discussions, its conversational style of writing makes me read it hastily, inevitably returning to reread each paragraph.…
The Difference Between the Ancient and Modern Understanding of History; Or How Faith Can Invent A Science
Polybius was concerned with Rome’s history, i.e., with past events progressing toward the present power of Rome. Modern historians who rank with him are concerned with Europe’s future, when looking backward and searching into her…
Why Liberalism Failed (or How it Destroyed Itself) [Book Review]
… Liberalism’s great failing and ultimate weakness: its incapacity to foster self-governance. Liberal individualism demands the dismantling of culture; and as culture fades, Leviathan waxes and responsible liberty recedes. The age of dissatisfaction It’s been…
Reason as the Enemy of Nature – Giacomo Leopardi’s Zibaldone
No wonder why Giacomo Leopardi’s notebook Zibaldone (1898) is considered to be one of the most important books of the 19th century. Zibaldone is a 2,500 pages (note)book full of wisdom about art, human culture,…
Why Wealth and Status Don’t Bring Satisfaction – Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class
I am in the middle of re-reading of Thorstein Veblen’s book The Theory of the Leisure Class. In the second chapter titled “Pecuniary Emulation”, Veblen offers elegant and simple explanations of two phenomena: first, why…
Isaiah Berlin on The Pillars of Western Rationalism (from The Roots Of Romanticism)
In The Roots of Romanticism, Isaiah Berlin argues that Romanticism is, among thought movements in recent history, the one that most strongly shaped the history of the Western world. And not only in the arts,…
John Gray on Why Science Can’t Solve Fundamental Problems of Human Condition
We live in a time when a lot is expected from science. It seems that because science solves technological problems and improves technological abilities of society, we expect from it to answer to some more…