Apuleius’ work The Golden Ass, a literary autobiography dating back eighteen hundred years, reflects the wisdom gained from accumulated experience regarding the virtues and vices of human nature. This sole surviving novel from the Greco-Roman world continues to captivate attention with its “golden” content, which cleverly and wittily compares and analyzes the relationship between man … Read more
Today I saw the sea… A solitary figure, with rolling capital letters, Mother, Mothers – Mayas, Marys – reflected in the primal and watery substance that holds within its deep bosom the concealed origin of the most primitive forms of life. They say that Nature preserves symbols powerful enough to awaken the dormant souls of … Read more
“If my sense of identity is based on what I have, on possession, if I can say ‘I am what I have,’ then the question arises ‘what am I if I lose what I have?’, stated Erich Fromm, a psychoanalyst and philosopher, in a 1976 interview, upon the publication of his book “To Have or … Read more
Erich Fromm “Love is the only satisfactory response to the problem of human existence.” Philosopher, humanist, psychoanalyst, and social psychologist, Erich Pinchas Fromm was born on March 23, 1900 in Frankfurt on the Main, and was one of the leading intellectuals of his time. He comes from an extremely religious family of Orthodox Jews, and … Read more
Many people have remained recorded in history because of great deeds that made them famous. Some became famous for their heroism, others for their artistic abilities, third for their new inventions, fourth for social and political reforms, fifth for their religiosity, but few have enriched the world with “ordinariness” and simplicity. One of them, and … Read more
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 – 65 AD) lived in one of the most controversial periods of the Roman Empire. A philosopher, politician, lawyer, prestigious writer even during his lifetime, and a teacher of Emperor Nero, he is one of the leading representatives of Roman stoicism. In his book “What is Philosophy?”, Ortega y Gasset explains … Read more
Among the most precious messages left to us by ancient Greece are certainly the works of Plato. This great philosopher, the subject of eternal debate among different schools of thought, remains relevant in every era because he speaks about what transcends the limitations of specific historical moments: the content of human life, what happens to … Read more
The Renaissance, a time of revival of all values worthy of man, a reawakening of dormant ideas about the cosmos and man, about the beauty and meaning of science, art, politics, and religion. Is the Earth round? How do planets move? How to achieve depth on a painting canvas? How to create an ideal city? … Read more
Karl Jaspers was born in Oldenburg in 1883. After attending a humanistic gymnasium, he studied law, but became disillusioned and switched to medicine in 1908. He specialized in psychiatry, but was more interested in philosophy. His pursuit of medicine and psychology was actually driven by philosophical motivation, as he had been attracted to philosophy, especially … Read more
Jacob Boehme (1575 – 1624), a German mystic and philosopher, was born into a humble rural Lutheran family near the city of Görlitz, right on the border with Poland. Despite having no formal education, he gained the ability to see to the core of things with the eyes of his soul through a series of … Read more
