The allegory of the cave
Plato’s famous allegory of the cave, written around 380 bce, is one of the most important and influential passages of The Republic. It vividly illustrates the concept of Idealism as it was taught in the Platonic Academy, and provides a metaphor which philosophers have used for millennia to help us overcome superficiality and materialism. In […]
Hippocrates’ oath
Hippocrates, (born c. 460 BCE, island of Cos, Greece—died c. 375 BCE, Larissa, Thessaly), ancient Greek physician who lived during Greece’s Classical period and is traditionally regarded as the father of medicine. It is difficult to isolate the facts of Hippocrates’ life from the later tales told about him or to assess his medicine accurately […]
Searching for Equilibrium
How long does it take to solve a problem on a computer? This seemingly innocuous question, unanswerable in general, lies at the heart of computational complexity theory. With deep roots in mathematics and logic, this area of research seeks to understand the boundary between which problems are efficiently solvable by computer and which are not. […]
Gulliver’s Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
Gulliver’s Travels, four-part satirical work by Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift, published anonymously in 1726 as Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. A keystone of English literature, it is one of the books that contributed to the emergence of the novel as a literary form in English. A parody of the then popular travel […]
Waltz No. 2
Shostakovich originally composed what has become known as the Waltz No. 2 in 1955-56 for his score (Op. 99) for the film The First Echelon (Pervyi eshelon), directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, which had its premiere on April 29, 1956. The waltz was also included in the Suite from The First Echelon (Op. 99a) arranged by […]
La Bohème – Musetta’s Waltz
On Christmas Eve, a group of bohemians living in Paris are barely surviving the harsh winter. They keep warm by feeding their stove with pages from the poet Rodolfo’s latest poem. When Schaunard the musician arrives with funds from his latest commission, the group celebrate their good fortune. The landlord Benoît arrives, demanding rent but […]
The Raven
Edgar Poe was born on January 19th, 1809 to traveling actors Eliza and David Poe. When Edgar was a baby, David abandoned the family, leaving Eliza to support three young children. In a devastating turn, Eliza contracted tuberculosis and spent the last few months of her life in Richmond. She died on December 8th, 1811 […]
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
The large canvas represents the climax of Wenzel Peter’s career. He was an animalist painter, that is to say specialized in a very unique type of painting, and this led him to reproducing with extraordinary naturalism animals of the most varied species, as it were ‘photographed’ in both standing and fighting positions. The Garden of […]
Animal Farm
George Orwells’ Animal Farm is a 1945 book about a group of animals who organise a revolution, and take over from their human owners to run their farm themselves. The revolt is originally the idea of Old Major, who teaches the animals a song called the Beasts of England, and urges them to rise up […]
Primavera
This painting, usually known as the Primavera [or ‘Spring’] shows nine figures from classic mythology advancing over a flowery lawn in a grove of orange and laurel trees. In the foreground, to the right, Zephyrus embraces a nymph named Chloris before taking her; she is then portrayed after her transformation into Flora, the spring goddess. […]