December 16, 2014 / Leave a comment
John Donne d. 1631 (An earthy, imaginative, thoughtful soul reveals his view of love, steeped in metaphor and emotion.) Crop of Francesca da Rimini with her lover Paolo, by the Scottish painter William Dyce (1837). This painting can be seen in the National Galleries of Scotland. Though not quite as scandalous as Paolo, who is here courting his brother’s […]
Continue Reading →
June 10, 2014 / Leave a comment
(Discours de la méthode) René Descartes 1637 (A scientist-philosopher wishes that all the deep questions of life could be as certain as his mathematical results—so he decides to start from scratch and make them that way.) The influence this little book has had over the past few centuries is (to make a ridiculous understatement) vastly […]
Continue Reading →