If you disregard the original intentions of Bach and the intentions of the church authorities who commissioned his music, you are missing the most subversive element of Bach—his independence of spirit, his humanism.
All Articles
Scientific advances are coming fast and furious, and so it is becoming increasingly important to become familiar with aspects of genomics that will impact routine medical care in profound ways.
Move over Willy Loman. Selling today is about servicing latent and hidden problems, an ability that research shows is common among artists.
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” ― Jane Austen
IN THE old days of the three European missions – imperialism, colonialism, and orientalism – scholars insisted on the existence of Asian “philosophies” and, naturally, they called Asian thinkers “philosophers.” […]
Members of a gospel choir posing as grocery store employees surprised shoppers this week by breaking into song in memory of Nelson Mandela. It was the most touching flash mob you will ever see.
Let me remind you of why I think all the Singularity talk about making what used to be called personal immortality possible by turning each of us into conscious machines is ridiculous. […]
“I make hands,” the young man said nonchalantly. Standing in the middle of a crowd of robotics researchers and developers, he introduced himself. I must admit the phrase and the […]
Hey, all you natural food fans. You die-hard anti-Monsanto opponents of genetically modified food, who say it’s dangerous because, well, it’s unnatural. You may want to think twice before you […]
The upright tail is probably the clearest way cats show their affection for us.
It’s obvious to anybody that the mind does much more than solve problems.
The extent to which human beings are willing to be duped by computers is already very large.
David Gelernter: We’re seeing wisdom and moral seriousness come under attack and often from the same people who want to do the genetic engineering.
Go to a park on the Upper West Side or in Cleveland or in China and you see exactly the same behavior because you know what – same organism.
Lionel Tiger: Christmas is perhaps the most popular holiday in the world because it gets right to the bedrock of what religion is about, which is you’ve got to take care of the mother and the child.
If you’re a hunter-gatherer, as we are, you better get up in the morning and think it is a great day to catch an elephant.
There are 4,200 religions in the world, each of them believing they’re absolutely correct and everyone should follow their views.
Historical trends certainly had an effect on how physics as a discipline progressed. These trends affected the lives of many people.
Charles Vest, the legendary former president of MIT, has died. Back in 2007 he told Big Think that his fascination with all things physical grew out of taking discarded things apart and building something new with them.
There are a number of cases of mysterious disappearances relating to neutrino physicists.
Ray Jayawardhana: It’s valuable to push your imagination and try to come up with all sorts of ideas and discuss them, debate them, test them, because it allows us to push what’s possible and open up new avenues.
Ian Fleming’s character is at high risk for sexual dysfunction, along with a long assortment of alcohol-related diseases that will eventually kill him at the age of 56.
“Nothing in the world can one imagine beforehand, not the least thing, everything is made up of so many unique particulars that cannot be foreseen.” ― Nostradamus (born on this date in 1503, we think)
“Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry.”- Muriel Rukeyser (born on this date in 1913)
Capitalism, the dominant secular faith of our times, risks a reformation.
A huge pool of magma is under the surface, representing an existential threat to America, as well as the rest of the world. One scientist estimates an eruption would be 2,000 times the size of Mount St. Helens.
Jeff Walker: The teacher is the individual who I can associate with, who I want to track over time and who I will connect to.
There really is no difference between donors and doers.
Money is just one of the resources that you have available to you like gas that goes in the car. It’s not the car itself.
The reliable Geminid meteor shower is an annual hit for stargazers, and it should not disappoint this year despite waxing gibbous moonlight during the shower’s peak tonight (December 13/14).