During the autumn term at Jogakuin Daigaku I teach GCE and visiting students a course in European Literature and Thought. I love teaching this course, but the title always amuses me. Fifteen classes to cover not only the whole breadth of European literature,” but also “European thought.” My approach is [Read more…]
I have just purchased the Audible version of Robert Greene’s latest book, The Laws of Human Nature using my monthly Audible credit. 🙂 A few weeks ago I listened to Robert Greene in conversation with the dynamic and irrepressible Aubrey Marcus on the Aubrey Marcus Podcast. Here’s an edited excerpt [Read more…]
One of my goals for 2019 is to present a paper to the Shakespeare and Contemporary Writers Conference that takes place in Hiroshima in September. The topic I have chosen is Shakespeare’s The Rape of Lucrece, almost certainly in comparison with Machiavelli’s La Mandragola, and perhaps also referring to Livy [Read more…]
Today’s reading from The Daily Stoic presents us with Epictetus’ list of “seven clear functions of the mind.” The list has been extracted from the a passage on the purity of the soul in the eleventh chapter of the fourth book of the Discourses. On the Purity of the Soul [Read more…]
This year Epiphany falls on the first Sunday of the year, with a partial solar eclipse as the New Moon passes by. According to Marsilio Ficino in Three Books on Life the Moon “receives a life-giving power” from the Sun each time it forms a union, and in The Book of the Sun [Read more…]
Towards the end of 2016 I bought The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. It is a year book of 366 “meditations on wisdom, perseverence, and the art of living.” One page is devoted to each day of the year, with a thematic heading, a quotation by one of the Stoic philosophers, and an few paragraphs of commentary.
In this video I take you through some chess opening moves White can play when Black responds with the Marshall Defence.
The Marshall Defence occurs after 1. d4 d5 2. c4…
Black now moves his g8 Knight to f6. When that happens, what should White do?…
In this demo video I play a couple of free Hidden word games. Hidden is one of the Eager Zebra set of free online games. It’s free to play but you can also buy “T-Credits,” which you can use to purchase extra Hidden clues. It is also possible to win [Read more…]
Taleb’s book, Skin in the Game, got me thinking about some of the clear choices I have made between this or that thinker, writer or fictional character. From what I’ve heard and read so far, Taleb, rather like Machiavelli, seems to delight in seeking clarity in strong either-or positions…
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