Editorial notes: In September 2010, Shai begins to share his writing in Everything2, or E2 for short, a collaborative web-based community consisting of a database of interlinked user-submitted written material. Between September 2010 and July 2015, Shai submitted 60 items to this writers forum. Once I was in Fiji, at a village called W– which sits above the Sigatoka river. Those incredible vistas...
Editorial notes: In September 2010, Shai begins the first phase of his intellectual journey with an essay dedicated to the Greek mathematician, astronomer and pre-Socratic philosopher, Thales of Miletus. This the first of 80 essays, written between September 2010 and July 2015, dedicated to analysing the thoughts and writings of the great ancient Greek and classical Western philosophers. A close...
I hadn’t intended to review this book – Men and Cartoons: Stories by Jonathan Lethem – but then, like with so many other things, I got thinking. This was the first thing I’d ever read by Lethem – surely there must be something unique about a person’s first introduction to an author? Surely there must be something unique about my introduction to Lethem? But...
History has recorded Anaximander as one of the first of the Ancient Greek philosophers, preceded only by his teacher Thales. Anaximander lived around 2600 years ago, in the large Ionian city of Miletus, which can be found on the West coast of modern day Turkey. Anaximander is famous, together with his teacher Thales and his own student Anaximenes for being the first Greeks to begin a tradition of...
Editorial notes: This is Shai’s first dedicated write-up relating to Jorge Luis Borges. Borges is referenced in two earlier essays and between Jan 2010 and Nov 2017 is referenced by Shai 17 times. The Writing of the God (Spanish: La Escritura del Dios; also sometimes entitled The God’s Script) is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. It first appeared in Borges’ short story...
I recommend reading the first footnote before starting It started with Plato, but it didn’t end there[1]. This fact isn’t often discussed. Plato lived in Athens in Ancient Greece about 2400 years ago. He himself studied informally under Socrates, and Plato, in turn, had his own students and disciples at a school (of sorts) called The Academy.[2] The very first person to succeed as...
Editorial notes: In November 2010, Shai begins the second phase of his intellectual journey with an essay dedicated to scientific summation. Throughout 2010 Shai’s writings are focused primarily on book reviews with the occasional venture into reviews of science. This focus shifts in 2013 when Shai produces 24 science-related compilations. Between November 2010 and June 2016, Shai produces 60...
What is this? It’s an index of sorts, linking to nodes that relate to philosophy in Ancient Greece. See also the first footnote below[1]. It was written for two main reasons: (1) As an index that can be referred to when looking for something to read about Ancient Greek philosophy; (2) as an index that can be referred to when trying to decide what has and hasn’t been written and what...
Three books collide in my mind and make me reflect on the human condition. Please excuse me. 1. T.S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruellest month because it reminds us of renewal; once, long ago, a woman asked the gods for immortality but forgot to ask for eternal youth. She begs to die and the renewal of spring in April taunts her. 2. Jorge Luis Borges, who was undoubtedly intimately familiar...
This is a summary of a review-piece published in the prestigious science journal Trends in Pharmacological Sciences in 2010 ([link]) entitled “Nicotine receptors and depression: revisiting and revising the cholinergic hypothesis“. The publication was authored by Yann Mineur and Marina Picciotto and discussed the connection between smoking, nicotinic receptors, and depression. Below I...
