Month: April 2023

In an age of specialization, Alfred North Whitehead was a modern Renaissance man, a polymath who distinguished himself not only in philosophy, but also in mathematics, physics, logic, and educational theory. A lifelong teacher, his popularity with students is shown in the following humorous anecdote: “At Oxford University, when a professor concludes a course, it… Continue reading Having Fun with Whitehead

During World War II, after his capture by the Japanese, an Australian artillery sergeant was marched off with a number of his comrades to the infamous Changi prisoner-of-war camp in Singapore. Sydney Piddington was nineteen, the year was 1942, and his captors had allowed him to bring only a small knapsack of personal possessions. Among… Continue reading Super-Slow Reading

(Enjoy A Little Night Music as you browse this Blague) The musical critic Einstein—Alfred, that is, not Albert—confers high praise on Mozart’s composition, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik: “This is supreme mastery in the smallest possible frame.”1 Once below a time, playing on the words of Mozart’s title, I sent an email to a friend and named… Continue reading Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Buddhist scholar John McRae announces what he calls the first law of Zen studies: “It’s not true, and therefore it’s more important.” That is, historical events are trivial in comparison with how legends and myths live in the popular consciousness.1 And Whitehead chimes in with this: But in the real world it is more important… Continue reading True-Shmue—Is It Interesting?

　　　　　High Seas 　　——HyC—　　—————　　—————————————F—　　——————————D————　　———————B———————　　————G——————————　　—E————————————— 　　　　　　High Sees I was playing with words when I first used the expression “This has been a HyC Adventure” as a postscript to a little piece I emailed to a friend. HyC brings to mind High Seas and, more to the point, High Sees, an allusion to adventures in the science and… Continue reading HyC Adventures

Long ago, almost four billion years in the past, an event occurred that has been called “one of the greatest works of creativity” in the entire history of the living earth. There were no humans around then since our ancestors, homo sapiens, made their first appearance only two-hundred thousand years ago. But there were a… Continue reading Prometheo: The First Mystic

D. T. Suzuki, a key figure in bringing Zen to the West, made an intriguing comment: that one contrast between Zen Buddhism and Christianity can be clearly seen in what the two religions use as sacramental substances—tea vs. wine. Tea sharpens the mind and stills the emotions while wine, in both cases, does just the… Continue reading What’ll It Be: Wine or Tea