There is a new book on the intersection between science and the meaning of life: The Island of Knowledge: The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning by Marcelo Gleiser, the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College. Continue reading Gleiser: The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning
In my last post, I reflected on Philip Larkin‘s poem “An Arundel Tomb,” especially it’s haunting last line, “What will survive of us is love.” It reminded me of another great 20th century English poet, W. H. Auden, who also wrote a poignant line about love and death, “We must love one another or die.” Continue reading Auden’s poem “September 1, 1939”
Pictured above is the 14th-century tomb effigy in Chichester Cathedral that inspired Philip Larkin’s poem “An Arundel Tomb.” It is the tomb of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel (1306-1376), and his wife, Eleanor of Lancaster, Countess of Arundel (1311- 1372) Notice how Richard’s glove has been removed so he can grasp the flesh of Eleanor’s hand. The poem ends with these evocative lines: Continue reading Larkin’s “An Arundel Tomb”
Steve Jobs, in his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford, argued that we should do the work we love. Continue reading Do What You Love — Maybe Not
John Stewart is a member of the Evolution, Complexity and Cognition Research Group at The Free University of Brussels and the author of The Evolutionary Manifesto
