If you’re overworked, skipping gym and drinking too much – fret not. People had the same concerns some 2000 years ago.
Stained glass designed by Geoffrey Webb depicts Lewis Carroll’s characters in All Saints Church in Daresbury, Cheshire, England.
Peter I. Vardy/Wikimedia Commons
The Book of Job and ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ both make fun of preachy know-it-alls and resist conventions of their genres.
Al-Ghazali’s book ‘Alchemy of Happiness,’ held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Al-Ghazali - Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons
In religious traditions, patience is more than waiting, or even more than enduring a hardship. But what does patience look like? And when should we not exercise patience?
A bas-relief of Maimonides, sculpted by Brenda Putnam, hangs in the U.S. House of Representatives among statues of historical lawmakers.
Architect of the Capitol/Wikimedia
Randy L. Friedman, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Faith and reason are often treated as opposites. But some philosophers believe they can only strengthen each other, including the Jewish sage Maimonides, who wrote the famous ‘Guide to the Perplexed.’
Web communities have helped the ancient philosophy of Stoicism find fans in a new generation.
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Advanced artificial intelligence is new, but a similar idea has been around for hundreds of years: the power of a just-right sequence of numbers, letters or elements to animate matter.
‘Monkey: Journey To The West,’ a nine-act opera adaptation performed at the Chatelet Theater in France.
Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/French Select via Getty Image
There is a long tradition in China of associating monkeys with the mind – symbolism that has helped the novel’s most memorable character, the Monkey King, find universal resonance.
Jewish law includes acknowledgment that not everyone fits neatly into the categories ‘male’ and ‘female.’
Mishna/Wikimedia Commons
Female characters in Greek mythology lived under strict patriarchal rules, but they spoke truth to power and resisted injustice.
Aristotle (center), wearing a blue robe, seen in a discourse with Plato in a 16th century fresco, ‘The School of Athens’ by Raphael.
Pascal Deloche/Stone via Getty Images
Non-resident Fellow, Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies; Visiting Fellow, Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University; PhD Candidate, The Fletcher School, Tufts University