The Flame of Life
While contemplating the incredible accomplishments of the Roman leaders who had fought for the Republic throughout its history, Sallust wrote that there was a &...
Category: Essay
The Strangeness of Tenochtitlan
The Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, was built on a series of islands in what was once a huge lake in the Valley of Mexico. The first time the Spanish saw the city,...
On Temperance
For the ancient Greeks, sôphrosune (σωφροσύνη) or temperance was a key virtue. The ancients understood that our emotions and desires can be excessive, and that ...
Two Modes of Living
There is likely no experience more human than that of feeling trapped by one’s circumstances. How people deal with this experience seems to vary enormousl...
Learning from the Extreme
When he was fourteen years old, the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch witnessed the death of his older sister Sophie from tuberculosis, at a time when there was no...
On Tyranny
In Ancient Greece, a tyrant (τύραννος) was someone who seized absolute power over a city by force, without due consideration for tradition or law. The word did ...
Understanding Competition and Cooperation
Contemporary society literally surrounds us with a semantic mess when it comes to the way human interactions are to be “managed.” On the one hand, we are bombar...
The Art of the Sale
Economics tells us that selling is about understanding a customer’s needs and delivering a product to meet them. In the world of homo oeconomicus, the success o...
On the Careful Use of Language
Although primates in general are among the most social of mammal species, very few primate groups are capable of supporting more than eighteen males. Beyond thi...
Why Hierarchy is Everywhere
Abhorred by some as a means for social domination, adored by others for its apparent success, hierarchy (from ancient Greek hiereus (ἱερεύς) “priest” and arkh...