epiphany

Subscribe to my blog at www.epiphany-lit.com

Assertion: The ancient Greek philosophers’ Dialectical Method is the main influence on the premise of the modern Scientific Method.

According to the Oxford-English Dictionary, the Scientific Method is defined as “A method of procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and…

The Future of Books and A.I.

One of the most distinct advantages of written communication, particularly the book format, is that it contains a large amount of cohesive information on a subject in a form that can be transported from place to place and person to person. This collecting and sharing of ideas is the essence of communication as we know it.

The technological advances in written and other print communication…

A Brief History of Humanism

Humanism was an influence at the very heart of the Renaissance, and sought to restore education that was based on ancient Greek and Latin writings in an effort to renew the best aspects of the civilizations of Greece and Rome. These classical writings were meant to serve as a moral compass for how to best live one’s life, with emphasis in philosophy, Greek, Latin, history and literature. This new…

Egyptian Influence on Minoan Religion and Culture

The Minoans of ancient Greece embodied one the world’s first great civilizations, with innovations that pervaded nearly every facet of their lives. The Egyptians, across the sea and equally great in their own right, had a rich, ancient culture that undoubtedly influenced all who encountered it. When the two civilizations collided, an exchange of goods and ideas ensued that was to forever change…

Science's Love/Hate Relationship with Math

A colleague once asked me what I thought about the relationships between science and math. He was confounded by the seemingly shifting relationship between these disciplines, as he innately understood that there was a significant connection there, but could not quite make sense of it all.

Why does physics seem to use so much mathematical theorem, while biology does not? Why did chemistryinvent a…

What White People Don't Know (about Racism)

I thought that I knew what racism was, and I also thought that I was a fair and unprejudiced person. I was wrong.

Why is the heart of racism so difficult to discuss?

How do we approach the problem of prejudice responsibly and with an eye to change?

Conversations about race tend to focus on the negative effects racism has upon minorities, such as unequal opportunity and the hate crimes against…

The Artist's Widow – An Interview

Andrew Wyeth is most famous for the painting featured in this post, entitled Christina’s World. Wyeth’s detractors claim that the painter staged a “discovery”of hundreds of illicit, decades old paintings of his own making, featuring his muse and lover, Helga Testorf.

The following is the transcript of an interview with the widow of the famous painter, Andrew Wyeth. The few inquisitive prompts I…

The Last White Girl in El Paso

Thoughts on My Body: Sexuality, Feminism and Self-Concept in Generation X

I wasn’t always the ugly kid in school. Petite, small-boned, with flaming red hair in curly ringlets and pale freckled skin: I hardly had a chance. I sailed through early childhood oblivious to my own rareness at first. My grandmother loved me so well as a little child that I never knew how unusual I was; I couldn’t have…

Infectious Disease: Public Safety v. Personal Freedom

 The incarceration of Mary Mallon as a host of the infectious typhoid fever pathogen was an event which sparked much debate in the early 20th century. Several health officials spoke against her involuntary quarantine at Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island. She was even released from quarantine in 1910 due largely to the efforts of Dr. Ernst Lederle, who had recently taken the post of New…

The Birth of Modern Feminism: 15th Century Europe

In Christine de Pizan’s Book of the City of Ladies, written circa 1405, the author places herself in the lead role of an allegorical tale of a philosophical journey in pursuit of truth.

She confers with three daughters of God in dialogues that describe a very different sort femininity than was recognized in her time. In these dialogues, Pizan seeks a reversal of negative attitudes towards women,…

A Modern and Practical Take on Plato's Philosophy

Plato’s Republic approaches questions about the nature of goodness, how it affects the actions of men, the nature of truth, what motivates us, and the nature of justice. Plato does so with an eye to exploring the socio-political and individual ramifications of these topics, as well as explaining his theories on how they are inextricably intertwined. The Republic’ssixth and seventh books comprise…

Theorizing: The Greek Dialectical Method as a Precursor for the Scientific Method

Assertion: The ancient Greek philosophers’ Dialectical Method is the main influence on the premise of the modern Scientific Method.

According to the Oxford-English Dictionary, the Scientific Method is defined as “A method of procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and…

Have you ever repeated a word so many times that it seems to lose its meaning? One-syllable words always seem especially funny somehow, and I spent about five minutes this morning daydreaming about meat, of all things. I looked into the history of the word meat, and this led me to wonder about other edible animals, so I researched the words meat, pork, beef and mutton. I found the alternate and…

Analysis of William Waterhouse's Various Renditions of the Lady of Shallot

  Section 1: The Work and its Historical/Cultural Context

Arguably the most famous piece by painter and drafter John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shallotdepicts an emotionally evocative scene on an ancient theme: the fabled medieval city of Camelot.  The work’s creation in 1888 was inspired by a poem by the same name which was written in 1832 by Lord Alfred Tennyson. While this masterful…

The Art Deco Movement of 1925 – 1940 marks a time of exuberant excess, and is characterized by bright and linear ornamentation in visual art, geometric elegance in fashion, and hard-edged decoration in architecture.  Artists, architects and designers of the time sought to embellish all things tangible, from the largest skyscraper facades to the smallest shrimp fork. Borrowing designs from the…

Shakespeare: A Jaded Poet?

In searching for themes among William Shakespeare’s plays, I observed numerous parallels between the views that the poet chose to assert regarding love and romance in Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night.  It’s confusing, really, to try to determine exactly what his position on the love actually was. The story Shakespeare tells in the plays is so inundated with metaphor, sarcasm, humor and…

On Margaret Atwood's "The Female Body"

In 1990, Margaret Atwood wrote a semi-autobiographical piece in response to a letter from the Michigan Quarterly Review. Using the witticisms, ironic humor and autobiographical excerpts which characterize her uniquely poignant style of writing, she introduces a collage of seven definitions for the female form. Rife with feminism and sarcastic metaphor, this jaunt into various points on the…