Looking for Wisdom

Ethics, power and a life in motion.

Lucretius, the Roman poet and philosopher, on free will, creativity and the mysterious swerve of an atom.

The Huainanzi, a fascinating Han dynasty guidebook for rulers, on resonance, non-action, charioteering, and how not to fall off a bicycle.

For the philosophers of the Nyāya school, the role of knowledge was to make effective action possible.

What are the fundamental questions in human life? And how can reading across different traditions enrich our sense of what questions might be fruitful to ask?

Dong Zhongshu was a thinker fascinated by the role of chance events in human history.

What are we, most fundamentally? Kaṇāda, founder of the Vaiśeṣika philosophical school, has some surprising answers.

Ptolemaïs of Cyrene, the ancient philosopher, and what she can teach us about the art of music.

For the philosopher Han Fei, the ultimate form of charisma was to have no charisma. His ideas were instrumental in cementing the power of Qin Shihuang, the First Emperor.