Socrates believed that wisdom was parallel to one’s ignorance. One’s deeds were a result of this level of intelligence and ignorance. He constantly connected the ‘love of wisdom’ with the ‘art of love’. It is debatable whether he believed that humans could become wise, but he drew a clear line between wisdom and ignorance. Socrates […]

Stig Jarle Hansen, Associate Professor of International Relations, Norwegian University of Life Sciences– 9 May 2019 In April the Islamic State, took responsibility for an attack on an army base in the troubled Beni region of North Kivu province, eastern Congo, close to the border with Uganda. The Islamic state credited this and four other […]

Homo sapiens means wise human, but the name no longer suits us. As an evolutionary biologist who writes about Darwinian interpretations of human motivations and cultures, I propose that at some point we became what we are today: Homo absurdus, a human that spends its whole life trying to convince itself that its existence is […]

Ms. Semenya is not accused of breaching any rule. Her participation and success in elite female athletics is entirely beyond reproach and she has done nothing whatsoever to warrant any personal criticism. ~  Court of Arbitration for Sport Daniel Kelly, Lecturer in Biochemistry, Sheffield Hallam University – 1 May 2019 The South African athlete, Caster […]

Alan Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies, College of the Holy Cross Pope Francis announced recently that, in 2020, the Vatican will open to researchers its archival materials related to Pius XII, who served as pope from 1939 to 1958. The Vatican generally waits roughly 70 years after the end of a papacy before making […]

Jennifer Fitchett, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, University of the Witwatersrand Tropical cyclone Idai has made headlines across southern Africa throughout the month of March. Lingering in the Mozambique Channel at tropical cyclone intensity for six days, the storm made landfall in Beira, Mozambique in the middle of the month, then tracked in a westerly […]

Brooke Schedneck, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Rhodes College Thich Nhat Hanh, the monk who popularized mindfulness in the West, has returned home to Vietnam to enjoy the rest of his life. Devotees from many parts of the world are visiting the ailing 92-year-old, who has retired to a Buddhist temple outside Hue. This thoughtful […]

The response to Somali piracy was set in motion in 2008 when the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1816. In terms of international law, piracy is a crime of universal jurisdiction, meaning any state may act against it on the high seas and in exclusive economic zones. Carina Bruwer, PhD candidate, Centre of Criminology, University […]

The Kashmir issue has caused tension and conflict in the Indian subcontinent since 1947, when independence from Britain created India and Pakistan as two sovereign states. Chitralekha Zutshi, Professor of History, College of William & Mary – 5 March 2019 Tensions between India and Pakistan have diminished in recent days after repeated military clashes in […]

Miriam Bak McKenna, Postdoctoral Fellow in International Law, Lund University 1 March 2019 The unravelling of European empires was one of the formative moments of the modern world. But as the long-awaited International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on the Chagos Islands has underlined, this process is far from complete. Almost 50 years after […]