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 …
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 …
Continue reading What White People Don’t Know (about Racism)
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 …
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. …
Continue reading The Birth of Modern Feminism: 15th Century Europe
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 …
Continue reading Egyptian Influence on Minoan Religion and Culture
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 …
Continue reading Art Deco: An Artistic Response to Industrialization
In my mind, sex has always been enticing. Even bad sex can be better than none at all, provided that the other party involved doesn’t become a lingering malignancy after all is said and done. It’s not that I don’t believe in commitment; the opposite is true of me, really. I’d prefer to have mind-blowing …
Section 1: The Work and its Historical/Cultural Context Arguably the most famous piece by painter and drafter John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shallot depicts 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 …
Continue reading Analysis of William Waterhouse’s Various Renditions of the Lady of Shallot
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 …
In an unprecedented treatise on the fallacies of conventional religious belief and the limitations of certain types of logic in understanding the nature of God, 18th Century philosopher David Hume introduced an innovative, skeptical view on religious thought. By casting three characters in the roles of the Epicurean, the Stoic and the Academic, Hume contributed …
Continue reading On Hume’s “Dialogues” and Argument from Design
The Thinker 