Category: Time
We’re excited that you’ve joined the conversation! At HMU, we want to continue the great authors’ conversations in a contemporary context, and this blog will help us do that. We look back to Aristotle and the early philosophers who used reason and discourse to gain wisdom and now we endeavor to do the same every day.
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February 27, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
The soundtrack to The Hours by Philip Glass
The Hours, a 2002 film based on the novel by Michael Cunningham, weaves together the lives of three complicated women. First, Virginia Woolf is shown writing the manuscript for Mrs. Dalloway. Next, Laura Brown, a housewife in the 1950s,
February 10, 2023
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Before reading the ideas in this blog, I invite you to view a piece by artist M.C. Escher and listen to the “Endlessly Rising Canon” by Bach.
In his book, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas Hofstadter paraphrases Kurt Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem as follows: “All consistent axiomatic formulations of number theory include undecidable propositions.” Although this is not where January’s Quarterly Discussion started,
August 20, 2021
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
I want to investigate the nature of time using three different sources: The Matrix, the recent Disney show Loki, and Jorge Luis Borges’s “Garden of Forking Paths.” Though very different, these three works embrace the concept of infinite futures. Their conceptualizations, then, allow us to explore notions of divergence, difference, and possibility.
In The Matrix,
June 14, 2019
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Ancient history can be a difficult subject for students because it is inherently foreign to them. Not only is there a language difference, but it is genuinely difficult to envision life removed from today’s technologies. When speaking of ancient cities, most people think of ancient Greece or Rome, but today I want to focus on an ancient city of the southwestern United States.
July 27, 2018
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Food is often thought of in terms of comfort, enjoyment, family gatherings, and parties. We have barbecues in summer and stews in winter. Messy finger foods accompany sporting events and polite finger foods accompany baby showers. These things are linked by their participation in custom. Custom (or convention), as discussed in the Syntopicon, stems from public opinion.
December 29, 2017
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow; The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.” – Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Music for today’s post provided by Trio Mediaeval
I have heard of ringing in the new year. I have also heard of bringing in the new year.
October 20, 2017
Thanks to Alissa Simon for today’s post.
Kant’s Science of Right takes time to read. In the Science of Right, Kant explains the interaction of theory with practice when defining ownership, rights, and equity. I find it difficult to pull short sections from his writing because all of his arguments build upon one another. I also find it nearly impossible to study a single quote with the hopes of gaining a better understanding to his arguments because,
October 6, 2017
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Myth is what happens to a strong belief once the belief has changed. In other words, what was once firm belief, turns into cultural story and entertainment. They become important narratives, but not necessarily belief systems. For example, we know who Zeus is, but I doubt that anyone believes the story of Leda and the Swan. (I say that with some hesitation because one could argue that the story is really about transformation,
July 21, 2017
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Last week we introduced a couple of less than mainstream calendars . This week, we want to move back into a look at the contemporary calendar, as based upon the Roman calendar. Julius Caesar, of course, attended to the discrepancies in the calendar. Astronomers of each age are challenged to find clever fixes for slight discrepancies, which,
July 14, 2017
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Merriam-Webster defines calendar as “a system for fixing the beginning, length, and divisions of the civil year and arranging days and longer divisions of time (such as weeks and months) in a definite order”. The reasons for developing such a system are easy to identify. It makes nearly all business navigable. Practicality aside, however, the idea of a calendar actually stemmed from those who noticed nature’s rhythms.