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ON THE WAY TO HUMAN-MOUSE: why are scientists creating chimera animals
Ancient Greek myths have brought us the image of a strange creature with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a snake — Chimera. The word «chimeric» is commonly used to denote fiction, some unfulfilled idea. However, modern scientists, who have followed in the footsteps of the Lycian king Amisodarus, have learned how to create chimerical animals
NOTES FROM VIENNA: the image of art in the work of Jan Vermeer
The fate, content, and even the title of the painting «The Allegory of Painting» (1666–1668) are full of mysteries. The artist did not part with this painting until the end of his life. Philosopher Serhii Forkosh is interested in the act of depicting the image and the embodiment of the figurative in general in this painting. He will try, by following the realized images of the painting, to answer the question: How is an image possible? He universalizes the artist’s allegory to the level of the metaphysics of the image
DANGEROUS UKRAINIAN RELATIONSHIPS: philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in the land of love and freedom
Sixty years ago, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir visited Ukraine. Today, this event is mostly forgotten. But it proves once again how bizarre threads of fate sometimes connect different cultural worlds
BRITISH RESEARCHER JOHN TAGG: photography and power
Susan Sontag’s legacy — is mostly about good questions rather than definite answers. In the late 1980s, the British researcher John Tegg began to search for answers. Thirty years of concentration culminated in the book «The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories»
LIFE RULES OF ANTHROPOLOGIST MARGARET MEAD: on herself, science and emotional intelligence
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) — American anthropologist, sociologist, and ethnographer, an expert in ethnopsychology. She was one of the brightest women in science at a time when, if you wanted to pursue it seriously, it was desirable to be a man
ARE REPTILIANS NOT A MYTH? Consciousness beyond the human world
People who fear that a bug or lizard is smarter than they are are often mocked. However, myths, phobias, and sarcasm have never seriously answered this pressing question: Does consciousness really exist in reptiles and insects?
BORIS BURDA: how to save yourself from a deadly disease
Who eats better, lives longer, right? Not exactly: in one prison in the East, it was noticed that prison guards often suffered from a dangerous, sometimes even fatal disease, while much worse-nourished prisoners never did. The doctor who figured out why this was the case won a Nobel Prize and helped discover a new class of substances. Which ones?
NOTES FROM VIENNA: the image of dialog in the works of Ivan Marchuk
In February 2024, a major exhibition of Ivan Marchuk’s «The Voice of My Soul» was held in Vienna, where more than 300 canvases of the master were presented. The exhibition was also attended by philosopher Serhii Forkosh, who, inspired by what he had seen, tried to clarify for himself some of the peculiarities of Ivan Marchuk’s work, choosing the painting «Dialogue» (1990) for interpretation
CHORNOBYL: bound by one chain, tied with one aim
This year marks the 38th anniversary of the technological disaster at Unit 4 of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Thousands of articles, books, and scientific reports have been written about the accident. Documentary and feature films, music, paintings, and even video games have been created about it. But do we fully realize what Chornobyl really is for us?
CREATIVE DESTRUCTION: why a businessman should study Nietzsche’s philosophy
Modern businessmen can learn a lot from Friedrich Nietzsche. For example, how to practice critical thinking and how to discard entrenched prejudices. Transform corporate culture and create new values.
SCIENTIFIC FOLKLORE: who is the real author of the Atomic Age meme
According to scientific lore, Albert Einstein formulated E = mc² in 1905 and explained with divine ease how energy can be released in stars and nuclear explosions. So says the legend. In fact, Einstein was not the first person to consider the equivalence of mass and energy
ECO-ANXIETY: how climate change is affecting mental health
Research shows that climate change affects people’s mental well-being, and they react severely to heat waves, droughts, floods, fires, etc. The issue is so severe that scientists have begun to introduce into scientific parlance terms like «environmental anxiety», «climate grief» and «solastalgia» — the distress associated with environmental change