Tag: Philosophy

By Martini Fisher Posted on

Diotima and the Philosophy of Love

Symposium, a philosophical work by Plato written between 385 and 370 BC, is about a friendly competition between speeches given by famous men at a banquet. During the talk, Socrates says that a priestess from Mantinea named Diotima taught him “the philosophy of love” when he was young. Socrates also says that Diotima slowed down the spread of the Plague of Athens, which destroyed the ancient Greek city-state of Athens in the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 BC). Aside from these few details, we don’t know much about Diotima as a person, until now.

By Martini Fisher Posted on

Potens Risus: Creation, Destruction and The Ancient Power of Women’s Laughter

It is a great power to be able to light up our surroundings by a smile.  It is also one of the most mysterious features we have as human beings. The great men of the past tried to explain it and failed miserably. So what is laughter? And why are women more powerful when they laugh?

By Martini Fisher Posted on

Titillatio: A Brief Mythology, Ancient History and Philosophy of Tickling and Tickle Torture

Aristotle says that, although other animals have more advanced smell or hearing, a man’s sense of touch is the most fine-tuned. This leads to some of us to think that tickling is a side effect of the hyper-sensitivity of human touch. Thanks to our sophisticated and discriminating access to the world around us, we are particularly vulnerable to tickling.