Maltese Theresa Zammit Lupi at the University of Graz, Austria
Tuesday 11 June 2024 at 4:15 pm
Maltese Theresa Zammit Lupi with a Phd in the conservation of manuscripts from London, has made a cutting-edge discovery while working at the Special Collections of the University Library at the University of Graz, Austria.
The discovery was made during her work while she was inspecting a fragment originally found in 1902 in El Hibba, Egypt. Theresa Zammit Lupi’s has discovered that codices of papyrus, with bindings running through the centrefold, existed as far back as 260 BC. Dating back to times pre Christ, this could be the oldest book in the world. The fragment was first part of a notebook, and includes legible Greek text describing beer and oil taxes. It was later recycled as wrapping for a mummy.
Oldest known papyrus book 250 BC
While this is a preliminary dating, the oldest book is a great archaeological, and historical evidence found to be some 400 years older than what was previously thought to be the earliest sample with evidence of stitching in book form.
The origins of cuneiform may be traced back approximately to the end of the 4000 BC. At that time the Sumerian carved pictographic tablets in Uruk (Erech), for example, the picture of a hand came to stand for both Sumerian šu that is “hand” and also for the phonetic š. As in Chinese, Sumerian words were largely monosyllabic, so for example, ba, bá, bà, ba would have different meaning. but often representing similar concepts - sun, day, bright...
Ancient Mediterranean Map Major Cities
They used clay tablets - being pressed into the soft clay with the normal order of signs - columns running downward changing to from left to right, without any word dividers. This change of writing methods made some signs change from one side to the other.
The system was adopted by the Akkadians, who established themselves in Mesopotamia 3000 BC. Babylon was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern day Iraq. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian speaking region of Babylonia.
The Zhuangzi is an ancient Chinese text that is one of the two foundational texts of Taoism, alongside the Tao Te Ching. It was written during the late 200 BC.
Zhuangzi_Tian_Yun_Ms Chinese text
The Zhuangzi and Tao Te Ching are considered to be the two fundamental texts in the Taoist tradition. The Zhuangzi uses the word "Tao" (道) less frequently than the Tao Te Ching, with the former often using 'heaven' (天) in places the latter would use "Tao".
Inner chapters
1 "Carefree Wandering" 逍遙遊; Xiāoyáo yóu
2 "On the Equality of Things" 齊物論; Qí wù lùn
3 "Essentials for Nurturing Life" 養生主; Yǎngshēng zhǔ
4 "The Human World" 人間世; Rénjiān shì
5 "Symbols of Integrity Fulfilled" 德充符; Dé chōng fú
6 "The Great Ancestral Teacher" 大宗師; Dà zōngshī
7 "Responses for Emperors and Kings" 應帝王; Yìng dì wáng
Outer chapters
8 "Webbed Toes" 駢拇; Piān mǔ
9 "Horses' Hooves" 馬蹄; Mǎtí
10 "Ransacking Coffers" 胠篋; Qū qiè
11 "Preserving and Accepting" 在宥; Zài yòu
12 "Heaven and Earth" 天地; Tiāndì
13 "The Way of Heaven" 天道; Tiān dào
14 "Heavenly Revolutions" 天運; Tiān yùn
15 "Ingrained Opinions" 刻意; Kè yì
16 "Mending Nature" 繕性; Shàn xìng
17 "Autumn Floods" 秋水; Qiū shuǐ
18 "Ultimate Joy" 至樂; Zhì lè
19 "Understanding Life" 達生; Dá shēng
20 "The Mountain Tree" 山木; Shān mù
21 "Sir Square Field" 田子方; Tiánzǐ fāng
22 "Knowledge Wanders North" 知北遊; Zhī běi yóu
Misc. chapters
23 "Gengsang Chu" 庚桑楚; Gēngsāng Chǔ
24 "Ghostless Xu" 徐無鬼; Xú wúguǐ
25 "Sunny" 則陽; Zé yáng
26 "External Things" 外物; Wài wù
27 "Metaphors" 寓言; Yùyán
28 "Abdicating Kingship" 讓王; Ràng wáng
29 "Robber Footpad" 盜跖; Dào zhí
30 "Discoursing on Swords" 說劍; Shuō jiàn
31 "An Old Fisherman" 漁父; Yú fù
32 "Lie Yukou" 列禦寇; Liè Yùkòu
33 "All Under Heaven" 天下; Tiānxià
Zhuangzi believed the key to true happiness was to free oneself from worldly impingements through a principle of 'inaction' - wu wei
Zhuangzi rejects the distinction between the human and natural world.
Remembering Daniel Kahneman (Author of Thinking Fast and Slow)
Wednesday 10 April 2024 at 12:43 pm
Daniel Kahneman, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his work in psychology has died. His ideas have had a profound impact on many fields. Thinking, Fast and Slow, from Kahneman explains the two systems that drive the way we think: System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the fast thinking as prone to mistakes. The difficulties of predicting and factors that shape our judgments and decisions.
Thinking, Fast and Slow | Daniel Kahneman | Talks at Googlevideo
Have just participated in Reading Class on Sigmund Freud's classic Civilisation and its Discontents with Gail Debono.
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis.
Born in Czechia in 1856, died in 1939 (age 83 years), in London.
Quotes from The Interpretation of Dreams and Introduction to Psychoanalysis
“The first book in which the dream is treated as an object of psychology seems to be that of Aristotle (Concerning Dreams and their Interpretation). Aristotle asserts that the dream is of demoniacal, though not of divine nature, which indeed contains deep meaning, if it be correctly interpreted.” The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud
“As every one knows, the ancients before Aristotle did not consider the dream a product of the dreaming mind, but a divine inspiration, and in ancient times the two antagonistic streams, which one finds throughout in the estimates of dream life, were already noticeable. They distinguished between true and valuable dreams, sent to the dreamer to warn him or to foretell the future, and vain, fraudulent, and empty dreams…” The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud
“The dream is not comparable to the irregular sounds of a musical instrument, which, instead of being touched by the hand of the musician, is struck by some outside force; the dream is not senseless, not absurd, does not presuppose that a part of our store of ideas is dormant while another part begins to awaken. It is a psychic phenomenon of full value, and indeed the fulfilment of a wish; it takes its place in the concatenation of the waking psychic actions which are intelligible to us, and it has been built up by a highly complicated intellectual activity.” The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud
“The dreams of little children are simple fulfilments of wishes, and as compared, therefore, with the dreams of adults, are not at all interesting. They present no problem to be solved, but are naturally invaluable as affording proof that the dream in its essence signifies the fulfilment of a wish. I have been able to collect several examples of such dreams from the material furnished by my own children.” The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud