Some of my favorite works by distinguished Syrian artists.
An Epic Search for Truth
This is one of the most interesting books that I have read recently. It contains most of the themes that have fascinated and lured me through the past twenty years: the relationship between mathematics and philosophy, logic and irrationality, creativity and insanity, absoluteness and relativity. But also, it is a book whose protagonist happens to be Bertrand Russel, the British logician-philosopher who I have always admired and thought of as one of my heroes. His contradictions notwithstanding, Russel’s genius has always evoked within me intense responses and deep angst, and provoked me to think about the grand questions of life and ideas.
Additionally, Logicomix, an Epic Search of Truth is a unique book in one very interesting aspect: it presents its most serious ideas in an accessible, clear and easy to comprehend style. It is almost a page-turner. However, to its great credit, it does not try to simplify or paraphrase the actual statements or texts it is quoting. It just puts them in a context that makes reading a book about philosophy equivalent in ease to reading a novel by Dan Brown - except that it is more fun.
Throughout the whole book, I did not encounter a single pedantic paragraph. It may be true that I didn’t like a lot the sub-plot regarding the team of contributors to the book (the book contains two stories: that of Russel and his contemporaries, and that of the authors, artists, editors and assistants who jointly worked on the book), but I cannot deny that it did further illuminate the problems discussed in the main plot, and projected it onto our more mundane present day life.
The main plot, takes the form of a lecture presented by Bertrand Russel attempting to explain to anti World War II protestors why he has changed his position on pacifism that he had adopted during World War I. The lecture becomes the life story of Russel, his philosophy, and his contemporaries. It presents the clash of great ideas and philosophy’s giants of the early twentieth century.
The book does not attempt to glorify or whitewash its protagonists. It presents them with honesty and integrity: their achievements, contributions, failures, idiosyncrasies, and, in many instances, madness.
The book is also full with drama; that of the personal lives, loves and losses of its main characters, that of the conflicts and contradictions of the grand ideas of the turn-of-the-century, and that of the labors and suffering of these great minds in attempting to reach truth and wisdom.
In one of its most dramatic moments, David Hilbert, the German thinker and mathematician, delivers a key-note speech at the International Congress, the world greatest rendez-vous for mathematicians in
The personal odyssey of Russel intermingles with glimpses from the life stories of some of the sharpest minds of the history of thoughts such as the Austrian eccentric philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein; the Hungarian John Von Neumann, the original architect of the computer; the British Alan Turing, the father of computer science; the French Henri Poincare, the founder of the chaos theory; the Czech Kurt Godel, who established the possibility of a non-expanding, rotating universe in which time-travel can be a physical reality, and many others all of which is presented in a concise and elegant narrative, an illustrated book of merely 344 pages. This is no small achievemt by the team who collaborated to make this enjoyable book: Apostolos Doxiadis the mathematician; Christos Papadimitrou, the computer scientist; Alecos Papadatos, the animation artist; and Annie di Donna the graphic artist. No wonder they are all either Greek or married to a Greek.
Hesko Hesko 2
Some of my favorite works by distinguished Syrian artists.
Metropolitan Philip
Among the many guests at our house in Kalorama, Metropolitan Philip Saliba, the Antiochian Orthodox Bishop of North America, stands out as one of the most distinguished guests to honor us by their presence.
My friendship with this remarkably enlightened, erudite, eloquent and patriotic leader of the Antiochian church dates to the early days of my posting in the United States. Since the first time I met with him, Metropolitan Philip won my heart and mind and made of me one of his orthodox disciples, albeit a non-Christian one.
Four years ago Metropolitan Philip invited me to the orthodox haven known as the Antiochian village in Pennsylvania. He warned me that there will be no TV or similar entertainment, “just bring along your books” he said “and come refresh your soul in that Spartan resort.” It was a unique experience that I am looking forward to repeat in the foreseeable future.
When Rafif first came to the US, before Sidra was born, I introduced her to Metropolitan Philip. He blessed us and wished us a beautiful and healthy offspring. At the dinner event, I made sure that Sidra and Saree would be there to greet his eminence and make him feel at home.
Throughout the evening, Metropolitan Philip enchanted us with his reading of modern Arab poetry, particularly that of Nizar Kabbani who he considers to be the foremost Arab poet of the twentieth century.
Bassem Dahdouh 2
Some of my favorite works by distinguished Syrian artists.
Saree Crawling
Saree is proving himself to be a match to our little tsunami Sidra. He was only five months old when he started, to our total amazement, crawling.
Not content at merely crawling, the little devil is desperately attempting to stand up. He has not managed yet, but he is very earnest on it.
Sidra, was so impressed by her brother’s accomplishments that she reverted to crawling alongside him.
