Personal Blog

  • A Love Letter To Cowardice

    A Love Letter To Cowardice

    1 What Is Courage? I think many of us learn about the value of courage in fiction. Characters refuse to break their promises, give up, even in desperate situations. And then, we see David kill Goliath, and Hamilton and his friends “turn the world upside down”. Courageous people are, in these stories, always rewarded for… Read more

  • (Rec.) Fritz Zwicky

    Fritz Zwicky was an interesting character. He is a fairly unknown figure in everyday Swiss jargon – as well as in historical research. This is somewhat comical given his many far-reaching and relatively diverse achievements. After studying and working as an assistant at the ETH, Fritz Zwicky became a Rockefeller Fellow and later an associate… Read more

  • Herbert Lüthy on learning from history 

    Why should we care about history? How does historical science work? And what can we decidedly not learn from anything but the present? This seems like a valuable question for me after just having finished my BA in History. Swiss historian Herbert Lüthy talked about this in an Essay in 1961, titled: “Geschichte als Selbstbesinnung”.… Read more

  • The Physicists -an English summary

    It seems like the play “die Physiker” (the physicists) isn’t nearly as popular as it should be. The play is about the moral responsibility of physicists, especially those who are capable of developing (something like) the nuclear bomb. It was written in 1960 and contains some interesting perspectives on the ethics of foundational research and… Read more

  • Forecasting in 1900: Zurich in 2000

    What did people living in 1900 think Zurich would look like in 2000? An article, published on February 19, 1900. Translation: Zurich in the Year 2000 “Zurich, 19th D Zurich’s largest literary community, the Reading Circle Hottingen, which is best known for its brilliant festivities, organised a large future festival “Zurich in the year 2000”… Read more