

Pytheas of Massalia
The First Scientist-Explorer Pytheas of Massalia (fl. late 4th century BCE) stands as one of antiquity’s most enigmatic figures, an explorer, astronomer, and geographer whose reach extended far beyond the intellectual and geographic boundaries of his time. At a moment when most Greek thinkers conceived of the Earth as a narrow, temperate band of civilization surrounded by impassable extremes, Pytheas undertook a voyage that radically expanded the Greek worldview. Sailing f
Arda Tunca
Oct 15, 20257 min read


Politics of Natural Disasters
Introduction Natural disasters, while acts of nature, often unmask the failures of human governance. Earthquakes’ impact is rarely equal....
Arda Tunca
Oct 11, 20255 min read


The Ottoman Encounter with Western Music
Folk literature and music represent one side of the Ottoman society’s cultural life. The daily life of the rural population, its poverty,...
Arda Tunca
Oct 9, 20259 min read


Des Knaben Wunderhorn: From Folk Tradition to Musical Immortality
In the early years of the 19th century, as Napoleon's armies swept across Europe and the old feudal order crumbled , two young German...
Arda Tunca
Sep 25, 202512 min read


“I Hope for Nothing, I Fear Nothing, I Am Free”: The Life of Nikos Kazantzakis
A Life Between Freedom and Fire Born in Heraklion in 1883, under Ottoman rule, Nikos Kazantzakis emerged from a land under the conditions...
Arda Tunca
Sep 14, 202510 min read


From Mythology to Enlightenment: A Political Tragedy – Promētheús Desmōtēs
Why did Greek mythology and tragedies influence Western philosophy? There are many answers to this question. However, since I have...
Arda Tunca
Aug 31, 20255 min read


Can Artificial Intelligence Be A Solution To The Climate Crisis?
Stefan Zweig, in his work Decisive Moments in History , describes the telegraph cable connecting the two sides of the Atlantic as one of...
Arda Tunca
Aug 28, 20256 min read


When Innovation Outpaces Ethics
From Creative Destruction to Destructive Innovation Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of creative destruction described capitalism as a...
Arda Tunca
Aug 17, 20255 min read


A Warning About the Future of Technology
In 2015, a group of scientists, technology visionaries, and artificial intelligence researchers signed a letter expressing their concerns...
Arda Tunca
Aug 15, 20255 min read


The Human from Condorcet to Transhumanism
A Journey of Thought Beginning in a Bookstore It was a day in 1993. I was walking from Taksim Square towards Gümüşsuyu. At the top of the...
Arda Tunca
Aug 7, 20259 min read


Economics, Empire, and Madness: Rereading Don Quijote
I wrote the article, The Contradictory Paths of Civilization , when I was 22, just after graduating from university. The books and...
Arda Tunca
Jun 29, 20259 min read


The Perils of Anachronism: Contextualizing Early Modern Political Philosophy
Introduction Understanding philosophers within their historical context is essential for accurately interpreting their ideas. Without...
Arda Tunca
Jun 24, 202523 min read


Human Nature and Political Design: Hobbes, Machiavelli, and the Problem of Order
Introduction This article explores how key early modern thinkers, especially Hobbes and Machiavelli, conceptualized human nature and...
Arda Tunca
Jun 20, 20259 min read


A Framework for State Durability: Mechanisms for Political Stability Compatible with Human Nature
Introduction Baruch Spinoza, in his Political Treatise , presents a political framework aimed at ensuring the state's durability by...
Arda Tunca
Jun 11, 20256 min read


Goethe's Divan and Dialogue Through Music
There is a never-ending issue in the Middle East. It is a millennia-old problem that has plunged people and generations into pain and...
Arda Tunca
Jun 8, 20259 min read


Rebetiko: The Music of the Dispossessed, the Margins, and the Aegean Soul
In the shadowed taverns and smoky tekédes of early 20th-century Greece, a sound emerged that would come to define an era of displacement, sorrow, defiance, and deep communal memory. This sound was Rebetiko, a form of Greek urban music born from exile, war, poverty, and cultural hybridity. It was the voice of the marginalized, the music of the mángas and aláni , whose lives unfolded outside the boundaries of respectability, yet within the rich and unruly heart of a reshaped
Arda Tunca
Jun 1, 20254 min read


Spinoza’s Foundation: Human Nature, Reason, and the Necessity of the State
Introduction Baruch Spinoza’s Political Treatise (Tractatus Politicus) , though unfinished at his death in 1677, stands as a seminal...
Arda Tunca
May 30, 20256 min read


From Chicago to Chile: A Neoliberal Experiment
Before 1970, Chile was considered one of Latin America’s most advanced constitutional democracies . Yet, this political stability failed...
Arda Tunca
May 25, 20254 min read


From The Invisible Man to Oppenheimer: The Ethics of Science
Introduction Science gained enormous momentum in deciphering nature's mysteries through the Enlightenment. However, this process,...
Arda Tunca
May 18, 20259 min read


The Betrayal of a Cultural Promise
There was a time when I believed in the future of my country, Turkey. Not with the romanticism of slogans or the illusions of hero...
Arda Tunca
May 16, 20254 min read









