Wednesday Wisdom

In the heart of Dublin, Ireland stands the prestigious Trinity College which was founded in 1592. Started by Queen Elizabeth1 and it is located on 47 acres in the middle of Dublin. Trinity College was modeled after the collegiate system of Cambridge and Oxford. Cobbled squares surrounded by historic stone structures with pastoral greens, the college stands as a citadel of knowledge.

Trinity College Dublin has been an educational centerpiece from the age of the Enlightenment into the age of modern science. Its humanities program produced a long line of thinkers who bridged the gap between rigid tradition and revolutionary science. Famous alumni include literary luminaries such as Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde and Jonathan Swift to scientific minds of William Hamilton whose mechanical proofs were the predecessors to quantum mechanics and Ernest Walton who first split the atom and proved Einsteins E=MC2 formula in the laboratory. Punching well above its weight while representing the small nation of Ireland, Trinity’s list of influential alumni includes 11 Nobel prize recipients.

The historic heart of the university is the “ole library” which contains the “Long Room”, one of the most photographed rooms in Ireland. The “Long Room” is nearly 65 meters long or longer than two football fields and it contains 200,000 of the library’s oldest and the world’s most important books. As a point of architecture, it is majestic, as a library it is ephemeral. It is lined with marble busts of great philosophers and writers and houses the 15th-century "Brian Boru Harp," the national symbol of Ireland.

It also contains The Book of Kells which is regarded as one of the most important cultural treasures in Western history, serving as the definitive masterpiece of Medieval art and a vital link in the survival of European written word. Produced around 800 AD, likely by Columban monks on the island Iona between Ireland and Scotland, it is believed the manuscript was moved to the Monastery of Kells as the marauding Vikings invaded the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. The Book of Kells represents the absolute peak of the "Insular" style, a unique artistic period where Irish monks combined intricate Celtic knotwork, Germanic animal styles, and Roman lettering. It is famous for its aesthetics and extraordinary detail that the monks spent countless hours with a quill. They used lapis lazuli a deep blue stone that had to be imported from the mines of Afghanistan and orpiment a yellow arsenic-based pigment. They also used kermes; a red dye derived from insects to draw and depict significant passages of the New Testament. The presence of these materials proves that Ireland, despite its remote location in the North Atlantic, was part of a vast international trade network during the so-called "Dark Ages". Some designs are so microscopic that they require magnification to see the full complexity of the interlacing lines. The monks believed that the word of God was so sacred it should be "clothed" in the most beautiful patterns imaginable. The colorful illustrations of lions, snakes, peacocks, and angels were all symbols especially in a time when most were illiterate. A snake shedding its skin symbolized Christ’s resurrection, and a peacock symbolized the incorruptibility of the soul giving powerful illustrations of the word of God.

2026 why do we care?

The “Book of Kells” is important because it is a living relic to the Irish and the monks who spent painstakingly effort to produce and preserve the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and present the book in the most aesthetic form possible. It survived the Viking raids on the island of Iona in 806 AD where 68 monks were killed and was later stolen in 1006 AD, buried in the ground, and recovered without its gold encrusted cover. Its endurance over 1,200 years makes it a primary artifact for studying the resilience of human culture.

Whether it’s a circular library in the center of Framingham MA, the pit at Providence College, the quiet study rooms of Ridgewood library, the library in Kings Park or the Long Room at Trinity, these places are magical given the amount of wisdom on the shelves. These building like many are a lasting monument to the progress of intelligence while reminding everyone of the humility that knowledge is seemingly endless.

The Columban monks painstakingly hand-copied texts with intricate aesthetic illustrations to ensure that religious and classical knowledge would not be lost to history. The Book of Kells has often been referred to as the Mona Lisa of monastic culture. Perhaps it’s the ultimate testament of devotion and dedication to not only a craft but a commitment of these monks to ensure the light of knowledge would endure.

Thank you, William Clayton Love PhD, my father’s cousin and my godfather who always took the time to show us around his beloved Trinity College

And now you know...

Philosophy is the art of thinking, the building block of progress that shapes critical thinking across economics, ethics, religion, and science. 

METAPHYSICS: Literally, the term metaphysics means ‘beyond the physical.’ Typically, this is the branch that most people think of when they picture philosophy. In metaphysics, the goal is to answer the what and how questions in life. Who are we, and what are time and space?

LOGIC: The study of reasoning. Much like metaphysics, understanding logic helps to understand and appreciate how we perceive the rest of our world. More than that, it provides a foundation for which to build and interpret arguments and analyses. 

ETHICS: The study of morality, right and wrong, good and evil. Ethics tackles difficult conversations by adding weight to actions and decisions. Politics takes ethics to a larger scale, applying it to a group (or groups) of people. Political philosophers study political governments, laws, justice, authority, rights, liberty, ethics, and much more.

AESTHETICS: What is beautiful? Philosophers try to understand, qualify, and quantify what makes art what it is. Aesthetics also takes a deeper look at the artwork itself, trying to understand the meaning behind it, both art as a whole and art on an individual level. A question an aesthetics philosopher would seek to address is whether or not beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

EPISTEMOLOGY: This is the study and understanding of knowledge. The main question is how do we know? We can question the limitations of logic, how comprehension works, and the ability (or perception) to be certain.2