Archive - Ralph Ammer

Aristotle — How to live a good life

2400 years ago Aristotle found out how to be happy. His Nicomachean Ethics is an operating manual for a good life: What is good? First of all, what…

Feb 28 •

January 2024

Immanuel Kant — Beauty

Why is beauty so important? It leads us to truth and goodness, says Immanuel Kant. How? Beauty To uncover the secret of beauty, let us first examine how…

Jan 20 •

December 2023

The Creative Playground

How do I even begin my drawing? The secret to jumpstart our creativity is fun. But how does that work? Whenever I pass a public basketball court I am…

Dec 1, 2023 •

November 2023

Immanuel Kant—What can we know?

If you are interested in truth, be it in the form of scientific knowledge or artistic beauty, there is no way around Immanuel Kant’s ‘Critique of Pure…

Nov 1, 2023 •

October 2023

How to see beauty

Last summer, I found myself at a farmers market of a small town in Southern France. The air was alive with chatter and the joy of yet another sunny day…

Oct 1, 2023 •

June 2023

The perfect drawing tool

The emotional rollercoaster I experience in art supply stores can be summarised in one word: greed. I want every single pen, every brush, every quill…

Jun 13, 2023 •

May 2023

David Hume—Why we change our mind

How do we know which food is best for us? We might start a low-carb diet. Then we switch to whole grains, or even go fully vegan—only to return to a…

May 2, 2023 •

December 2022

How to draw ideas

The Idea Factory

Dec 1, 2022 •

November 2022

A quick beginner’s guide to drawing

6 drawing exercises to get you started right now!

Nov 20, 2022 •

The Creative Switch

Nov 1, 2022 •

October 2022

J.J. Gibson—The meaning of the world

Are we cut off from the outer world, trapped alone in our personal experience? In 1979 the psychologist J.J. Gibson wrote a famous book with a different…

Oct 1, 2022 •

August 2022

What is a picture?

If we want to understand what a picture is, then we must look at the difference between perception and imagination. 1. Perception If you asked me to…

Aug 21, 2022 •

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