Submissions

The METIS project thrives on user participation. We welcome critical comments regarding form and content of our portal via email (see below). There will be various opportunities to submit your own texts, which will be read by us and of which we select the best for publication. These may include experiential texts for the homepage (see Ongoing Projects below), joint reflective journals, chain letters, or similar. Please note that not all text submissions can be published.

Anyone who decides to submit a text agrees to us saving their contact information and assigns their publication rights to us. Furthermore, by submitting a text, you declare that the text, including any images, do not violate any copyrights. Each publication discloses the name and location of the author. Texts written by METIS authors are marked with their respective initials.

Ongoing Projects

 Frontpage album

The frontpage of our portal features an album of wisdom topics. Short texts (approx. 3-5 A4 pages, with or without images) can be submitted to any wisdom topic to be found behind the honeycombs, or to the topics listed below. The texts should be written in accessible language. This should render the experiences and short reflections of the wisdom topics approachable. The goal is to create an intercultural album in which family resemblances and differences in the approach to the wisdom topics and related experiences become apparent. The descriptive layer is key. It may occur that some German or English wisdom topics do not have an exact equivalent in the other language. It may therefore be helpful to be guided by the already existing texts and their summaries.

Wisdom topics currently in the album (continuously extended): : Wisdom, truth, life, death, experience, worry/care, war, love, friendship, identity, destiny, work, animals, effort, poverty, attention, anger, altruism, mindfulness, misfortune , goodness, bravery, desire, perseverance, courage, dream, humility, stupidity, jealousy, parenthood, pity, memory, envy, loneliness, abstinence, renunciation, forgiveness, forgetting, friendship, fear, anxiety, fasting, secret doctrine, justice, health, greed, happiness, hatred, hope, harmony, error, idyll, wilderness, jealousy, judgment, sickness, war, crisis, loss, lie, memory, envy, overcoming, revenge, anger, fury, remorse, wealth, soul, self-realization, failure, steadfastness, stubbornness, longing, diary writing, bravery, unhappiness, forgiveness, transience, despair, bitterness, truthfulness, doubt, immaturity, phrase, enlightenment,…

Wisdom Tasks

Wisdom Talks are podcasts in which we respond to criticism, suggestions, and requests that may arise from any part of the METIS portal. Questions regarding the content of the podcasts, the texts, and the topics are welcome. We are also happy to engage in a critical analysis of our methodology, such as for example the album concept of our collections or our underlying idea of enlightenment.  Requests for missing content may also be presented. Email us your thoughts! We look forward to interacting with you!

Wisdom Loops

Every week on our Twitter and Mastodon channels, we try to get to the bottom of well-known and lesser-known bits of wisdom together with our users. What does it actually mean when we are advised to “be like water”? Can you do anything with stoic peace of mind in everyday life? Do you really want to live every day as if it were your last? Etc. Serious content often has a humorous side and vice versa. Let’s try to mirror our own world of experience and thoughts on the wisdom of different traditions.

 

Instagram foto album

Send us photos that fit the wisdom themes of the front page album (see above) to: metis@phil.gess.ethz.ch. We will regularly upload series of your best snapshots or artistic shots to Instagram. When we have collected enough images, we will also create booklets for the METIS homepage. In addition to the always-on wisdom themes, we’ll also call for submissions under specific headings here on the homepage, via Twitter, and of course in our Instagram story. For example, we will call for photographic reinterpretations of well-known artworks that deal with wisdom themes.

ABC of Wisdom

The following wisdom topics are currently processed:

Wisdom, Friendship/Love

Podcasts

The following podcasts are currently in editing:

“The Wisdom of Tea” (D): Interview with Taiwanese tea master Menglin Chou about the practice and path of tea.

“Only the Dead Have Seen an End to War” (EN): Podcast with Olivier del Fabbro on the diversity of war literature and perceptions.

“The Wisdom of Ancient Egypt” (D): Conversation with Jan Assmann about Maat, a wisdom-embodying deity of ancient Egypt.

“Comparative Literature – The Art of Comparison” (D): Meta-Metis podcast with Andreas Kilcher on comparison as a method of connecting texts and practices.

“Wisdom and Complexity” (D): Podcast with Gert Scobel on wisdom as an integrative ability for humans to cope with an overly complex world.

“The Collar of the Dove” (D): Podcast with Ulrich Rudolph about a special work of love.

“Daodejing” (D): Podcast with Kai Marchal about the book of the mythical sage, Laozi.

“Zhuangzi:” (D): Podcast with Kai Marchal about the important hypertext of Daoism.

“Yijing” (D & EN): 2 podcasts with Kai Marchal about the Book of Changes.

Booklets and Classics

Constantly expanding.

Terms of Use & Contact


Dear users of the METIS Portal and its social media channels,

Welcome to our web portal! Please observe the following rules for submission of comments, media, and texts:

  • Submitted content and comments must be thematically related to the content and structure of the METIS website and its social media channels
  • Published posts by third-party users on this site do not reflect our opinions
  • Respect other users and their opinions. Remain fair and factual and remember that communication on this site is public.
  • We reserve the right not to publish, or to remove contributions that do not comply with these rules. The following content in particular is not permitted:
    • Defamatory posts and comments with racist, discriminatory, sexist, pornographic, violence promoting, misleading or illegal content.
    • Comments that are inappropriate for minors or sexually explicit
    • Personal attacks
    • Spam, personal ads, advertisements, and other commercial content
    • Activities that impair the functioning of our Facebook pages, as well as the uploading of documents containing harmful viruses or the like
    • Content that violates the rights of ETH Zurich, its affiliates and third parties.

 

As a user of this page, you agree to be bound by these “Terms of Use”.

 

If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at metis@phil.gess.ethz.ch.