Experience and truth
Of course, you can use Kant (or anyone other philosopher of your liking) to talk about what experience is. But if you use these thinkers (of the last 1000 years…
Read moreAkrasia and Will
To begin with, it is a matter of scholarly consensus among Classicists and philosophers that the concept of “Will” was absent from Greek thought and that St. Augustine was the first to…
Read morePsychological Traits and Enlightenment: Ignorance and Knowledge
About the relationship between scientific knowledge and enlightenment: If every human being can become enlightened (at any time, place or culture), it logically follows that some or another hypothesis about…
Read moreSecular theme: cognitive stages of development — concrete vs abstract
1. The religious idea I am talking about in chapter 3 is this: Concrete and abstract characterize human thinking in the different phases of its development. By the time we…
Read moreIntelligibility of Advaita
The problem with the advaita tradition today is its lack of intelligibility. ‘Maya’, for instance, does a tremendous lot of explanatory work, but it is hardly clear what it is;…
Read moreWhat is rubbish about the ‘self’ and what not?
A few points about ‘self’ and about what I have said and have not. 1. Comment: “Say, Mr. X made 1 run, 2 runs, 3, 4, n, and a total of 50 runs.…
Read moreHindering the emergence of alternative explanations: Colonialism
1. Earlier, I suggested that the psychoanalytical explanations (like the transformation of Linga into a penis as a fertility symbol etc.) not only trivialize and distort but also deny access…
Read moreTranslations or Travesty of Traditions? –S.N.Balagangadhara
In one sense, the title of the piece captures the nature of the tasks facing the contemporary generation, whether in India or in the Diaspora. This generation, unlike many from…
Read moreAchievements of Indology: Esoteric Indian traditions
A science of cultures is not Atmagyaana or Brahmagyaana. Let me also add that I find a quest for happiness a normal human striving. According to the Indian traditions, experience…
Read moreWhat is Anubhava? III
1. Let us retain the translation of ‘Anu’ as ‘appropriate’ or ‘apt’. Let us emphasize the active dimension of the word ‘Bhava’ to translate it as ‘coming into existence’. (‘Existence’…
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