Posts 2

In Chronological Order
Selected Posts: 1999-2014

• The First Law Of Consciousness
  Prajñānam Brahma: Aitreya Upaniṣad [3,3]. It is a principal Mahāvākya [Summary Assertion], a stepping-stone, popularly translated as: ‘Consciousness is Brahman‘. ‘Consciousness’, along with ‘Being’, is… Continue reading The First Law Of Consciousness
• Immanuel Kant: ‘The Highest Principle Of Human Cognition’
  The idea of Consciousness, its centrality in the minds of the most influential modern thinkers, has never been fully appreciated. Nor their short-stops. So come… Continue reading Immanuel Kant: ‘The Highest Principle Of Human Cognition’
• Wilhelm Leibniz: ‘The Twin Truths’
  Step into my old Porche Convertible for a long drive south to Hanover, Germany, 1,000 kilometers and a 100 years away. Let’s go meet Dr.… Continue reading Wilhelm Leibniz: ‘The Twin Truths’
• Goofy Demonstrating The Self-Loop
  I can Understand; but I may not try to Understand ‘Understanding’. I can do a lot of things with ‘Understanding’. But I may not try… Continue reading Goofy Demonstrating The Self-Loop
• The Epistemological Pirouette
  You are a restless seeker, a Philosophy-Junkie. And you want to know all about ‘Know’. You want to know what ‘Knowledge’ means. Not to worry.… Continue reading The Epistemological Pirouette
• Socrates: ‘The Most Vicious Of Circles’
  Socrates asks Theaetetus, the meaning of the word ‘Knowledge’. Theaetetus proceeds to list the known disciplines, Geometry and Cobblery, the Sciences, et al. Socrates stops… Continue reading Socrates: ‘The Most Vicious Of Circles’
• Immanuel Kant: ‘Organic Contact Lenses’
  Immanuel Kant defined the borders of Academic Philosophy for two centuries. And his work had much to do with the ideas of Knowledge and ‘Knowing’.… Continue reading Immanuel Kant: ‘Organic Contact Lenses’
• ‘Knowledge Loop’; How To Use A Dictionary
  We understand [and create] the new only in reference to the old, only in counterpoint to that which is not-new. Your most imaginative construction of… Continue reading ‘Knowledge Loop’; How To Use A Dictionary
• ‘Delusion’: Living Inside The Dictionary
  I cannot find the meaning to the phrase ‘Minimum-Knowledge of English’, within the pages of the Dictionary to which, in order to use, I must… Continue reading ‘Delusion’: Living Inside The Dictionary
• The ‘Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’
  What is it about eating of the fruit of the famed Binary, the ‘Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’, of having your eyes… Continue reading The ‘Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’
• The Pornflik Pioneer Plaque
  The Pioneer 10 Spacecraft launched in 1972 was the first object ever built that could achieve escape-velocity to exit the Solar System. A ‘Pioneer Plaque’… Continue reading The Pornflik Pioneer Plaque
• Where Is Not-Two?
  ‘In May 2014, Reshma Qureshi, 19, and her sister Gulshan were visiting the city of Allahabad in northern India when they were violently attacked by… Continue reading Where Is Not-Two?
• The Ontological Elephant
  Just as Epistemology studies ‘Knowing’ while already in a state of Knowing, Ontology studies ‘Being’ while firmly resident in a state of Being. It is… Continue reading The Ontological Elephant
• ‘Being’: The Intellectuals Short-Stop
  ‘Being’ is the single most common short-stop among the intellectuals: ‘Men of The Mind.’ And the first Intellectuals were the Men and Women of Religion.… Continue reading ‘Being’: The Intellectuals Short-Stop
• ‘Being’: Aristotle To Einstein
  Aristotle and the Lyceum philosophers proposed ten categories among which Substance was ontologically primary. In other words, Substance is; and the world with its million features revolved around it.… Continue reading ‘Being’: Aristotle To Einstein
• ‘Being’: Hegel To Heidegger
  Friedrich Hegel: ‘It is a natural assumption in philosophy, before we start to deal with its proper subject matter, viz. the actual cognition of what… Continue reading ‘Being’: Hegel To Heidegger
• ‘Being’ And Advaitha Vedantha
  The expression Advaya (अद्वय) literally translates as ‘Not-Two’ and dates back to the first texts. When attached to a particular school it typically takes on… Continue reading ‘Being’ And Advaitha Vedantha
• Rumi’s ‘Beloved’, Not Heidegger’s ‘Being’
  ‘Empty Logical Classes. Ontological Assumptions. Teleological Fulfillment. Which planet are you from? This is pretentious bunk. Male testosterone rutted in a linear groove. I pine… Continue reading Rumi’s ‘Beloved’, Not Heidegger’s ‘Being’
• Sign: The Making Of ‘Two’
  ‘Sign’, from the Latin Signum, is a mark, an indication, a point, a reference. What’s so special about this sign with the pointing arrow that… Continue reading Sign: The Making Of ‘Two’
• Language: The ‘Bewitchment Of Our Intelligence’
  ‘Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchmentof our intelligence by language’, wrote Ludwig Wittgenstein,‘the limits of my Language are the limits of my World’ ‘In… Continue reading Language: The ‘Bewitchment Of Our Intelligence’
• Universities And ‘Math Verbal Skills’
  Neils Bohr [Nobel, Physics, 1922] wrote: ‘We are trapped by language to such a degree that every attempt to formulate insight is a play on… Continue reading Universities And ‘Math Verbal Skills’
• The Origin Of Language?
  The number of theories floating around about Language are prodigious, even by the grant-induced profligacy of modern academic opinion. Well, it all started by us… Continue reading The Origin Of Language?
• The Language Loop: ‘@&*(!!>?””*^}’
  Any linguistic discussion on Language must be introduced with the cautionary note that you are diving headlong into the swirl of the Self-Loop. So watch your… Continue reading The Language Loop: ‘@&*(!!>?””*^}’
• The Central Religious Act
  The English word ‘God’, the scholars say, derives from the German gott, from the Proto-Indo-European ǵʰu-tó-m, itself sourced in the Sanskrit huta; ‘to pour’ [as in libation to… Continue reading The Central Religious Act
• Tar Baby: On ‘Dying To Myself’
  For you and me this ‘Dying to Myself’ can be a very tricky business. Unless we stay alert to the final turn of Yājñavalkya’s Algorithm,… Continue reading Tar Baby: On ‘Dying To Myself’
• ‘Hide And Seek’
  If your pulse doesn’t race, you should be seeing a DoctorMastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Fellini’s: ‘La Dolce Vita’ Self-Denial is the first order of Moral Code.… Continue reading ‘Hide And Seek’
• Deux Factus Sum
  I cannot seem to find a ‘Me’. But there clearly has to be a ‘Subject’, No? So If I am convinced that I cannot be… Continue reading Deux Factus Sum
• Science: Method, Principles And The ‘Scientific Stance’
  ‘A little learning is a dangerous thing’ wrote Alexander Pope in praise of Science, ‘Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring’ ‘Science’, from the… Continue reading Science: Method, Principles And The ‘Scientific Stance’
• The Platform Of Scientific Inquiry
  Bohr, at a meeting of eminent scientists famously quipped: ‘We are all agreed that your theory is crazy..the question is whether it is crazy enough… Continue reading The Platform Of Scientific Inquiry
• Induction Principle: From Conjecture To Law
  As with the Principle of Contradiction, the early Greeks refused to give the Induction-Rule the status of ‘Law’. It was a helpful rule, an informed… Continue reading Induction Principle: From Conjecture To Law
• The First Affirmation of Experimental Science
  ‘Scientific-Law’ is a forgivable exaggeration by the scientific-community. They are in fact generalizations from limited observations, tentatively affirmed hypothesis leading a precarious existence.  The Mother… Continue reading The First Affirmation of Experimental Science
• On Absurdity
  The C’han-Zen Teacher Deshan Xuanjian [780-865 CE] would stride the Zendo with a big stick: ‘If you utter a word I give you thirty blows’, he would bellow, ‘and… Continue reading On Absurdity
• The ‘Bottomless Pit Of Nonsense’
  It is around 450 BCE. And the groves of Rājagṛiha are alive with the gatherings of the learned and the wise, the charlatans and the… Continue reading The ‘Bottomless Pit Of Nonsense’
• The Empty Class Of Classical Logic
  Logic, fondly referred to by Logicians as the ‘Laws of Thought’ [the title to an early text], deals exclusively with abstract things. But first Classical… Continue reading The Empty Class Of Classical Logic
• Śūnyathā And Nāmarūpa: The Logician’s ‘Form’
  In a consequential verse in the  [‘Heart’] Sūtra, Śūnyathā [translated as: Emptiness] is ‘defined’ as equivalent to Nāmarūpa [translated as ‘Form’], or more precisely, as :’not-different… Continue reading Śūnyathā And Nāmarūpa: The Logician’s ‘Form’
• ‘The Incoherent Rhapsody Of Knaves’
  In the vibrant salons of Voltaire’s Paris they phrased it right: ‘The First Divine was the First Rogue who met the First Fool’. ‘The Veda is… Continue reading ‘The Incoherent Rhapsody Of Knaves’
• Contradiction And Tautology: The Limits Of Legitimate Expression
  Here is Ludwig Wittgenstein in an earlier avatar when he was still a True Believer. From his Tractatus Logico Philosophicus, a seminal text on the Philosophy of Logic: ‘The… Continue reading Contradiction And Tautology: The Limits Of Legitimate Expression
• The First Synod at Nicaea
  The Synod of Nicaea was the first Ecumenical meeting of the Catholic Church, under Constantine, whose own conversion elevated an heretofore obscure persecuted cult to… Continue reading The First Synod at Nicaea
• Unity And Truth In Mathematics
  The English word ‘Truth’, derives from the Old-English Treiewo, [German Treuwaz], with roots in the Sanskrit Dre and Dhr [as in Dharma]. It originally connoted something firm, immovable, the rock of trust, what… Continue reading Unity And Truth In Mathematics
• The Principal Principle
  The Principal Principle of Logico-Mathematical model, in fact of all ‘Analytical Cognition’ to use Immanuel Kant’s expansive phrase, is the Principle of Contradiction. [In delightful… Continue reading The Principal Principle
• Aristotle To Kant: The Self-Destroying Argument
  Aristotle’s definition of the Principle, which he extolled as: ‘The Surest Principle..itself not an assumption…but a beginning for all other axioms’…the one Principle] which one… Continue reading Aristotle To Kant: The Self-Destroying Argument
• The ‘Foundations of Mathematics’
  This subject called Mathematics, in fact it’s larger family, the complex of Analytics that fall under the banner of Logico-Mathematical Method, is erected on multiple… Continue reading The ‘Foundations of Mathematics’
• Cratylus: ‘The Same River-Once!’
  In old Athens, they were giving Aristotle, the founder of Classical Logic, a hard time. The philosophers in the generation before Aristotle, more alert to… Continue reading Cratylus: ‘The Same River-Once!’
• MOMA: Jackson Pollack
  ‘What’s this?’ I asked the young lady, a curator-assistant,walking alongside me. ‘Oh, that!’ She said, ‘That’s Pollock. It’s painting about Painting.’
• ‘The Mathematical Discovery Of The Century’
  The Gödel Iceberg is common knowledge among the mathematically-inclined and there is a large readable literature out there on Gödel, Russell’s Paradox and the rest. I’ll… Continue reading ‘The Mathematical Discovery Of The Century’
• The Symbol ‘0’
  From an earlier Post: ‘There is no binary-ground to be found that can be settled-in, no ground that you can alight on as foundational truth.… Continue reading The Symbol ‘0’
• ‘Modus Indorum’: The Digital Age of Binary-Truth
  By the 10 Century CE, its meanings lost in the land of its birth, the Symbol ‘0’ headed West. The Symbol stops for a tour… Continue reading ‘Modus Indorum’: The Digital Age of Binary-Truth
• Oxford’s Bodleian To The British Museum
  The Press Release from the venerable Bodleian Library at Oxford was put-out just as I had decided on publishing this Site. A coincidence demanding acknowledgment.… Continue reading Oxford’s Bodleian To The British Museum
• The Mantra: ‘AUM’
  The auditory Expression ‘AUM’, as was the expression ‘Brahman‘, was a Mantric term meant for Yagnic formalities before it took on conventional meaning. ‘AUM’ is… Continue reading The Mantra: ‘AUM’
• Liberation: The Freedom To Be Unfree
  From the Vajracchedikā [‘Diamond-Cutter’] Sūtra [See Front Page]: ‘Subhuti, what do you think? Let no one say the Tathagata cherishes the idea: I must liberate… Continue reading Liberation: The Freedom To Be Unfree
• Hesse: ‘Folly And Bewilderment’
  ‘I’m beginning to hear the teachings of my blood pulsing within me. My story isn’t pleasant, it’s not sweet and harmonious like the invented stories;… Continue reading Hesse: ‘Folly And Bewilderment’
• The Old Race Horse At Ibycus
  Dhukkha-The First Truth of the Buddha-Dharma. The word Dhukkha commonly translated as ‘Suffering’ seems to have originated in the mis-aligned wheels of a riding-carriage. The… Continue reading The Old Race Horse At Ibycus
• Awake And Asleep; Life And Death
  If you can say: ‘I am asleep!’, that’s convincing evidence that you are awake. [Is that a Self-Eating Expression?] The distinction of ‘Awake’ and ‘Asleep’… Continue reading Awake And Asleep; Life And Death
• Mṛtyu; Mortal: The Terminal Binary
  If the ‘Subject-Object’ Divide was the opening binary, the one on which all other binaries mount, the ‘Binary of Birth and Death’ is the closing… Continue reading Mṛtyu; Mortal: The Terminal Binary
• The Central Christian Affirmation
  Today, the subject of ‘Immortality’ is never raised in respectable circles [‘Can’t we stick to Football and the Sitcoms?’]. Especially so in the West. But… Continue reading The Central Christian Affirmation
• ‘From Whose Bourn No Traveller Returns’
  ‘To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,… Continue reading ‘From Whose Bourn No Traveller Returns’
• ‘It’s all right, it’s all right’
  ‘Whatever gets you through the night; It’s all right, it’s all right Whatever gets you through your life; It’s all right, it’s all right Do… Continue reading ‘It’s all right, it’s all right’

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