Philosophy

“Modern capitalist society imposes loneliness upon men. In fact, this loneliness is a major theme of a lot of new writing and art. Modern society is anti-people.” ~ G.P. Deshpande (Dialectics of Defeat, p.8) This is truer of those men who have been detached from their classical family structure in order to cope with the system engendered by modern industrialization and technological economics. Thus, those who are migrating to the cities are succumbing to increased tensions rising from social isolation, the so-called attempts to build up an organizational society failing despite all team outings and retreats. Modern capitalist society dehumanizes people by evaluating them commercially and treating them as parts of a machinery, parts that must be abandoned when they become useless to the machinery; in that case, capitalist society is similar to socialist society, excepting that in a socialist society the machinery is the State, while in the capitalist society the machinery is the money-m...

© Domenic Marbaniang, Secularism in India, Google Books, 2005. The Indian school of materialism, Charvaka, perhaps developed as a reaction against the excesses of Brahmin priests and an exploitative society. It dismissed ‘necessarily all belief in everything that constitutes the specific subject-matter of religion and philosophy.’ It had place for neither God who controls the universe nor conscience that guides man. The absence of the transcendent in Charvaka might be reason for its also being called as Lokayata-darsana, meaning philosophical school ‘restricted to the experienced world,’ or ‘secular.’ The Charvaka had no regard for the Shabda Pramana (Verbal Testimony, i.e., the Vedas). It had a purely empirical and rational concept of reality. However, the Charvaka could not gain political approval and so gradually declined – although its hedonism vented out through popular polytheism. Charvaka philosophy could not continue also because of the powerful dominance of Brahmanism over...

The Book of Proverbs in the Bible presents Wisdom as the first of all things (Prov.4:7). Wisdom existed before the worlds existed, for by it were the worlds created, it says. Therefore, King Solomon advices the youth to first seek for wisdom above all things, above rubies, pearls, and whatever categorized material blessings in those days. For, when wisdom comes it comes with these and more. Interestingly, the word “philosophy” actually referred to the Greek quest or love for wisdom ( phileo meaning “to love” and sophia meaning “wisdom”). Sadly, in the two millenia and half that rolled out after Socrates, skepticism, relativism, agnosticism, and nihilism scribbled their characters over the scroll of this discipline. Ironically, “philosophy”, in modern parlance, is far from being considered “a love for wisdom”. As G. K. Chesterton wrote: “..the new rebel is a sceptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be really a revolutionist. And the fact...

A Matter of Faith ZERO REINTERPRETED Dr. Domenic Marbaniang Professor, CITS.  “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God….”  (Heb. 11:3) One distinctive tenet of Christian faith is the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo or creation out of nothing. Contrary to many other cosmogonies, the Bible teaches us that God did not create this world out of some primordial substance; the universe is not eternal, but God created the world out of nothing. This is contrary to the natural principle that something cannot come out of nothing. Obviously, this doctrine, though unpalatable to reason, is acceptable to faith. This is not meant to say that faith contradicts natural philosophy, but that it transcends the natural and, therefore, can connect to the reality that gives significance to this universe. Creatio Ex Nihilo The writer of Hebrews tells us here that it is by faith that “we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God”. Obviously, the doctrine of cre...

2 NOTES 1. PERSUASION. Public speaking or rhetoric is an art of persuasion. One must keep in mind that it is more important to win a person than to win the argument; therefore, humility, gentleness, and meekness count a lot. Jesus, when giving the call to discipleship, said “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). He made the learning situation easy and bereft of all egotistic tensions. How we treat the audience determines how they take us. An Indian maxim avers “Do not cut someone’s nose [i.e. insult him/her] and then give a rose to smell.” The speaker’s attitude speaks louder than his words. 2. IMPACT. “There are three kinds of speakers,” says Indian Christian Leader and International Speaker Dr. Matthew Thomas, “the first are those who speak from their intellect – they reach the intellect, the second are those who speak from their heart – they touch the heart, the third are those who speak...

Have you ever wondered what a heap really is? Well, I don't think so. But, let's look at this. Suppose you removed a grain of sand from a heap a sand, will it still remain a heap? Of course, it will. Now, you go on removing each grain of sand until you think you have removed that grain by which the heap stops to be a heap anymore. Oh, you say that is impossible. So how many grains does it actually take to make a heap? This is a kind of paradox of vagueness and is commonly referred to as the Sorites paradox. For more information check Sorites Paradox at SEP.

Did you know that there are two ways people look at time? 1. The Eternalist View. The universe is viewed as a block in which past, present, and future are already just there. In this popular view, the Terminator can travel back and try to kill John Corner or Harry Porter can travel back and save Harry Porter!! Similarly, you can travel into future... or perhaps just see it?? Not that time-travel is possible, but this is the theoretical setup for such views. 2. The Presentist View. Time flows here. The universe is only the present which flees as soon as we can catch the present. The past and the future don't exist in the moment, though the past is fixed, and the future indefinite. Did you know that St. Augustine tried to locate the point in time where the universe is said to be present? Well, divisibility is infinite, so better not try it. No doubt, Kant called the grapes sour by taking refuge in idealism - time for his is just mental. Also , 1. Linear Time: Time is a line that beg...