March 06, 2016

A historian’s dharma is to be vigilant to mythmaking

Quartz - ‎“Keep in mind, humans made up philosophy too.”
Here, Nye suggests philosophy is irrelevant because we’re incapable, as fallible beings, of uncovering the absolute truth. “You’re a human seeking the truth,” he says, “so there are going to be limits.”
Far from a rebuttal of philosophy, this is a component of the field. Many great thinkers recognize this limit on our search for meaning and have written a range of complex papers on the subject, its implications, and the sort of truth that can be uncovered within the constraints of humans’ tiny minds. Ludwig Wittgenstein, for example, might interest those who share Nye’s skepticism.
Philosophy is not for everyone, and many are perfectly happy to live their lives without trying to figure out what, exactly, Heidegger is saying. But for Nye to talk so condescendingly about the “cool questions” in philosophy suggests that he doesn’t know enough to dismiss it. Because philosophy is in fact incredibly useful for anyone interested in language, knowledge, morality—and science. And yeah, it is pretty cool.

15h ago This is more or less the thesis advanced by Jayarava in his longest comment on this post. The idea is that the (Buddhist) religion is primarily experiential and that philosophy is a later reification which misses the main point at stake and moves the emphasis away from what really counts. Moreover, in the case of Buddhism (but I am inclined to think that no other theology would survive Jayarava’s analysis) the result is full of inner contradictions and does not stand a critical inquire.
Thus, why engaging in philosophical thought, if you care for a given religion? Why entering a field in which you will loose anyway, since sooner or later a new development in, say, physics or neurosciences will show that you are at least partly wrong? Posted at 2:40 PM

Philosopher of the month: David Hume
OUPblog (blog) - ‎2 hours ago‎

Nurse.com (blog) - ‎Mar 4, 2016‎ 

Firstpost - ‎1 hour ago‎ 

The National (blog) - ‎Mar 2, 2016‎ 

The Hindu-13 hours ago
The inaugural panel, comprising Mr. Ram and Professor Gopal Guru of the Centre of Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, spoke ...
“A historian’s dharma is to be vigilant to mythmaking,” said historian K.M. Shrimali as he spoke about ‘How the Sangh Parivar Rewrites History.’ Mr. Shrimali recounted several anecdotes of how the Sangh Parivar had sought to establish its own version of history in educational institutions.
History and facts played a significant role in another panel which sought to argue against the Hindutva appropriation of icons such as Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Shivaji and Bhagat Singh. Chaman Lal, Professor of Indian languages at JNU, and an expert on Bhagat Singh, marvelled at how the freedom fighter has been appropriated as an icon by the Sangh Parivar. Bhagat Singh was, in fact, a prominent Marxist atheist. While CPI (M) member Ashok Dhawale sought to debunk the saffronised version of Shivaji and talked about his progressive tolerance of Muslims, former MP Prakash Ambedkar highlighted the ideological differences between the Sangh Parivar and Dr. Ambedkar’s philosophy.
Mr. Sainath said the more the Indian population had become heterogeneous, the more the media was becoming homogenous with the corporatisation of the media. “We have reduced journalism to a revenue stream,” Mr. Sainath said, as he called the Indian media politically free but imprisoned by profit.

The Indian Express-5 hours ago
“Nothing is more anti-national than RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat’s statement..,” said Ram in the inaugural session of the two-day Mumbai collective event called ‘Celebrating freedom and pluralism: in defence of secularism’.
Noted historian Irfan Habib said they are trying to crush such (rational) debate by subverting academic organisations through the use of a shameless distribution of posts as spoils and imposition of their mythical fantasies in the name of nationalism or value education on schools and universities. “This mounting offensive against democratic and secular principles on which our Constitution is based reminds us of the way fascism had established itself in Germany and Italy. The danger in India now is also as real. What should still fortify us is the fact that India is much larger than the RSS and its cohort,” said Habib in a message as he could not attend the event due to health issues.
In a session on 'Media and communal politics,' journalist P Sainath said a major area of damage is that the media has managed to sell a national vs ...

Catch News-21 hours ago
The journalist P Sainath calculated that it translates into one MoU being signed every 4 seconds. How can you take such a document seriously?" he asked.

Economic Times (blog)-04-Mar-2016
Among B R Ambedkar's lesser known qualities was his heightened sense of irony and humour. The way political parties have been competing ...

Business Standard- 16 hours ago
He was speaking on 'Hindutva's appropriation of B R Ambedkar, Shivaji and Bhagat Singh' during a seminar titled 'Mumbai Collective: ...

Daily News & Analysis- 7 hours ago

The new age that is coming upon us - Despite what Sri Aurobindo tells about the intricacies of yoga and allied esoteric matters, the academic tone of his justifications for writing is very int...

Nation under attack from Marxist anarchists and Hindu Rashtra proponents -Sraddha "a Quarterly devoted to an exposition of the teachings of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo" edited by Arup Basu and published by Sri Aurobindo Centre f...

madurai today March 6, 2016
The Hindu-Sri Aurobindo Study Forum: Sath sang on Sri Aurobindo’s ‘Life divine’ by Prof. Subramony, Nithyatha, Aurolab, Veerapanchan, 10 a.m.

Sri Aurobindo describes some of the methods and results: “This may be done, on the ... Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, Part Two: The Yoga of Integral ...

Incidentally, the king of Baroda also employed nationalist thinker and latter-day spiritualist Sri Aurobindo as his personal secretary and then made him the Vice ...

Forward Bloc: Aurobindo Ghose, aka Sri Aurobindo. Trinamool: Oh, that Ghose. You can have him. BSP: We take Ambdekar and Sant Ravidas. READ: As old ... 
Congress: How about swapping Bhagat Singh for Chittaranjan Das?
Trinamool: Das is ours, the commies have Das Kapital.
Shiv Sena: We are perfectly content with Shivaji, thank you.
BJP: If we’re getting into history, I bag Rana Pratap. Also Chanakya, Vikramaditya, Ashoka and Manu. Also all Aryans.
MIM: We’ll take the Mughal emperors and Tipu Sultan.
Congress: Nonsense. Akbar was plainly a Congressman.

https://books.google.co.in/books?isbn=148286889X
In the roundabout just outside the main entrance to the garden, was the statue of Lord Curzon, now replaced with that of Sri Aurobindo. But do razing down past and replacing with the new, really change history? The Communist Government of ...

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