BEING AND BECOMING

I  Introduction In the opening pages of his magnum opus, Being and Time, Martin Heidegger resurrects a question he argues has been buried for millennia, framing his entire project with an epigraph from Plato’s Sophist: “For manifestly you have long been aware of what you mean when you use the expression ‘being’. We, however, who used to think we understood it, have now become perplexed.” This is no mere academic exercise but a deliberate reawakening of what Heidegger argues is the most fundamental and, paradoxically, the most forgotten question in the history of Western thought. For Heidegger, a pervasive “forgetfulness of Being” has characterized philosophy since antiquity, where the initial, vibrant inquiry into what it means “to be” solidified into a series of unexamined dogmas. The question was not answered and then set aside; rather, it fell into obscurity, concealed by the very traditions that were supposed to preserve it. This blog argues that Heidegger's critical "dest...

Disappearance of questions is the pre-condition of artificial certainty. Therefore, it is profitable investment to establish and sustain the belief industry. This industry produces the efficient Man whose substratum is not the divine soul or mental faculty but a non-thinking mind which militantly conform the group solidarity of the masses. When answers are easily available and generated by the Artificial Intelligence, who will take the pain for thinking and unthinking or deliberating to develop logical capacity or for establishing the paradigm of truth? As Ashis Nandy explains the creative process which requires to meditate with the questions and to remain with the questions for a longer period of time to create and unveil the mask of deception. The artistry in epistemic creativity necessitates the patience caring of the questions. The cultivation and exploration of questions and mitigated skepticism to unravel what is said and unsaid, the expressions and silences. Even so called Dark ...

I Introduction: Situating the Critique of Western Modernity In an era defined by rapid technological acceleration and deepening socio-political divides, a critical examination of the foundational philosophical tenets of Western modernity is not merely an academic exercise but a strategic necessity. It is within this context that Boaventura de Sousa Santos, an Emeritus Professor of Sociology, offers a potent and timely intervention. In his work, "I do not think, therefore I am," Santos presents a compelling critique that inverts Descartes' famous dictum to diagnose a profound contemporary crisis. The text's central thesis posits that the core principles of Western modernity, derived from Cartesian philosophy, are not only historically and culturally situated as Eurocentric but have degenerated into a pathological contemporary state. This state is marked by the dominance of neoliberal individualism, a "great disarmament" of cognitive and critical faculties, an...

I Introduction: Bridging Physiology and Psychology William James, in his landmark work The Principles of Psychology, provides a foundational framework connecting the brain's physiological mechanisms to the purposive, selective, and unified nature of conscious mental life. This blog analyzes James’s synthesis, which grounds psychological phenomena in the material workings of the nervous system without reducing consciousness to a mere epiphenomenon. We will explore his hierarchical model of the brain, which evolves from simple reflex actions in the lower nerve centers to the complex, deliberative functions of the cerebrum. Key themes include the role of the cerebrum as an organ of foresight and prudence, the physiological mechanism of habit as the process by which experience physically imprints itself upon the brain’s plastic matter, and consciousness's essential function as a “selecting agency” that is causally efficacious in steering the organism toward its own interests. Ultim...

  I Introduction: The Story About Unbelief The story we tell ourselves about our modern secular world is simple and straightforward: science advanced, reason prevailed, and the old world of religious belief slowly receded like a tide going out. In this common narrative, science and rational thought simply crowded out faith, leaving us with the disenchanted, secular reality we inhabit today. It seems obvious. But what if that story is wrong? In his monumental work, A Secular Age, the philosopher Charles Taylor challenges this simple narrative at its foundations. He argues that the shift to our secular age was not a matter of losing old beliefs, but of inventing entirely new ways of experiencing the world and ourselves. This blog will distill four of the most surprising and impactful ideas from Taylor's work. This is a journey into the hidden architecture of the modern self, revealing how we often unwittingly constructed the very walls and windows of our secular age. II Sublimation o...

I Introduction: The Problem of Transcendental Freedom In Immanuel Kant's practical philosophy, transcendental freedom and the moral law are established not as independent concepts but as reciprocally determinant principles. This blog examines the central thesis of the Critique of Practical Reason, which posits that the moral law serves as the ratio cognoscendi (the reason for knowing) of freedom, while freedom is the ratio essendi (the reason for being) of the moral law. We become aware of our freedom only because we are first conscious of the moral law as an unconditional command; the "ought" reveals the "can." Conversely, the moral law itself could not exist as a binding principle were freedom not a real property of the will. Through a critical analysis of Kant’s text, this paper traces his argument from the rejection of all empirical moral theories to the establishment of a purely formal law, known as a "fact of reason." This analysis reveals how Ka...