BEING AND BECOMING

Speculative  mind  has  boarded  in  a  ship,  and  sailing  against  the  tides  of  mystery  to  reach  near wisdom;  after  all  Copernican  revolution  (Immanuel  Kant)  is  one  sort  of  various  hypothesises which  needs  to  pass  the  muster  through  posteriori  (sensuality+induction)  method.  A  Mind  is  a connecting  pool  between  ‘id’  and  ‘superego,’  (Sigmund  Freud);  the  odious  egoistic  impulse that  evolves  with  due  course  of  time,  guided  by  consciousness  which  encompasses  passions and  desires  into  the  direction  of  super-wisdom  (trance).  To  the  contrary,  if  passions  and  desires chariot  a  human  soul,  though  natural,  it  directs  to  a  distant  place  where  instant  pleasures  are  at work,  however  Socratic  happiness  remains  far  away  even from  the  dreams.  However,  David Hume thinks otherwise,  i.e.,  passions, desires  and  sentiments  are  the  true sources of knowledge. Instant  pleasures  and  short  time  achievem

Unlike religion is opium of masses (Karl Marx), it could be threshold of all the virtues and guiding power to stand against all societal evils, but why is it so that religion has turned to be a symbol of orthodoxy and backwardness? Its language has been blemished by fear of sin and the force of violence. Every religion requires self-correction and introspection by inner voices in due course of time in order to be compatible with scientific temperament and modernity. While advocating for humanity as an ultimate religion J S Mill writes Auguste Compte and positivism (1865), and praised him for his admiring work on 'religion of humanity.' Likewise, protestant movement started in Europe after dark ages when theocracy proved as a lethal murderer of rationality. It is after the peace of Westphalia (1648) secularism emerged as a way life, and exclusivity of priestly class replaced with popular reasoned theocracy and later enlightenment in the leadership of Immanuel Kant. But the 21s

An Orthodox death of wisdom Wisdom homes in a creature who knows how to sense; either by reason or by appetite. There is no difference between a fool person and a beast, in fact, a beast knows his periled history more than a fool. Human being might claim themselves as a reasonable creature, but their pursuit of knowledge is even worse than a beast; since a beast has no sense of blind custom, instead their sensuality is a primary source to know what is good or bad for them. But the mankind, who is the champion of innate reason, is running after theological or parochial customs.  Customary or conventional morality is developed by a few for their advantages, but unfortunately these customs are blindly followed by the majority in the name of theological, or political morality. However, there is a difference between following what appears just and reasonable and what is received passively without applying any reason. Reason and sense are two sovereigns for any epistemological inquiry

Excerpts from First Lotika Sarkar memorial lecture delivered by Prof. Upendra Baxi , Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Warwick at Faculty of Law, University of Delhi-------------------- It is good to meet on the first anniversary of Professor Lotika Sarkar’s death. Hers was a life lived well. And she would have wanted her friends on this occasion to greet her with a smile, not tears. Still, the ache remains. I feel somewhat like Adlai Stevenson (on losing his Democrat nomination twice over) who said- ‘it hurts to laugh but I am too old to cry!’ The impulse to shed tears stands accentuated by the sad demise of Professor Vasudha Dhagamwar on 10th instant; Vasudha was a good friend and dear colleague, though occasionally she did not share my overt enthusiasm for Lotika Sarkar. I am now incidentally the sole survivor of Mathura Open Letter to Chief Justice of India! I was also heard to say to their Lordships in the petition against the Shah Bano Case that I was the co-surv