Trust is the bedrock for strong relations and stable society, and the culture of suspicion does not allow the cementing of trust. The project of enlightenment as expounded by Immanuel Kant in 1784 was meant to question the lazy slumber from which humanity suffers, therefore, remains under the tutelage or dependence over others. He was exemplifying a culture of questioning and the spirit of inquiry to improve the arts, sciences, morals, and politics but not at the quest of ravishing the trust. In fact, he was against the dogmatic belief which belies the spirit of critical inquiry. Mahatma Gandhi, to the contrary, believed that criticism breeds violence, therefore, it is better to constantly experiment one's moral conviction about the truth and to bring it into the practice. Others may follow the such practices if such actions are morally worthy to be followed. These two methods of life appear to be contradictory, which are often rephrased into a binary of faith versus suspicion, or religion versus science. This binary is premised on the unexamined assumption, as if learned people are full of doubts and commoners are having oceans of faith. In fact, “faith in reason” is as much significant as “reason in faith”. Both are antagonistically complimentary as the light is significant as presence of darkness. The dark background of light makes it a reality. Likewise, a true science flourishes on the untested assumptions what Bertrand Russell called “scientific postulates” and what Immanuel Kant called, “regulative principle” or “practical faith”. The true strength of our civilization is if it invests in the trust instead of selling the news and headlines of the breach of trust, which creates “over-generalization” biasness among the people. Similarly, if one doesn’t trust himself, nobody else may be ever trusted. Niklas Luhman once remarked that without trust we cannot even awake in the morning, and Lao Tzu wrote that when a leader trusts no one, no one trusts the leader. Similarly, Swami Vivekanand believed that without faith and trust no knowledge is possible about the Truth. The most questioning mind like St. Augustine witnessed the transformation of his inquisitiveness and critical quest to rationally know into the unconditional love and the total surrender for the highest Truth as happened with Ramkrishna Paramhans and Swami Vivekananda. These stories demonstrate about our basic nature which cannot sustain itself without having the fundamental faith in our mode of existence. Without the smooth rock of trust even suspicion slides away into oblivion. Therefore, we should prepare ourselves to trust the self and to trust every event in the universe, as if it is communicating to us, even if the practical reality and our past habits make us pessimistic about our future and our common good.
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...
Very beautifully written, sir. Enlightening and motivating at the same time.
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