Thursday, February 15, 2024

At some point in life everyone is alone

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra

The rising number of single people, including those who have made the deliberate choice to not mingle. Study after study of this group has shown that many of these individuals describe their lives as being “authentic” and “happy”, yet such stories of fulfilment are invisibilised in a culture that sees coupledom as natural and inevitable. The cost of the accompanying prejudice is often high — such as when landlords refuse to rent houses to individuals, citing a preference for “families”, or when single people are barred, by law, from making certain kinds of reproductive choices.

There is, then, something to learn from the large-heartedness of a small European municipality: When it comes to single people, put away your pitchforks and your pity. After all, at some point in life, due to death, divorce or other circumstances, everyone is alone.

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/express-view-when-it-comes-to-single-people-put-away-your-pity-9162053/

The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have inaugurated a new era for the mankind and hence worshipping them as the one Supreme Divine is the best option, at present. Savitri Era Religion is the most modern and rational religion without the burden of any cumbersome rituals. All are invited.

https://twitter.com/SavitriEra/status/1757772874570699162?t=iH_9UcE9GgT09r2uSM-WIw&s=19

There is no sign of the present humanity being pitchforked into the Supramental stage as predicted by The Mother & Sri Aurobindo but that is the most audacious dream to believe in. "This mire must harbour the orchid and the rose" explains the logic of future evolution in Savitri.

https://twitter.com/SavitriEra/status/1758014384952275447?t=t6-x0H4LWZ2fhD2NZDm-eQ&s=19

The philosophy of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo is universalistic in nature and hence is opposed to Hindutva or an India-centric approach. Associating it with that of Vivekananda or anyone else is patently wrong. Integrating the Veda with evolution and science forms its uniqueness.

https://twitter.com/SavitriEra/status/1758021470792663201?t=Tr-CpSRVKYGl9_ARVhbsbA&s=19

M. Aurobindo writes an excellent interpretation in his book "Ideal of Human Unity", deriving his thoughts from this SÅ«kta 10.191 of Rig Veda, about universal brotherhood.

https://twitter.com/VijayMPP/status/1758044221389652477?t=z3CvO5yhn56v1SMlVa5Ifw&s=19 

Political speeches are popular but this is the most critical message from Modi ji. Bharat and Democracy in Bharat is purposive. It is spiritual. Bharat exists for Dharma. Bharat is Shakti. Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo represent this timeless Vedic vision. Indian freedom movement is not just a sequence of political events in history. It is a rekindling and transmission of the eternal mystical fire. Shakti. Passes through Sri Anirvan, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Ananda Coomaraswamy. Picked up by VOI, Dharampal Ji etc. Our work is to live up to and relay their message to the next generation. This is not a political or intellectual project. The goal is not to project political icons or a new fangled, half baked ideology. It is to anchor our forward march in our eternal traditions of Dharma.

https://twitter.com/Anviksiki/status/1757948907370565768?t=NthHOpSWbcRRhnSA4ebn2Q&s=19

... universalistic way and obligations to behave responsibly in one's relations to particular network partners. By asking who is responsible for what and to whom, what organizations and individuals do to increase the likelihood of ...

Aaron Cohen · 2003 · ‎Preview · ‎More editions
... universalistic rewards. When identification is low, only universalistic rewards can in effect be exchanged. Rousseau (1998) showed that not only are employees more likely to perceive assurances of caring and concern as genuine when ...
Darren E. Sherkat · 2014 · ‎Preview · ‎More editions
... universalistic religious organizations tend to amplify the value of egalitarianism in families—in which parents and children negotiate family relations. For universalistic religious groups, sexuality is usually viewed as a private ...

... universalistic norms , individuals will tend to act for the good of the group , even if this means violating universalistic norms - like proscriptions against violence - that protect nonmembers . Should the state , the primary enforcer ...

Emilia C. Lopez, ‎ Sara G. Nahari, ‎ Sherrie L. Proctor · 2017 · ‎Preview · ‎More editions
... Universalistic Versus Relativistic Approach In a discussion of quantitative research within a multicultural context, it is important to examine the paradigms researchers use to define their approach. The distinction between universalistic ...

Bhawna Garg · 2012 · ‎ No preview · ‎More editions
Managing human capital is the biggest challenge before any company.


Ramnarayan Vyas · 1970 · ‎ Snippet view




Lex Donaldson · 2001 · ‎Preview · ‎More editions
... universalistic theory . Given that universalistic theories are simpler and therefore easier to follow than contingency theories , which involve complexity and notions of fit , it is feasible to hold that managers follow universalistic ...
Nina GrÊger, ‎ Bertel Heurlin, ‎ Ole WÊver · 2022 · ‎Preview · ‎More editions
... universalistic identities introduced above. Just like the distribution of great power poles (polarity) is a central structural component of the system, the principal claim here is that the distribution of universalistic identities is ...

Friday, January 19, 2024

Sublime, enchantment, awe, and wonder

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra

Towards Psychological Independence

Matthijs Cornelissen

Education in India, as elsewhere, is based largely on the physicalist-reductionist philosophy that underlies modern science. For the so-called “hard” sciences, this philosophical framework appears, at least at first sight, to have worked quite well, but on the social sciences it has had a rather negative influence. Physicalist reductionism and its constructionist and deconstructionist successors have shown to stand in the way of a meaningful understanding of consciousness, values, love, beauty, the sense of the sacred, and even “meaning” itself. And what is human psychology if it fails in exactly those areas that make us human?

The historical cause of our present lapse into a sophisticated and well-argued inability to deal with the most important aspects of human life is the long-drawn fight between science and religion in Europe. But since colonial rule is over, there is no longer any excuse for India to suffer under this European anomaly. In the Indian tradition there is no serious conflict between religion, philosophy and science, as all three are equally rooted in an essentially spiritual understanding of reality.

Macaulay and his contemporaries were not only blinded by nationalistic pride but they were carried away by the seductive material successes of the industrial revolution. And it is this fascination with material success that is still with us, and that continues to support the materialist Western education that Macaulay enforced in India. The best of students in the best of Indian schools opt for engineering and the hard sciences: the race is for money and technical, material prowess.

In a way this is not an altogether negative development, because India, which was once one of the wealthiest regions in the world, now lags behind economically, and she has to catch up. But in the process of recovery we must not forget that a too exclusive pursuit of power and money remains a sign of barbarism, a shift down the line from spirit and culture to material comfort. 

Śraddhā  April 2023  84

One of Peter Thiel's crazier ideas: what we call the enlightenment actually started an intellectual dark age. Religious disputes are bloody, so we switched the old Gods with a new uncontroversial deity: Material Progress. Price of peace was forgetting eternal religious questions

https://twitter.com/oldbooksguy/status/1748072562314359171?t=D1rMHqyfg0BawGa9A2Cn4Q&s=19

Peter Thiel In The Straussian Moment:

"The singular example of bin Laden and his followers has rendered incomplete the economically motivated political thought that has dominated the modern West...From the Enlightenment on, modern political philosophy has been characterized by the abandonment of a set of questions that an earlier age had deemed central: What is a well-lived life? What does it mean to be human? What is the nature of the city and humanity? How does culture and religion fit into all of this? For the modern world, the death of God was followed by the disappearance of the question of human nature. gwern.net/doc/politics/2

twitter.com/heraclitus137/…

https://twitter.com/oldbooksguy/status/1748074144997187636?t=jLYSGlGfvaCb1tlSaWwSig&s=19

Thiel is best known for his Stagnation Thesis - that the nukes freaked out humans, our power was greater than our wisdom, and we unconsciously decided that it was better to lose ourselves in managerial red tape than to keep churning out ever more powerful bombs. What's missed is Thiel's insistence that wrestling with the "Why" of life, civilization, and technology is just as important as inventing ever slicker ways of extending our dominion over the laws of physics

https://twitter.com/oldbooksguy/status/1748074803200971014?t=7s_9bXiQ9LuSkolhzNNyBQ&s=19

There has been a rash of books about awe and wonder—essentially celebrating the profound impact of these emotions upon the human brain. UC Berkeley professor Dacher Keltner’s Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life offers a very readable, scientifically sound exploration of a near-ineffable experience, which he defines as “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.” (As an aside, I spoke to the philosopher Robert Clewis about ‘the sublime’ early last year, and he noted that he had been collaborating with experimental psychologists researching awe; the sublime, he said, could be interpreted as a form of ‘aesthetic awe.’)

And, on a similar topic but taking a very different—more personal—approach, Katherine May’s Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age shares stories from her own life, in which she has sought to escape feelings of stress, disconnection, and overwhelm by re-awakening her awareness of the subtle beauty that can be found everyday life. She swims in the sea, keeps bees, and watches a meteor shower… Altogether these gentle personal essays make for a feelgood book that might be dipped in and out of, and it should appeal to those who enjoyed her debut Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in a Difficult Worldwhich amassed a huge fanbase during the Covid lockdowns.

recommended by Cal Flyn

https://fivebooks.com/best-books/notable-psychology-and-self-help-books-of-2023-cal-flyn/

Savitri Era Religion doesn't scavenge upon the past for it's precursed on the texture and contours of the future. Not only the dynamics of society or mindscape of man but also possible changes in his body and capabilities of the organs. The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have done a lot.

https://twitter.com/SavitriEra/status/1748120606896463955?t=9mA1ob7SgOGqCD8Qq0ZTug&s=19

Do I really need to listen to this Milei speech? Didn't the West already try laissez-faire capitalism? It led to eco-catastrophe, world war, great depression, & the rise of Stalinism. 

Collectivism & individualism are both failed ideologies. Markets are great, but not a panacea.

https://twitter.com/ThouArtThat/status/1748096237298127210?t=zliXv-vpuA3X7XzAY7UBGw&s=19

Overview & criticism of #BigHistory the author says its bad because it's a modern-day positivist creation myth. I say it's good for same reason. My interest is in integrating positivist Big History with mythic esotericism, as well as incorporating #AI

https://twitter.com/akazlev/status/1748084676202467471?t=_aHNNm9y0RLiIwkYGZRqTg&s=19

Looks interesting! I mention Bostrom and doomerism in my #WIP I'm guessing here he has a more positive take on #AGI than his previous book. btw thanks for your work Émile, I always find your essays interesting and informative.

https://twitter.com/akazlev/status/1748088781989978448?t=yxEO39VW7Fe-KRO_itK9mQ&s=19

Thursday, December 28, 2023

Majoritarianism goes against constitutional imagination

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra

I went through your list. Good stuff. But  may I recommend Stanislaw Lem and the Strugatsky brothers? These are a bit slow burning but ultimately much more rewarding than 99.9% of the stuff out there. East Europe elevated Sci fi to literature. A very different evolution.

https://twitter.com/KunalLal84/status/1738881727987327052?t=RiQZ0Trfh8WgcwJewerFHQ&s=19

May I recommend The Dawn of Everything (book) by Wengrow and Graeber and also Meditations on Molloch by Scott Alexander (blog post) for looking at this question in a deep and nuanced way.

https://twitter.com/KunalLal84/status/1740029417911673041?t=U97-xYj_lgSmU4Ss3DGWhA&s=19

I love the phrase "human nature" because whenever someone uses it I can just disregard everything else they say. It's a fantasy like the Tooth Fairy or the Browns's Super Bowl chances but for the most annoying people on earth.

https://twitter.com/DemonicAlias/status/1739718964840706420?t=i4lFQNcOqX2YMYD61m1pmg&s=19

Hi Nate I'm an anthropologist and this is extremely incorrect!

Humans evolved to be interdependent because we are a social species. Capitalism is a system of infinite growth in a finite environment, the only "natural" comparison that comes close to that is cancer

https://twitter.com/hilaryagro/status/1739807518136656170?t=hHxWAdW_6op8sXRtVcnn5Q&s=19

Been thinking more about this and can’t help but wonder that more people need to read this Marshall Sahlins essay. Both Joe and Nate are making a deeply ideological point despite portraying it to be logically self-evident. 

Sahlin’s essay is an important critique of that ideological understanding of history. The point is not to romanticize pre-modern societies as some rustic utopias but to question our premises of progress and development. 

uvm.edu/~jdericks/EE/S

https://twitter.com/fictitious_cap/status/1739879154349379937?t=sF31Sa2J6uPsXrzzqhlBHQ&s=19

Amod Lele

Dec 17

In everyday communities and institutions – families, universities, businesses, clubs – we cannot help but engage in politics, in the sense of influencing or making collective decisions. I think political philosophy does better when it turns its attention to those communities and institutions smaller than the state, where most of our political actions take place: political philosophy should be a philosophy not just of the state but of office politics, of academic politics.

In that regard, I've noticed an interesting commonality between two works whose authors likely wouldn't see themselves as having anything in common: Graeber and Wengrow's anarchist anthropology The Dawn of Everything, and the standards set out by the Project Management Institute. Graeber and Wengrow look at a wide range of anthropological and archaeological sources on how humans organize their societies; the Project Management Institute examines how an individual (a project manager) can get a group of people to succeed at a collective institutional goal.

[PDF] Without it, all virtues are an act.

E Zorn
Different countries in the world have different political systems of governance. Many may profess to adhere to the same or similar ideologies, such as capitalism, socialism, or democracy, but the nature of the State as a governing agency may …

[PDF] Exploring the Role of Disaggregated Incoherent Regime Components on Intrastate Violence and Religious Identity and Out-group Animosity

L Yacuta - 2023
In this dissertation I explore the factors driving of intrastate violence on an institutional and individual level. The first two papers are based off the same theoretical backing – that when intra-regime components do not support one …

Sacred Time and Religious Violence: Evidence from Hindu-Muslim Riots in India

F Allie - Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2023
How and when can religious times become focal points for communal violence? In the context of Hindu-Muslim riots in India, I argue that incompatible ritual holidays where one religion’s rituals are at odds with another (eg, sacrificing cows or …

Corporate power and the rise of intangibles: A study of Indian firms

RA Sirohi - Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2023
In the context of the developed economies, recent political economy scholarship has highlighted the growing role of intangible assets (brand equity, software, business processes, patents etc.) in corporate portfolios. Much of this literature has …

[PDF] CHAPTER-14 TOPIC-MEDIATING BODY AND SOCIETY IN VEDIC PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

K GHATWAL - Rebuilding Teaching Learning Competencies in Digital …
… More than worldly materials, knowledge and intellectual plays an integral aspect. … In Gurukul the Educational Activities are such that it teaches how to control anxiety with Yoga and Meditation. Through regular practice of Yoga as a way of Lifestyle …

[PDF] STRESS-RELIEF, MEDITATION, AND THEIR PERVASIVE INFLUENCE ON HEALTH AND ANTI-AGING: A HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE

B Doskaliuk - Anti-Aging Eastern Europe, 2023
… The mind-body connection, including practices like yoga and tai chi, fosters holistic well-being. It emphasizes the role of mindfulness and … In our constantly changing world, stress has become an integral aspect of our daily lives. However, as …

[PDF] INFLUENCE OF STRESS ON INDIVIDUAL HEALTH–A CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

MA Boaz, G Gnanaraj - Journal of Research Administration, 2023
Stress is considered as an integral part of modern life. It is the psychological or physiological reaction that occurs when an individual perceives an imbalance between the level of demand placed upon him and his capability for meeting that …

[PDF] Author Exchange

S Pati, M Banerjee - 2023
… The hegemonic hold of a single party in New Delhi is not just electoral, but a cultural and ideological one through Hindutva or Hindu majoritarianism that goes against the very constitutional imagination of a diverse and plural India. The hold of …

[PDF] The Politico-Economic Dimensions of the Kashmir Conflict-A Historical and Contemporary Analysis

A Abbas, M Khan - Pakistan Journal of Law, Analysis and Wisdom, 2023
The Kashmir Conflict has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan for more than seven decades. As a consequence of this, the prospects of good neighborly relations have been hampered especially in the realm of economy. This …

[PDF] SUBALTERNITY IN THE WORKS OF ROHINTON MISTRY AND ARAVIND ADIGA

R MISTRY - DIALOGICS OF MARGINALITY IN THE WORKS OF …
… Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance set in post-independence India, for instance, demonstrates how the rise of Hindutva marginalized the Muslims and made it clear to the Parsis that they were an ethnic minority in Hindu India. Further caste …

Sachindra Nath Sanyal

SN Sanyal
Sanyal founded a branch of the Anushilan Samiti in Patna in 1913.[2] He was extensively involved in the plans for the Ghadar conspiracy, and went underground after it was exposed in February 1915. He was a close associate of Rash Behari …

Reflections on Play, Sport, and Culture: Introduction to the Play Field Theory

F Lebed - 2024
The psychological dependence of humanity on playing is huge. Its nature and functional utility are unclear. These linked yet contradictory issues have created the intrigue that has fed philosophical thought for more than two hundred years. During …

[PDF] Role of Indian English Literature in Nation Building in Pre-Independent Era: With Special Reference to Raja Rammohun Roy, Rabindranath Tagore and Sir Aurobindo

AK Deshmukh
This paper is an attempt to study the role of Indian English Literature in nation building during preindependent era with special reference to Raja Rammohun Roy, Rabindranath Tagore and Sir Aurobindo. Literature portrays human life in all …

Ascetic, Alekha and Ambivalence: The Mahima Movement in Eastern India

S Sahoo, S Mohanty, PK Swain - Review of Development and Change, 2023
Historians and sociologists stride on unchartered terrain when it comes to studying social movements, especially those termed ‘historyless’, the marginal communities. This paper deals with India’s most unique socioreligious movement called Mahima …

Urban Sustainable Development in East Asia: Understanding and Evaluating Urban Sustainable Trends in China and Japan

X Zou - 2024
This book offers careful glimpse from the lenses of selected case studies of major counties in East Asia, namely China and Japan to obtain insights as well as lessons regarding their perspective sustainable cities development. Urban sustainability is …

Designing kindergartens in context of sustainable urban development: Foreign experience

I Potapchuk - AIP Conference Proceedings, 2023
… The building changes its identity and itself becomes a landscape - a metaphor of the urban jungle, where plants and wild animals become a natural and integral part of the architecture of the object. The project is an illustrative example of the skill of …

[PDF] Connect between Artificial Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence at workplace

A Nandan, M Arya, R Binjola, T Chaudhary
… on mental health and focus need to given on training such as Yoga, Meditation, social outdoor activities which helps employees to bulid stronger … When employees become an integral part of the organization they develop a sense of …

The future is now. An introduction to prefigurative politics: edited by Lara Monticelli and published by Bristol, UK, Bristol University Press, 2022, 276 pp.,£ 80.00 …

N Bertuzzi - 2023
‘If you are reading this book, you’ve probably heard about the concept of “prefigurative politics” before and are looking forward to knowing more about it; or maybe this is the first time that you’re reading about it. Either way, you are in the right place’ …

It was a joy feeling the morning's energy and welcoming it with a prayer. To share a mate tea, chat without schedules and clocks, and let the conversations about …

R Carmona, J Rupayan - Changing Seasonality: How Communities Are Revising …, 2024
Hope Flanagan is a cultural educator and storyteller in the Minneapolis Native community who teaches and leads plant walks in Native communities across the state of Minnesota. Linda Black Elk is an ethnobotanist and food sovereignty activist …

“We Invite You for Lunch”: Post/Colonial Subjectivities and Performances of Tourism in Puducherry, India

A Chakraborty - Tourism Cases, 2023
… attraction, Puducherry draws in a host of secular pilgrims to Aurobindo Ashram, founded by Aurobindo Ghosh, an Indian nationalist who escaped to Pondicherry from British India and withdrew from politics and resorted to Hindu mysticism and its …