Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra
This article scrutinizes the application of vermilion on the groom’s forehead by the bride. Prima facie the act embodies equality. Deeper engagement reveals that it strengthens Brahminical patriarchy and its penetration into different layers of society:
References: Gandhi’s swaraj and its relationship with his conception of self, other, and nation tandfonline.com/doi/ref/10.108…
https://x.com/i/status/2043680896822198619
@veidehigite details the life of Mirra Alfassa, known to most people today simply as ‘The Mother’, she is regarded as Sri Aurobindo's 'spiritual collaborator', with whom he founded the Aurobindo Ashram in 1926.
Full story here: thefederal.com/category/the-e…
#SriAurobindo #Pondicherry #AurobindoAshram #MirraAlfassa #Spirituality
Western philosophy often understands the world by analysing it into separate parts — from atoms and rocks to individual people.
In contrast, African philosophies such as Ubuntu challenge the idea that these parts exist independently in the first place.
Philosopher Elvis Imafidon argues that relationships are not links between already-formed individuals; instead, beings come into existence through their relationships with others.
From this perspective, a key theme in African philosophy is that ethics cannot be limited to humans alone, but must extend to the entire web of existence.
Tap the link to read more. iai.tv/articles/afric…
From Western-centric visions of the liberal world order to the Enlightenment story of history as Reason’s onward march, we rightly distrust grand narratives. | iai.tv/articles/a-wor…
But, argues @AyseZarakol, without them we struggle to make sense of the world.
We tend to think there is a fundamental nature to reality, that if you go deep enough you hit some bedrock of existence. | iai.tv/video/there-is…
But in this debate between philosopher of science James Ladyman and philosopher of mind @DrSueSchneider, this idea is challenged.
Heraclitus famously argued that you can't step into the same river twice. | bit.ly/43WwWjL
Here, philosopher JB Manchak, argues that the whole universe is like that - and that such a universe has some interesting knock-on consequences.
Is democracy really the engine of prosperity, or is that just a comforting myth as authoritarian economies surge ahead? | iai.tv/video/the-iron…
Watch @curtis_yarvin, @AaronBastani, and @landemore to head to head over the new economic order now.
Thomas Nagel asked what it’s like to be a bat - arguing subjective experience can’t be reduced to physical facts. | iai.tv/articles/what-…
Now @RickyWilliamso turns the question back on us: what is it like to be human? In the age of AI, the answer may be less obvious than we think.
Are we living in an era of tragedy?
Maurice Glasman argues that the future isn’t always as bright as we’re told, but that there’s still hope for progression and conservation to coexist compatibly.
Tap here to watch his full debate with Pam Cox and Bhaskar Sunkara. iai.tv/video/the-left…
We assume reality consists of objects, stars and atoms, tables and chairs, animals and people. | bit.ly/4oUJQaf
But citing contemporary neuroscience, philosopher Hilary Lawson argues that it is we who are responsible for the objects that we take to be reality.
Radical poet William Blake and pioneering quantum physicist Werner Heisenberg, separated by a century, reached the same unsettling conclusion: that science, for all its power, was cutting us off from reality itself. | iai.tv/articles/heise…
Science works by drawing general laws and categories from individual observations.
Yet this powerful method, left unchecked, traps us in what Blake called a “single vision,” a framework in which, as Heisenberg warned, “reality is lost.”
For both the poet and the physicist, it is through poetry and imagination that we can recover the richness of reality, writes psychotherapist and author Mark Vernon.
What does quantum physics have in common with the way we think about history, politics, and everyday life? | iai.tv/video/slavoj-z…
In this wide-ranging interview, philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek cuts across disciplines from feminism and capitalism to the post-human future to expose the hidden madness underlying what we take to be reality
Žižek is a world-renowned philosopher, cultural critic and public intellectual. Foreign Policy named Žižek a Top 100 Global Thinker "for giving voice to an era of absurdity”.
A core value of Western liberal democracy is freedom, and we tend to assume that the more choice we have, the freer we are. | iai.tv/articles/too-m…
But that’s a dangerous illusion, argues psychologist Barry Schwartz.
When a piece generated by AI won a fine art competition in Colorado, the backlash was fierce. | iai.tv/articles/the-a…
Every major new technology, from photography to the computer, provoked the same debate about whether it could ever produce real art.
Philosopher Henry Shevlin argues that AI is no different, and that the question worth asking isn't whether AI can make art, but whether human creativity can push beyond it.
"A gifted human artist like Monet or Picasso can move beyond the constraints of the art world they inhabit and create a bridge to truly novel forms of representation. Could an image model ever do that?" asks Shevlin.
Physicists often describe spacetime as a container in which the universe unfolds, but this metaphor is misleading and even obstructive. | iai.tv/articles/space…
Philosopher of physics Eleanor Knox dismantles the classical view and argues for an alternative: spacetime should be understood functionally, as whatever plays the right theoretical roles in our best physical models.
From string theory to emergent quantum realms, Knox shows how this shift opens the door to a deeper and more flexible understanding of reality.
"When someone claims that spacetime has extra dimensions, they’re making a claim about the fundamental container or arena in which things live – the backdrop on which reality plays out," writes Knox.
Lived experience has become a powerful moral authority - but at what cost?
Catherine Liu challenges the idea that only those who’ve directly experienced something can speak on it. When arguments are dismissed based on identity rather than engaged on their merit, debate gives way to gatekeeping and intellectual life begins to shrink.
If ideas are judged by who says them instead of what they say, what happens to truth? Tap here to find out: iai.tv/video/the-new-…
Science tells us what things are made of, not what they are. | iai.tv/articles/on-th…
For Graham Harman, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, the world’s ultimate nature can’t be captured by equations or unified theories.
Over 2,500 years ago, Parmenides made a claim so strange it has never quite been resolved: that thought and being are the same. | iai.tv/articles/parme…
Tom Rockmore argues this wasn't just a curiosity — it planted the seed for one of philosophy's deepest disputes.
If Parmenides was right, then we cannot know a mind-independent reality at all. Western philosophy, from Plato onwards, has been grappling with that possibility ever since.
"Parmenides formulated what according to Plato and others became the initial view of philosophy which echoes through the entire tradition, that thought and being are the same," writes Rockmore.
Political scientist @naderalihashemi here argues that Iran was attacked because it resists American power and refuses to surrender to its commands. | iai.tv/articles/the-r…
Tap to read more about the real reason the US attacked Iran.
Peace is widely valued, yet evidence suggests that conflict and adversity may be essential for fostering purpose, cohesion, and motivation. | iai.tv/video/peace-pa…
Join @janneteller, Alenka Zupančič, and @paulbloomatyale as they debate the comfort ochaos and...
We often assume consciousness is something the brain generates; a side effect of matter arranged in just the right way. | iai.tv/video/material…
But Alex O’Connor, better known as @CosmicSkeptic challenges that idea, suggesting consciousness might be more fundamental than we think.
https://x.com/i/status/2043766271477428365
The left once spoke the language of solidarity. Now it often speaks the language of trauma.
In this interview, Catherine Liu argues that centring trauma as identity risks turning politics inward, where subjective experience outweighs material reality. When suffering becomes a kind of cultural currency, it can fragment collective struggle and replace structural critique with personal validation.
What happens when politics becomes about how we feel, rather than what we change?
Tap here to watch this interview in full: iai.tv/video/the-new-…
"'Growth, growth, growth' is the most persistent political mantra of the post-war era," writes Ecological economist Tim Jackson. | iai.tv/articles/our-e…
Tap the link to read more about why growth-at-all-costs capitalism really runs on disappointment.
Four times a second, our brains “palpate” small parts of the world.
In this interview with the Institute of Art and Ideas, Karl Friston argues that the brain is not a mirror of reality but a prediction machine, constantly constructing the world it experiences.
Tap here for his full interview. iai.tv/video/how-brai…
What if consciousness isn't something the brain produces, but something more fundamental than matter itself? | iai.tv/video/material…
In this interview, Alex O'Connor @CosmicSkeptic argues that materialism can't explain how physical processes give rise to subjective experience.
The Age of Sri Aurobindo by Pariksith Singh explores human evolution, higher consciousness, and India’s spiritual vision. A powerful rethink of our future.
Order Now on Amazon: Paperback: amzn.in/d/elpKffX
Kindle: amzn.in/d/16tyEuE #sriaurobindo #bluoneink
How to stop waiting and start living – a jolt from Henry James, born on this day in 1843
“To the dumb question ‘Why me?’ the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: Why not?”
The irreplaceable Christopher Hitchens, who would have been 77 today, on mortality https://x.com/i/status/2043745466169393185
