Editorial ROBIN LE POIDEVIN, Religious Studies , FirstView Article(s).

In this paper, it is argued that the prima facie conflict between special relativity and the quantum-mechanical collapse postulate is only apparent, and that the seemingly incompatible accounts of entangled systems undergoing collapse yielded by different reference frames can be regarded as no more than differing accounts of the same processes and events. Attention to the transformation properties of quantum-mechanical states undergoing unitary, non-collapse evolution points the way to a treatment of collapse evolution consistent with the demands of relativity.

"The aim of this study is three-fold: to organize the surviving data on the life of Epicurus into a consequential biographical sketch so as to throw some light upon the growth of his personality and the development of his philosophy; second, to present a new interpretation of his doctrines based upon less emended remains of his writings; and third, to win attention for the importance of Epicureanism as a bridge of transition from the classical philosophies of Greece to the Christian (...) religion." Scholarly and readable, the work is highly critical of the accepted views of Zeller, Usener, nicks and Bailey.--W. C. (shrink)

"An invitation addressed to the average reader to learn about, and to join in, the eternal quest." The author deals, in a series of informal, non-technical chapters, with such topics as reality, life, death, God, man, beauty, and the good life.--W. C.

This book reflects an extraordinary linguistic and philosophical capacity resulting in a faultless piece of scholarship. Representing the first Western language translation of a major Buddhist scripture, it is comprised of a fifty page textual and philosophical reconstruction, with the remainder of the book consisting of a translation made from Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese renditions, and Sanskrit fragments of a Mahayana text. The original text is attributed to a Mahasanghika school of Buddhism from the Andhra region of South India in (...) the third century A.D. The text, which was to have great popularity in early Indian Buddhism and in the entire development of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, gave inspiration to such classics as the Lankavatara Sutra and The Awakening of Faith. (shrink)

A highly technical report on recent physiological research by an eminent scientist. The philosophical implications for consciousness, perception, free-will, and memory are treated briefly in the final chapter. The author maintains that a mind-brain dualism and interactionism is the only fruitful working hypothesis, and, in opposition to some recent philosophers, that its discussion is scientifically worthwhile.--W.C.

A description and critical estimate, by faculty and alumni, of the famous St. John's New Program in the liberal arts, covering the first 17 years of its operation.--W. C.

The author of this book directs philosophical and scientific research in kundalini yoga in India and the United States. Yoga is generally considered by Krishna as the acceleration of natural processes to form the mind to higher states of consciousness. The thesis in this volume and previous writing of the author is that kundalini yoga is a natural device, the cultivation of a biological process, which leads to transcendent states of consciousness. What underlies this presupposition is Krishna’s belief that all (...) religion has a base in the psychosomatic makeup of man and, consequently, a complementary biological fundament as well. Effort is taken to interpret the ancient writers on yoga according to contemporary norms of literary and scientific analysis. He shows that much of classical writing on yoga, and kundalini in particular, is cast into metaphorical language which resorts to anatomical and physiological knowledge drawn from the individual experiences of the seers and not from the study of human anatomy and physiology. From the scientific viewpoint he establishes that some of the basic assumptions of kundalini yoga have no existence in reality. (shrink)