Michel Foucault (1926–1984) suggests that there is an implicit conjunction between knowledge, power and truth. Even if knowledge and power are two different phenomena, each regulates the production of the other. Thus, it follows that knowledge does not exist prior to power as a determining factor for its being and nor even does it control while it comes to exist; on the contrary, knowledge and power are intimately and productively related to each other, the relationship that ultimately determines the production (...) of truth. Just as power and knowledge are closely knit ensuring the existence of each other, so also truth that always exists together with power and knowledge. In ‘Truth and Power,’ Michel Foucault counters the major theoretical trends like Marxism and traces the instances of truth and power as they intertwine in the exercise of power relations. Truth and power sustain and produce each other which uncompromisingly affirm Foucault’s claim of power, knowledge and truth being intrinsically connected. (shrink)

Euthanasia has been a subject of debate worldwide. It has brought up multiple controversies in different countries and among different societies. Over the years, euthanasia has been an active topic of research in the field of bioethics, owing to its numerous ethical and legal implications. In this article, we take a brief look into the laws and legislation surrounding euthanasia in different parts of the world.

This book provides a comprehensive account of the Nyaya-Vaisheshika teachings. Nyaya and Vaisheshika are two of the six philosophical systems of Hinduism, much less known in the West than the more popular Yoga and Vedanta systems. Nyaya teaches reasoning to determine what is valid knowledge, and Vaisheshika teaches what are the ultimate constituents of the universe. The author wrote this book after seeing how little understood was Indian philosophy in the West. He tried to take account of Western presuppositions in (...) presenting this Indian system. At the same time, he followed the Indian practice of adopting the Nyaya-Vaisheshika position as his own while writing about it. (shrink)

This research study postulates an argument aimed at disputing the conception that determinism intrinsically entails the inevitability or unchangability of events. It claims that within our world, there exist events that are, in fact, avoidable. To defend this claim, the paper draws upon the evolutionary foundation established by cognitive philosopher Daniel C. Dennett. According to Dennett, the phenomenon of natural selection has bestowed human beings with the capability to avoid specific events by reducing the pervasiveness of inevitable events over time. (...) Nevertheless, a crucial query arises while recognizing the existence of avoidance-capable entities within a Toy deterministic world, such as John Conway’s “Game of Life.” The existence of such entities puts forward the presence of a practical expression of free will, despite the allegedly deterministic nature of the world. Dennett, a staunch proponent of naturalism, endeavors to demonstrate that determinism is not inherently problematic and does not pose a significant threat to our free existence. Anchored in compatibilism, Dennett argues that determinism and freedom can coexist, with the emergence of evolution enabling human beings to possess the capacity for avoidance within a so-called deterministic world. Thus, the prime intention of this paper is to exhibit an extensive analysis exemplifying that determinism does not diminish our notion of free will. To achieve this objective, the paper seeks to debunk prevailing misconceptions about determinism by employing a toy model wherein simplistic entities can evolve and acquire the ability to avoid harm, which can also be reflected in human life. Moreover, the paper endeavors to establish that the conventional association between determinism and inevitability is flawed, as the notion of inevitability should be attributed to the design level rather than the physical level of any system. (shrink)

J. C. Chatterji’s book is a brief introduction to the nature of ultimate reality and the manifestation of the universe according to the Trika System. It also covers, briefly, the history of this advaita Shaiva philosophy of Kashmir. First published in 1914 as the first book in “The Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies,” it is still the clearest introduction to the Tattvas of the Trika. Since the lower twenty-five of the thirty-six Trika Tattvas represent the entire universe from the (...) Samkhya point of view, here also is a very clear exposition of the Samkhya Tattvas. The only difference is that, while the Purusha and the Prakriti are the final realities for Samkhya, they are but derivatives according to the Trika, which, carrying the analysis further, recognizes eleven additional Tattvas above the Purusha. (shrink)

J. C. Chatterji’s book is a brief introduction to the nature of ultimate reality and the manifestation of the universe according to the Trika System. It also covers, briefly, the history of this advaita Shaiva philosophy of Kashmir. First published in 1914 as the first book in “The Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies,” it is still the clearest introduction to the Tattvas of the Trika. Since the lower twenty-five of the thirty-six Trika Tattvas represent the entire universe from the (...) Samkhya point of view, here also is a very clear exposition of the Samkhya Tattvas. The only difference is that, while the Purusha and the Prakriti are the final realities for Samkhya, they are but derivatives according to the Trika, which, carrying the analysis further, recognizes eleven additional Tattvas above the Purusha. (shrink)

A summary of India's ancient religious system. Foreword by David Frawley.

Psychologists and neuroscientists extensively rely on computational models for studying and analyzing the human mind. Traditionally, such computational models have been hand-designed by expert researchers. Two prominent examples are cognitive architectures and Bayesian models of cognition. While the former requires the specification of a fixed set of computational structures and a definition of how these structures interact with each other, the latter necessitates the commitment to a particular prior and a likelihood function which – in combination with Bayes’ rule – (...) determine the model's behavior. In recent years, a new framework has established itself as a promising tool for building models of human cognition: the framework of meta-learning. In contrast to the previously mentioned model classes, meta-learned models acquire their inductive biases from experience, i.e., by repeatedly interacting with an environment. However, a coherent research program around meta-learned models of cognition is still missing to this day. The purpose of this article is to synthesize previous work in this field and establish such a research program. We accomplish this by pointing out that meta-learning can be used to construct Bayes-optimal learning algorithms, allowing us to draw strong connections to the rational analysis of cognition. We then discuss several advantages of the meta-learning framework over traditional methods and reexamine prior work in the context of these new insights. (shrink)

Abortion continues to be a moral and ethical dilemma in medicine. While abortions in general have always faced social stigmas, the abortion of fetuses with Down’s syndrome in particular remains the subject of debate across the globe. In India, under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, abortion is legal under prescribed circumstances only till 20 weeks of gestation. Laws for abortion after 20 week of gestation are ill defined. In a recent ruling of the Supreme Court in India, a woman (...) was denied the right to abortion of her 26 week old fetus. With this ruling, India has joined the rest of the world in the debate surrounding abortion laws and the ethics of abortion. (shrink)

Debates in the philosophy of science typically take place around issues such as realism and theory change. Recently, the debate has been reformulated to bring in the role of experiments in the context of theory change. As regards realism, Ian Hacking’s contribution has been to introduce ‘intervention’ as the basis of realism. He also proposed, following Imre Lakatos, to replace the issue of truth with progress and rationality. In this context we examine the case of the vitalism — reductionism debate (...) in biology inspired by the works of Indian physicist-turned-biologist Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858–1937), in the early twentieth century. Both camps had their characteristic hardcores. Vitalists led by John S. Burdon-Sanderson and Augustus D. Waller accepted religious metaphysics to support their research programme, which ultimately degenerated. Bose worked more with the ideals of science such as Occam’s razor, large-scale systematization of phenomena and novel prediction. I argue that his religious metaphysics, instead of acting as a protective shield, helped him to consolidate his position and allowed further problem shift resulting in a research programme that involved consciousness too. His research programme remains relevant even today. (shrink)

Abstract. The introduction of English as the medium of instruction for higher education in India in 1835 created a ferment in society and in the religious beliefs of educated Indians—Hindus, Muslims, and, later, Christians. There was a Hindu renaissance characterized by the emergence of reform movements led by charismatic figures who fastened upon aspects of Western thought, especially science, now available in English. The publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859 was readily assimilated by educated Hindus, and (...) several reformers, notably Vivekananda and Aurobindo, incorporated evolution into their philosophies. Hindu scientists such as Jagadish Chandra Bose were also influenced by Darwinian evolution, as were a number of modern Hindu thinkers. The results of an investigation into the religious beliefs of young Indian scientists at four centers were also summarized. The view that “what goes around comes around” appears increasingly to be open to doubt. Many educated Indians, not only Hindus, are raising more probing questions that call for deeper dialogues between science and religion, especially about what each believes it means to be truly human. (shrink)

In the late nineteenth century, Jagadish Chandra Bose devised millimeter- and micro-wave experiments to record responses of plants to electromagnetic stimuli. Based on these experiments, Bose conceptualized his thesis of the unity of living and nonliving entities through their different sensitivities to electromagnetic vibrations. By relating Bose’s thesis of the unity of life based on electromagnetic vibrations to Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy and N. Katherine Hayles’s work on the cognitive nonconscious, I argue for a processual media theory that (...) connects both human and plant intelligence to electromagnetic signaling. In doing so, I examine how discourses about different living bodies (plants, animals, humans) variously sensing their environments are formulated into claims about which species have what degree of cognitive capability and intelligence. I trace the influence of Bose’s work on the ecological thinking of the 1970s espoused by cyberneticists and countercultural environmentalists and on contemporary plant neurobiologists who are closely working with Internet of Things designers and researchers. This enables me to emerge with an understanding of electrosensitivity that acknowledges that there is more to the intensities and energies of signals than mere data and that such infra-informatic signals can create both capacities and incapacities, capabilities and debilities, in bodies. (shrink)