Deep and universal spirituality is evident in the life and teachings of all the founders of great world faiths. Over time, however, it gets clouded under the institutional and doctrinal structure of the religion that surrounds it. This book, Interfaith Spirituality: Toward Universal Faith beyond Dogmas, by Ramesh N. Patel, stands out by emphasizing and articulating the noble and inspirational spirituality of world faiths, Eastern and Western. The faiths chosen for narration are Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism and (...) Hinduism. -/- The book goes farther than bringing out the spirituality of Eastern and Western faiths. For, it offers intellectually sound thinking toward relieving the age-old tensions between faiths, such as the numinous and the mystical, monotheism and non-dualism, privileging of believers against open-ended tolerance of differences and so on. -/- A further standout feature of the book is its diving deep to pick out pearls of spiritual wisdom from the world faiths and weaving them into thoughtful necklaces which it calls thought experiments in world spirituality. To top it all is offered an optimal universal spirituality that is comprehensive in scope and universal in application. It manifests a flower with spiritual outlines in four petals of work, faith, concept and contemplation. Spiritual seekers from diverse dimensions of life will find this useful and supportive. -/- The book, Interfaith Spirituality, thus is not just innovative. It offers a message of healing and calming moderation for a world that is torn by polarizing conflicts of various sorts. (shrink)

Any healthcare systems during a pandemic undergo tremendous pressure in pursuit of effective treatment to treat and limit the spread of the disease and its implications. Conducting clinical trials to find the potential therapy is the only way to battle the current coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic. The majority of the countries have joined the cause and are carrying out clinical studies in various capacities. As a result, the ethical committees have encountered a sudden inflow of a large number of trial proposals (...) that have placed them under pressure. Although ethical committees play a vital role in protecting patient safety and preserving research integrity, they need to make sure the efficiency and integrity of review are preserved and the standards of review are not relaxed. Thus, the participants’ dignity is well guarded while keeping a close check on their safety. (shrink)

We share Nair-Collins and Joffe's (2023) concern with the accuracy of the “whole brain-death” diagnosis, which fails to take into account current understandings of residual brain function (neurohor...

The chromosomes undergo a condensation‐decondensation cycle within the life cycle of mammalian cells. Chromosome condensation is a complex and critical event that is necessary for the equal distribution of genetic material between the two daughter cells. Although chromosome condensation‐decondensation and segregation is mechanistically complex, it proceeds with high fidelity during the eukaryotic cell division cycle. Cell fusion studies have indicated the presence of chromosome condensation factors in mammalian cells during mitosis. If extracts from mitotic cells are injected into immature oocytes (...) of Xenopus laevis, they induce meiotic maturation (i.e. germinal vesicle breakdown and chromosome condensation) within 2–3 hours. Recently, we showed that the maturation‐promoting activity of the mitotic cell extracts is inactivated by certain protein factors present in cells during the G1 period. The activity of the G1 factors coincides with the process of chromosome decondensation that begins at telophase and continues throughout the G1 period. These studies have revealed that the mitotic factors and the G1 factors play a pivotal role in the regulation of condensation and decondensation of chromosomes. Furthermore, our studies strongly suggest that nonhistone protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation may mediate chromosome condensation and decondensation, respectively. (shrink)

Philosophical Psychology, Volume 24, Issue 3, Page 427-435, 01Jun2011.

This baseline study was conducted to find out the knowledge, attitudes and practices of medical ethics among the undergraduate medical interns who did not have structured ethics curriculum in their course. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out using a self-administered structured questionnaire among the medical undergraduate interns of Maharajgunj Medical Campus, the pioneer medical college of Nepal which enrols 60 students in a year. A total of 46 interns participated in the study. The most common source of knowledge on (...) ethics was lectures/seminars (35.7%) followed by experience at work (24.5%), training (21.4%) and own reading (17.3%). The main contents of Hippocratic Oath were known to 98.8% while 60.9% knew the main contents of Nepal Medical Council (NMC) code of ethics. Great majority (91.3%) regard ethics as very important in medical profession. “Doctors know the best irrespective of patients’ opinion” was disagreed by only 39.1% indicating the paternalistic attitude. However, 78.3% were in favour of adhering to the patient’s wish. None of the participant agreed to abandon confidentiality. Only about one-fourth (26.1%) claim to encounter ethical dilemma every day while the highest number (43.5%) had once in a month. To deal with the situation of ethical dilemma, majority approached to immediate supervisor followed by head of the department and colleagues. Eighty-seven percent of participating interns were involved in research activities involving human subjects. Only one of the participants had encountered the ethical issue on end-of-life and it was do-not-resuscitate consent in a terminally ill patient. On implementation of the curriculum on medical ethics focus should be - principles of biomedical ethics, sensitive ethical dilemmas like end-of-life care and practical experiences with participation in deliberations of the ethics committee. (shrink)

The paper entitled ‘Anthropocentric teleological environmental ethics’ is quite suggestive. I have tried to pinpoint that environmental ethics is both anthropocentric and teleological. I contend that man is the sole bearer of values. Environment serves human purpose. Man gives values to environment or Mother Earth. Indians with their reverence for sacred rivers have always been close to nature. I propose integral teleological environmental ethical theory which integrates man and nature, deontological and teleological theories. It reconciles between anthropocentric and non-anthropocentric views (...) of environment. (shrink)

Long‐range correlation is a general class of coordination pattern found to be common to the intrinsic dynamics of complex systems, including human behavior. Balasubramaniam, Hove, and Médé investigate intrinsic dynamics in repeated finger movements, and they find that different measures of movement dynamics yield different long‐range correlations. Results shed light on the way that coordination patterns are expressed as a function of measurement context.

As part of the special issue on “The United Nations at Seventy-Five: Looking Back to Look Forward,” this essay connects the past of the United Nations to its future from the perspective of the Global South. When the UN was created, most developing countries were colonies that played no role in writing the rules and designing the architecture of the post-1945 UN-centric global multilateral order. Today, countries in the Global South command a majority of the UN membership, but still mostly (...) function as norm takers and are severely underrepresented in the UN Security Council—which functions as the geopolitical cockpit—and also in the senior ranks of the UN system, in the key posts in the Secretariat, and in the UN's funds and agencies. Gradually, however, these countries are using their numerical strength to give voice to their distinctive preferences, priorities, and values. This essay provides a broad-brush sketch of the changing nature of the North-South partnership on the UN's four overarching normative mandates of security, development, environment, and human rights. It includes a brief comment on the coronavirus pandemic within the framework of its main narrative of the continuing need for a UN-centric North-South partnership. (shrink)

Mahatma Gandhi is regarded as an apostle of nonviolence. But his own thought prioritized truth as the final goal and nonviolence only as the preferred means to achieve the goal. Hence, it is of utmost importance to understand clearly what Gandhi meant by “truth.” Gandhi himself did not offer great help in communicating his concept of truth. He claimed, though, that it was easier for him to grasp truth as he conceived it and that he struggled to grasp nonviolence. Kishorlal (...) Mashruwala, an intellectually inclined close associate and follower of Gandhi wrote a book called Gandhi Vichar Dohan or Quintessence of Gandhi’s Thought in Gujarati. Mashruwala was a clear and systematic thinker and Gandhi approved of the book as accurate depiction of his own, Gandhi’s, thinking. The book has never been translated in English. The present work, Mahatma Gandhi’s Thought: Philosophy of Truth and Nonviolence, by Professor Ramesh N. Patel, is first in publishing relevant parts of that book. It clarifies the dual concept of truth that Gandhi developed and worked with. The concept sports highly original and innovative thinking that, at the same time, reflects an ethic that would challenge anyone to the extreme. Greatness of Gandhi is made obvious when it is realized that he lived this original concept of extremely challenging truth ethic fully through his life. The present work goes ahead to show how Gandhi’s concept of truth logically works as the prime source from which nonviolence and other Gandhian concepts are derived. It also presents Gandhi’s overall thought in a philosophically systematized manner. This is its unique feature compared to the enormous literature available on Gandhi which keeps painting him just as an apostle of nonviolence, focusing on his politically dramatic years. (shrink)

The phenomenon of dreamless sleep and its philosophical consequences, particularly deep sleep's relevance to such issues as Self, Consciousness, Personal Identity, Unity of Subject, and Disembodied Life, are explored through a discussion, in varying detail, of certain noted doctrines and views--for example of Advaita Vedānta, Hegel, and H. D. Lewis. Finally, with a cue from Leibniz and McTaggart, the suggestion is made that at no stage during sleep is the self without some perceptions, however indeterminate. Support for this hypothesis is (...) claimed from the current psychoanalytic opinion that mental activity does not cease during any part of sleep and that human beings continue to dream even in the so-called dreamless state. (shrink)

Day-to-day lives are affected globally by the epidemic coronavirus 2019. With an increasing number of positive cases, India has now become a highly affected country. Chronic diseases affect individuals with no time identification and impose a huge disease burden on society. In this article, an Efficient Recurrent Neural Network with Ensemble Classifier is built using VGG-16 and Alexnet with weighted model to predict disease and its level. The dataset is partitioned randomly into small subsets by utilizing mean-based splitting method. Various (...) models of classifier create a homogeneous ensemble by utilizing an accuracy-based weighted aging classifier ensemble, which is a weighted model’s modification. Two state of art methods such as Graph Sequence Recurrent Neural Network and Hybrid Rough-Block-Based Neural Network are used for comparison with respect to some parameters such as accuracy, precision, recall, f1-score, and relative absolute error. As a result, it is found that the proposed ERNN-EC method accomplishes accuracy of 95.2%, precision of 91%, recall of 85%, F1-score of 83.4%, and RAE of 41.6%. (shrink)

We agree with Nielsen Busch and Mjaaland’s (2023) assessment that the Dead Donor Rule (DDR) should be viewed as an essential requirement of the organ donation process, and that the essence of the r...

Study of Vivekacūḍāmaṇi of Śaṅkarācārya, work on Vedanta philosophy.

Study of classical commentary on Sāṅkhyakārikā of Īśvarakr̥ṣṇa, work on the fundamentals of Sankhya philosophy.

Haluk Ogmen and Bruno G. Breitmeyer (eds.): The First Half Second: The Microgenesis and Temporal Dynamics of Unconscious and Conscious Visual Processes Content Type Journal Article Category Book Review Pages 61-65 DOI 10.1007/s11023-011-9266-7 Authors Ramesh Kumar Mishra, Centre of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, Allahabad University, Allahabad, India Journal Minds and Machines Online ISSN 1572-8641 Print ISSN 0924-6495 Journal Volume Volume 22 Journal Issue Volume 22, Number 1.

The present book intends to approach the problem of mind, meaning and consciousness from a non-naturalist or transcendental point of view. The naturalization of consciousness has reached a dead-end. There can be no proper solution to the problem of mind within the naturalist framework. This work intends to reverse this trend and bring back the long neglected transcendental theory laid down by Kant and Husserl in the West and Vedanta and Buddhism in India. The novelty of this approach lies in (...) how we can make an autonomous space for mind and meaning without denying its connection with the world. The transcendental theory does not disown the embodied nature of consciousness, but goes beyond the body in search of higher meanings and values. The scope of this work extends from mind and consciousness to the world and brings the world into the space of mind and meaning with a hope to enchant the world. The world needs to be retrieved from the stranglehold of scientism and naturalism. This book will dispel the illusion about naturalism which has gripped the minds of our generation. The researchers interested in the philosophy of mind and consciousness can benefit from this work. (shrink)

Speech perception has been a very productive and important area in psycholinguistics. In this review easy, I discuss Cutler's new book on native language listening. Cutler argues for a theory of speech perception, where all speech perception is accomplished by competence in native speech. I review this book and attempt to situate its main contributions in the broader context of cognitive science.

I think, from the standpoint of present experience, one can fairly start by saying that all experience is lived embodied experience, though it is clear that such a statement, if wholly unqualified, would mean a commitment of extensive implications. 1 Some of these implications I will briefly try to spell out toward the end of this essay. I don’t say our body sets limits to how far our imagination can really go, for clearly, if our imagination were wholly controlled by (...) our body as presented to us, dreams, for example, would not be possible. 2 But dreams are not only possible, they are a matter of everyday experience. Nay, even the limits of imagination do not determine the limits of possibility. .. (shrink)

The present paper entitled "Subaltern Language Games and Political Conditions: A Perspective on Applied Philosophy" attempts to streamline Wittgensteinian language games and political conditions. The expression `subaltern ` stands for the meaning as given in the concise oxford dictionary, that is, `of inferior rank`. Subaltern language game is the game of marginalized people. Language game is meaningful in the context of social and political relationship. My contention is that technical or symbolic language is an instrument to serve the end of (...) the affluent class. I think that any social and political change requires change in languagegame. By applied philosophy, I mean that philosophical theories are applicable in concrete human situation. In this sense, I have considered Wittgenstein as an applied philosopher because he holds that words are dead but assume life when it is used or applied in the concrete life situation. In order to make society free from exploitation and reduce inequality, we have to change the prevailing language game. The language game which I am proposing may be called as the "Subaltern Language Game". I have tried to understand Wittgenstein's language game in the light of Derrida's theory of deconstruction. The ordinary languagephilosophy as expounded in` Philosophical Investigation` deconstructs `technical language philosophy' of `Tractatus` because technical language gives an abstract system of symbols and lacks blood and flesh of lifeworld. My contention is that language game is inseparable from socio-political structure. As a matter of fact language game is the expression of forms of life. The language game of the affluent and the ruling class is different from the language game of the poor and downtrodden. The language game of one ethnic group is different from the language game of another ethnic group. The language game of the white people is different from the language game of the black. In Indian context, the language game of the upper caste is different from the language game of the lower caste. The possibility of inequality due to linguistic advantages of privileged class is a fact and not a fantasy. In order to develop linguistic capacity, it requires socio-political and socio-cultural mechanism. The social inequality due to linguistic handicap of individual can be lessened by a process of change in values. This process of change in value system is called culturalisation or sanskritisation. It can be helpful in changing the use of language and its meaning. Thus, in moving from theory to practice, philosophers work to change these words and rules for those philosophers who are trying to do applied philosophy. The language game of the applied philosopher should be fashioned in accordance with socio-political realities. It is not plausible to do applied philosophy with outdated mode of philosophising. (shrink)