Contributed essays on the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo Ghose, 1872-1950, philosopher and writer from India.

Contributed papers presented at the Three Day National Seminar on 'Indian and Western Philosophy of Language' held at Varanasi from February 10-12th, 2011 by IGNCA in collaboration with Department of Vyākaraṇa, Sanskrit Vidya Dharmavijnana Sankaya, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

A complete compendium on theories and approaches to international relations covering debates surrounding the major paradigms and latest developments. Organized around the three paradigms of the discipline of international relations (IR)--realism, pluralism and globalism--this textbook offers a comprehensive and exhaustive coverage of the theories and approaches to IR, including their critiques and evaluations. By treating these theories and approaches under the canopy of the paradigms rather than in isolation, the book facilitates better understanding of their fundamental commonalities and divergences. It (...) addresses the ongoing lively debates both inside and among the paradigms as well as the excessive American-centricity and Eurocentrism of the discipline of IR. Written as an integrated, self-sufficient unit, this textbook will be a valuable companion for inquisitive undergraduate and postgraduate students, research scholars and teachers, who need not search for additional books and references. Key Features: - Careful organization of 15 theories into 3 positivist paradigmatic divisions, and treatment of 4 post-positivist theories to offer a comprehensive and logical approach to the entire subject - Focus on non-Western traditions of IR thinking such as Kautilya from India, Han Fei from China and reference to India in the study of old regionalism - Systematic browsing of relevant theoretical literature and current citations for every theoretical point made - Additional features such as Word Help boxes and review questions to enhance teaching-learning experience - Six chapters available on the companion website to address the needs of advanced readers. (shrink)

Study on the mathematical philosophy and logic of Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970, a British mathematician, logician and philosopher.

This is a brief review of the Rasa theory of Indian aesthetics and the works I have done on the same. A major source of the Indian system of classification of emotional states comes from the ‘Natyasastra’, the ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts, which dates back to the 2nd Century AD (or much earlier, pg. LXXXVI: Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951). The ‘Natyasastra’ speaks about ‘sentiments’ or ‘Rasas’ (pg.102: Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951) which are produced when certain ‘dominant states’ (sthayi Bhava), (...) ‘transitory states’ (vyabhicari Bhava) and ‘temperamental states’ (sattvika Bhava) of emotions come together (pgs.102, 105: Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951). This Rasa theory, which is still widely followed in classical Indian performing arts, classifies eight Rasas or sentiments which are: Sringara (erotic), Hasya (comic), Karuna (pathetic), Raudra (furious), Vira (heroic), Bhayanaka (terrible), Bibhatsa (odious) and Adbhuta (marvellous). There was a later addition of the ninth sentiment or Rasa called Santa (peace) in later Sanskrit poetics (pg.102: Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951). According to ancient Indian aesthetics (especially in the context of Bharatas’ ‘Natyasastra’, Anandavardhana’s ‘Dhvanyaloka’ and Abhinavagupta’s ‘Abhinavabharati’), ‘Rasa’ is the relishable state of elemental human emotions called ‘Bhavas’. Bharata’s ‘Natyasastra’ originally spoke of eight Rasas. The concept of the 9th Rasa was a later interpolation by the Kashmiri Shaivist Abhinavagupta (10th Century AD) and also his predecessor Anandavardhana (9th Century AD). Abhinavagupta extends the eight Rasas by adding the concept of the Santa Rasa which he regards as the essence of all Rasas. It is this 9th Rasa which according to Abhinavagupta lets the Rasika attain the aesthetic detachment and savour the essences of all other Rasas and therefore the true aesthetic delight. The introduction of 9th Rasa integrates the concepts of Bharata’s Rasasutra and Patanjali’s Yoga theory – the detachment necessary to introspect inwards into the inherent state of freedom and bliss (aesthetic consciousness). (shrink)

In this paper, we critique the emergent international normative framework of growth – the knowledge economy. We point out that the standardized character of knowledge economy's flagship – intellectual property rights (IPRs) – has an adverse impact on women in emerging economies, such as India. Conversely, this impact on women, a significant consumer segment, has a feedback effect in terms of market growth. Conceptually, we analyze the consequences of knowledge economy and standardized IPR through a feminist lens. We extend the (...) analyses by pointing to various contradictions surrounding growth norms; for example, there are inherent contradictions between established "formal" legalistic interpretation ofIPR, "soft law" norms of corporate social responsibility, a fluid situation of moral claims of human rights, and different institutional capabilities at the international and domestic level. Consequently, we are able to demonstrate how standard IPR laws fail to deliver equity for all. We argue our case through exploring the growth aspects of the agricultural sector in India and the adverse impact of standard biopatenting on women farmers' rights (as producers and consumers) and preservation of environment. We suggest that desired gendered equity is better achieved when there is a constellation of actors – private–sector business, the state, and civil-society leaders – working together to ensure a balanced development through tailoring of IPR to local needs. (shrink)

Journal of Human Values, Volume 28, Issue 3, Page 181-199, September 2022. The study addresses the challenging crisis of sustainable consumption. It explores the philosophy of Samkhya, which is based on nature and spirit, also found in Vedantic knowledge, and synthesizes it with the knowledge of spiritual well-being found in modern literature to conceptualize the roles of the direct, mediating and moderated mediation relationships of different Vedantic personality types, spiritual well-being and family structure with consciousness for sustainable consumption and its (...) three dimensions of environment, society and economy. Based on the conceptualized roles, different models have been proposed. (shrink)

The following discourse is a brief yet appealing comparative analysis of two viewpoints on the same subject of Karma Yoga (detached 'witness–consciousness' through action) written separately by two stalwarts of Indian philosophy: Rabindranath Tagore (1915) and Swami Vivekananda (1896).

This is a brief conceptual analysis of the limitations of 'scientific' empiricism which I tried to convey without any possible scientific or philosophical jargon which are commonly used by scientists or philosophers and which are difficult for others to understand. The terms which appear as jargon here do not need to be understood literally as they are supposed to convey mere examples rather than meaning.

The musings are based upon Kashmiri Shaivist Abhinavagupta’s concept of Santa Rasa (10th Century AD) and my Advait beliefs stemmed from the Upanishads.

Cultural Studies needs to be reinvented for India - a polity where the larger part of the population are disenfranchised non-citizens. The terrain of ‘culture’ here being differently constituted, manners could serve as a useful category for theorizing this difference. Included in ‘manners’ are a different historical formation of subjectivity as well as another ontology of representation. Further, Cultural Studies, so conceived, could productively interrogate that excess of Indian political/public culture which cannot be penetrated by disciplinary political theory. This article (...) is a plea for a Political Cultural Studies. (shrink)

This photo-essay analyzes the politics of dwelling of the inhabitants of ‘outcast’ Calcutta - the city that is the nightmare of urban planners and whose squalor, filth and poverty are taken to be indexes of the failure of the postcolonial urbanism as such. The city that turned itself into a barricade during the street-fighting years of the 1960s is now about to turn its back on its own subalterns, participating in urban cleansing drives that derive from neo-liberal dictates. Showing that (...) the squatters also dwell and forge solidarities underpinned by an ethic of survival, this essay draws attention to non-state political formations emerging out of the negotiations of the City Form with the non-civic but enabling life-forms prevalent in subaltern Calcutta. (shrink)

Neurofilaments and microtubules are important components of the neuronal cytoskeleton. In axons or dendrites, these filaments are aligned in parallel arrays, and separated from one another by nonrandom distances. This distinctive organization has been attributed to cross bridges formed by NF side arms or microtubule‐associated proteins. We recently proposed a polymer‐brush‐based mechanism for regulating interactions between neurofilaments and between microtubules. In this model, the side arms of neurofilaments and the projection domains of microtubule‐associated proteins are highly unstructured and exert long‐range (...) repulsive forces that are largely entropic in origin; these forces then act to organize the cytoskeleton in axons and dendrites. Here, we review the biochemical, biophysical, genetic and cell biological data for the polymer‐brush and cross‐bridging models. We explore how the data traditionally used to support cross bridging may be reconciled with a polymer‐brush mechanism and compare the implications of recent experimental insights into axonal transport and physiology for each model. BioEssays 26:1017–1025, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Commentary on a portion of Tattvacintāmaṇi, basic work of the neo-Nyaya school in Hindu philosophy.

This special issue of Sophia, titled Living without God: A Multicultural Spectrum of Atheism, deals with the intricate issue of approaching atheism—methodologically as well as conceptually—from the perspective of cultural pluralism. What does ‘atheism’ mean in different cultural contexts? Can this term be applied appropriately to different religious discourses which conceptualize God/gods/Goddess/goddesses in hugely divergent ways? Or would that rather be a sort of hegemonic homogenization of all possible modalities of living without God, as Jessica Frazier argues? Is my ‘God’ (...) the same as yours? If not, then how can your atheism be the same as mine? In other words, this issue of Sophia raises the question: Is it not high time that we proposed a comparative study of atheism alongside that of religions, rather than believing that atheism is centered in the ‘Western’ experience? Besides, how can we explore the modalities of atheist religiosity such as we find in Buddhism and Jainism and also, arguably, in certain forms of Hinduism, as far as the Indic traditions are concerned? How might these negotiations of atheism across the multicultural spectrum interrogate our tendency to place atheism within the context of the binary opposition of science and religion? Besides, there is a need to focus on the philosophical negotiations between atheism, theism and agnosticism and the discourses that emerge from such dialogues, including that of postsecularity. (shrink)

This book deals with the intricate issue of approaching atheism—methodologically as well as conceptually—from the perspective of cultural pluralism. What does ‘atheism’ mean in different cultural contexts? Can this term be applied appropriately to different religious discourses which conceptualize God/gods/Goddess/goddesses (and also godlessness) in hugely divergent ways? Is my ‘God’ the same as yours? If not, then how can your atheism be the same as mine? In other words, this volume raises the question: Is it not high time that we (...) proposed a comparative study of atheism(s) alongside that of religions, rather than believing that atheism is centered in the ‘Western’ experience? Apart from answering these questions, the book highlights the much-needed focus on the philosophical negotiations between atheism, theism and agnosticism. The fine chapters collected here present pluralist negotiations with the notion of atheism and its ethical, theological, literary and scientific corollaries. (shrink)

Ascorbic acid is a redox regulator in many physiological processes. Besides its antioxidant activity, many intriguing functions of ascorbic acid in the expression of immunoregulatory genes have been suggested. Ascorbic acid acts as a co‐factor for the Fe+2‐containing α‐ketoglutarate‐dependent Jumonji‐C domain‐containing histone demethylases (JHDM) and Ten eleven translocation (TET) methylcytosine dioxygenasemediated epigenetic modulation. By influencing JHDM and TET, ascorbic acid facilitates the differentiation of double negative (CD4−CD8−) T cells to double positive (CD4+CD8+) T cells and of T‐helper cells to different (...) effector subsets. Ascorbic acid modulates plasma cell differentiation and promotes early differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) to NK cells. These findings indicate that ascorbic acid plays a significant role in regulating both innate and adaptive immune cells, opening up new research areas in Immunonutrition. Being a water‐soluble vitamin and a safe micro‐nutrient, ascorbic acid can be used as an adjunct therapy for many disorders of the immune system. (shrink)

Commentary on the Śabdakhaṇḍa of Tattvacintāmaṇi, work on verbal epistemology of the neo-Nyaya school in Indic philosophy.

Both the theory that traumatic childhood memories can be repressed, and the reliability of the techniques used to retrieve these memories are challenged in this paper. Questions are raised about the robustness of the theory and the literature that purports to provide scientific evidence for it. Evidence to this end is provided by the demographic and qualitative results of a research study conducted by the authors which surveyed New Zealand families in which one member had accused another (or others) of (...) sexual abuse on the basis of recovered memories. It is shown that a number of these allegations involve very low probability events. Since memory repression theory is not currently scientifically substantiated it is argued that care needs to be taken in the mental health, legal and insurance compensation arenas. Memories recalled during therapy may be treated as metaphorical but, in the absence of corroborative evidence, should not be considered factually true. Clinicians who wish to use memory recovery techniques should inform patients of their experimental and controversial nature, point out potential adverse effects, and obtain consent before proceeding. (shrink)

With rapid growth in Far Eastern economies (in particular China’s), it is becoming imperative to understand the culturally driven ethical-value underpinnings of the management processes in this region of the world. In this study, we propose a broadened version of Hofstede’s and others’ conception of Confucian dynamics anchored in his teachings preserved in the Lunyu (or Analects), which form the foundation of individual-social moral interactions. Based on a content analysis of these Analects via a qualitative software, NVivo, we identified six (...) work-based values (Leadership Attributes, Appropriate Conduct, Authority Protocol, Governance Policies, Long term Orientation and Collegiality and Teamwork) and six life-based values (Virtuousness and Appropriate Behavior, Handling Life’s Emotions, Learning and Teaching, Parent/Elder Relationship, Friendship and Worship) of the society, prescribed by Confucius in his Analects. These factors are further analyzed and mapped in the context of the three Confucian ethical dimensions (Yi or Righteousness, Li or Propriety, and Ren or Benevolence and Unbounded). The business implications of the results and directions for future research are finally discussed. (shrink)

With rapid growth in Far Eastern economies, it is becoming imperative to understand the culturally driven ethical-value underpinnings of the management processes in this region of the world. In this study, we propose a broadened version of Hofstede’s and others’ conception of Confucian dynamics anchored in his teachings preserved in the Lunyu, which form the foundation of individual-social moral interactions. Based on a content analysis of these Analects via a qualitative software, NVivo, we identified six work-based values and six life-based (...) values of the society, prescribed by Confucius in his Analects. These factors are further analyzed and mapped in the context of the three Confucian ethical dimensions. The business implications of the results and directions for future research are finally discussed. (shrink)

In this article, epoch-based dynamic features such as sequence of epoch interval values and epoch strength values are explored to classify infant cries. Epoch is the instant of significant excitation of the vocal tract system during the production of speech. For voiced speech, the most significant excitation takes place around the instant of glottal closure. The different types of infant cries considered in this work are hunger, pain, and wet diaper. In this work, epoch strength and epoch interval features are (...) used to represent infant cry-specific information from the acoustic signal. In this study, the proposed features such as epoch interval and epoch strength values are determined using zero-frequency filter-based method. Gaussian mixture models are used to classify the above-mentioned cries from the features proposed in this work. GMMs are developed separately for each of the cries using the proposed features. The infant cry database collected under a telemedicine project at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur has been used for this study. In the first step, infant cry recognition accuracy is investigated separately using epoch interval and epoch strength features. To enhance recognition performance, GMMs developed using various features are combined through score level fusion techniques. The recognition performance using a combination of evidence is found to be superior over individual systems. (shrink)