Vasuman

More Than Mindless Matter

Sun, 10 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In its search for the grand unifying principles of nature, mainstream science often looks down. Considering an object to be no more than the sum of its parts, a complex thing is reduced to a conglomerate of basic atomic primitives and nothing more. Taken to the extreme, we end up with the reductive physicalist view that the only real things in the universe are mindless physical atoms, and everything else simply emerges from their mechanical interactions.

Apoha: Meaning Via Exclusion

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

At its core, the raw content of our experience consists of a distinct set of sense perceptions that we’ve perhaps never encountered before. And yet, we somehow manage to make sense of them, by mapping these unique concrete particulars to more familiar abstract universals.

Indrajala: The Infinite Web

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In 17th century London, John Donne fell deathly ill. The field of pathophysiology wasn’t much of a thing back then and sickness was considered a manifestation of sin that warranted a visit from God. Rather than rest through the anguish, Donne decided to chronicle his reflections during this period. Fortunately, he survived and eventually published these reflections in a volume, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions. The most famous of these meditations is perhaps familiar to many.

The Anarchy in Science

Fri, 22 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Reading an introductory science textbook gives you the impression that there is a clear, well-defined structure to the scientific process. You start with an observation, develop a hypothesis that is consistent with existing theories, run an experiment to test it, and collect the results. If the findings match your model, you’ve got a working theory. Otherwise, you refine your hypothesis, rinse your instruments and repeat until it does. While a neat definition that fits on a flash card makes for a good exam question, does it accurately reflect reality?

The Art of Suspending Judgement

Tue, 17 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The modern human is conditioned to think in terms of strict dichotomies. News reports must be judged as real or fake. One’s political beliefs must belong exclusively to the left or the right. The existence of a higher power must either be constantly affirmed or vehemently denied. We’re forced to choose between two extremes. And led to believe that a refusal to endorse one position is tacit support for its opposite.

Beyond Logical Consistency

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

We conventionally associate the term logic with bivalent logic. A system in which any proposition is assigned just one of two possible values: true or false. But, what if there was more to it?

Work Less To Do More

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The prominence of #hustlelife posts on Instagram reflects the values of our current times. The capitalistic society we live in glorifies overwork and vilifies rest. We are led to believe that any time not spent on so-called “productive” labor is a sinful waste that must be diverted to more useful endeavors. Stories of successful people who are constantly working litter our cultural mythos — like CEOs who sleep on the factory floor while personally overseeing production.

Transcendence Through Negation

Mon, 20 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Philo Judaeus was a Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, who lived contemporaneous with the Christ. While Jesus walked around extolling the positive attributes of a unitary God: compassionate, merciful, loving, kind. Philo preferred a different approach to describing the absolute — by negating characterizations. In Philo’s allegorical exegesis on the Old Testament in Greek, he spurned the anthropomorphization of God. His view on human-like descriptions of God in scripture was that they were not to be taken literally, but instead considered metaphors.

Yathabhutam: Observing Things As They Are

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I recently completed a 10-day Vipassana retreat, which was a pretty enlightening experience. I’d highly recommend it to anyone seeking to reduce their suffering. I learned a lot, but my key takeaway from the entire exercise is that our suffering arises from not accepting the reality of things as they are. Our minds are constantly engaged in constructing a fictional ideal world conditioned by our desires while heedlessly ignoring the true nature of things.

Shunyata: The Emptiness of Essence

Tue, 24 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

For millennia, philosophers have debated whether essences (svabhāva) are real entities. In the West, the essentialist doctrine was famously espoused by Plato’s Theory of Ideas which claimed that real-world objects are imitations of transcendent Forms. In his book The History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell criticizes this view, claiming that it conflates a linguistic convention with metaphysical ontology. We apply the same name, on different occasions, to somewhat different occurrences, which we regard as manifestations of a single “thing” or “person”.