KNOWLEDGE FOCI FOR JOURNEY IN BEING

ANIL MITRA PH D, COPYRIGHT © JANUARY 2001, REVISED April  2010

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Outline

Possible knowledge foci 3   |   Current topics—2008. 3   |   Introduction: objectives and plan. 3

Philosophy. 3   |   History. 17   |   Symbol 17   |   Art, Myth and Religion. 18   |   Healing. 21   |   Science. 21
Other Elements of the Western Tradition. 23
   |   Other Traditions. 23

Copyright and most recent update. 25

 

Contents

Possible knowledge foci 1

Current topics—2008. 2

Essential 2

Complement 2

Introduction: objectives and plan. 2

Philosophy. 2

Philosophy I: Metaphysics. 2

Philosophy II: the Great Western Philosophers. 2

Philosophy III: Mind: Nature and Map; Origins of Language. 5

Philosophy IV: Recent Philosophers. 5

Philosophy V: Important Works from the History of Political and Economic Philosophy. 9

Politics and Political Philosophy: Individuals and Major Works. 9

Economics and Economic Philosophy: Individuals and Major Works. 9

Philosophy VI: Recent Writers in Political Philosophy and Related Contributing Disciplines. 10

Analytical Philosophy. 10

Continental Philosophy. 11

History. 12

Sociology. 13

Economics. 13

Political Science. 14

Legal Studies. 15

History. 16

Symbol 16

The Symbolic Disciplines: Signs, Language, Logic and Mathematics – Foundations and Relation to Being. 16

Languages: Sanskrit, Hindi, Other…... 16

Art, Myth and Religion. 17

Mythology and Religion, Literature and Music: Contribution to Meaning, Deep Symbols, Action, Understanding and Human Nature. 17

Religion. 17

Myth. 17

Literature. 17

Music. 18

Art, Symbol and Being. 18

Great art and artists. 18

Healing. 20

Healing, and Medicine. 20

Examples: 20

Science. 20

Sociology and Anthropology for Foundations of Being; Social Action; Charisma and Patriarchalism.. 20

Science in Knowledge, Progress of Being… and as a Metaphor for Metaphysics, Epistemology. 20

Logic, Mathematics and Science. 20

Information, and Network Technology; Cognitive Sciences – Symbolic / Mechanical Being, Agents; Use and Application. 20

Some intelligent applications – various stages of development 21

Physics… and Reality, Classical / Formal… and Cosmology… and Metaphysics… and foundations for the sciences. 21

Chemistry: Materials for Technology and Industrial Processes; Possibility of Molecules; Origin and Function of Life. 21

Geology: Effect on Conditions for Life, Evolution, Speciation; Minerals, Fuels, their Origins. 21

Biology / life sciences: History of Life, Humans and Mind; Potential of Life; Biological Foundations of Mind, Consciousness, Knowledge, Symbol 22

Psychology, Neurophysiology, Anthropology, Sociology: Variation / Malleability in Mental Process, Development and Personality. 22

Other Elements of the Western Tradition. 22

Other Elements of the Western Tradition: contribution and contrast to the old world, India, Native American and the animal 22

Other Traditions. 22

India and Indian Philosophy. 22

Modern Indian philosophers. 23

Native American; other primal including Siberia. 23

The Animal World. 23

Copyright and most recent update. 24

 

Possible knowledge foci

Study of the following ideas and individuals will be incorporated in History &or History of Western Philosophy &or Journey in Being
The listing is selective according to:

Fundamental significance

Significance to Journey in Being

Items have not received adequate treatment in one of the documents just noted

Research: see Object System and Functions, Sources

Also see: list of articles

Current topics—2008

Essential

Above

Complement

Economics, politics

History and its values—and the meaning of destiny from the Universal metaphysics

Natural and political geography

Internet as a social phenomenon and political tool

Introduction: objectives and plan

Much of the following is done

Learn just enough to “close the map” by analogy then proof

Sources from History, History of Western Philosophy

Research topics – mine or reference to others work – that may be included:

Topics that I think are fundamental to being

Topics that support a need for Journey in Being

Philosophy

The philosophers selected are those important for future study; History of Western Philosophy has a more complete listing

Philosophy I: Metaphysics

Round out metaphysics – includes epistemology, logic, axiology, language, theory of being; complete my philosophical education

Metaphysics of Presence

Paradox, thinkability, and knowability; possibility and necessity

Topics for metaphysics for Journey in Being: general metaphysics, philosophy and theory of being; kinds of knowledge, knowledge and justification; evolution, design and the absolute

Philosophy II: the Great Western Philosophers

Philosophy, etymologically ‘love of wisdom’ comes to mean different things in different ages. Here, the tradition according to ‘History of Western Philosophy’ is emphasized. Also, I take philosophers to be those who express certain kinds of ideas in words, usually written, rather than in their lives

In following a natural tendency to emphasize recent philosophy, I might include the recent philosophers Nietzsche, Russell, Popper, Heidegger, Wittgenstein and Whitehead among the great. It has been said Russell, Popper, Heidegger and Wittgenstein are the four great philosophers of the 20th century and each has a following who would affirm him as the greatest in that century. I believe that Whitehead should be included among the handful of 20th century ‘greats:’ Whitehead’s thought rises to Platonic heights and, though his style of philosophy has never found much favor in recent times, his thought includes true philosophy in contrast to being the philosophy of something as is the case for much of the writing of Russell, Wittgenstein and Popper and, to a lesser degree, that of Heidegger. Nietzsche, Whitehead, Russell and Popper are included in the Recent Philosophers, below; Heidegger and Wittgenstein and their works are treated extensively in History of Western Philosophy. Of the philosophers mentioned in this paragraph, Nietzsche is the only one I include among the ‘great’ of all time

Listed temporally

Before Plato
The significance of the Greek period before Plato includes the origin of a written tradition of the reflective consciousness of ideas [starting with Thales,] the origin [the Eleatic School and the Sophists] and first maturation of critical thought [Socrates and his legend]

Plato
The “important” aspects [for now] of Plato are:
Knowledge: Parmenides [theory of forms]
Cosmology: Timaeus
Politics: Republic
A source for Plato:The Collected Dialogues of Plato, Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairnes eds., 1961
The traditional order of Plato’s works: Euthyphron [Euthyphro]; Apologia Sokratous [Apology]; Criton [Crito]; Phaedon [Phaedo]; Cratylos [Cratylus]; Theaetetos [Theaetetus]; Sophistes [Sophist]; Politikos [Statesman]; Parmenides; Philebos [Philebus]; Symposion [Symposium]; Phaedros [Phaedrus]; Alkibiades [Alcibiades]; Hipparchos [Hipparchus]; Erastai [Lovers]; Charmides; Laches; Lysis; Euthydemos [Euthydemus]; Protagoras; Gorgias; Menon [Meno]; Hippias Meizon [Hippias Major]; Hippias Elatton [Hippias Minor]; Ion; Menexenos [Menexenus]; Politeia [Republic]; Timaeos [Timeaus]; Critias; Nomoi [Laws]; and Epinomis

Aristotle
Aristotle’s works divide into [EB]
Logic [Organon;]
Natural Philosophy [physical - Physike, Peri ouranou – On the Heavens, Peri geneseos kai phthoras (On Generation and Corruption; On Coming to Be and Passing Away;) Meteorologika (Meteorology;) biologicalPeri ta zoa historiai (History of Animals;) Peri zoon morion (Parts of Animals;) Peri zoon kineseos (Movement of Animals;) Peri poreias zoon (Progression of Animals;) Peri zoon geneseos (Generation of Animals)
Psychobiological – the collective Parva Naturalia on psychobiological topics – Peri aistheseos (On the Senses and Their Objects; On Sense and Sensible Objects;) Peri mnemes kai anamneseos (On Memory and Recollection;) Peri hypnou kai egregorseos (On Sleep and Waking;) Peri enypnion (On Dreams;) Peri tes kath hypnon mantikes (On Divination in Sleep; On Prophecy in Sleep;) Peri makrobiotetos kai brachybiotetos (On Length and Shortness of Life;) Peri neotetos kai geros (On Youth and Old Age;) Peri zoes kai thanatou (On Life and Death;) Peri anapnoes (On Respiration)]
Psychology [Peri psyches and the collective Parva Naturalia]
Metaphysics [Ta meta ta physika]
Ethics [Nichomachean and Eudemian Ethics] and Politics [Politics]
Aesthetics and Literature [Rhetoric and the incomplete Peri poietikes]

Descartes, Rene
Le Monde [the World,] completed 1633, published 1664
Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii [Rules for the Direction of the Mind; in which Descartes gave four rules for reasoning: 1. Accept nothing as true that is not self-evident, 2. Divide problems into their simplest parts, 3. Solve problems by proceeding from simple to complex, 4. Recheck the reasoning,] written by 1628 published 1701
Discours de la méthode [Discourse on Method], 1637
Meditationes de Prima Philosophia [Meditations on First Philosophy in Which Is Proved the Existence of God and the Immortality of the Soul; includes Decartes’ reflections on methodical doubt] 1641

Spinoza, Benedict de
Ethica [Ethics] written roughly over 1660-1675, published posthumously [Spinoza died in 1677 and the work was published after his death in that year]

Locke, John
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, 1690
Two Treatises of Government, 1690
Some Thoughts Concerning Education, 1693

Hume, David
A Treatise of Human Nature, [in three books on the topics of understanding, emotion and morals,] 1739–40
An Abstract of… A Treatise of Human Nature, 1740
Essays, Moral and Political, 1741–42
Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, 1748; a rewriting of the first book of the Treatise [which Hume repudiated as immature] with the additioin of the essay “On Miracles;” later editions entitled An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, 1751
Political Discourses, 1752
Four Dissertations, 1757
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, 1779

Kant, Immanuel
Critique of Pure Reason, trs. 1929, 1951, original German edition, Critik der reinen Vernunft, 1781, rev. ed. Kritik der reinen Vernunft, 1787
Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics, trs. 1951, Prolegomena zur einer jeden künftigen Metaphysik die als Wissenschaft wird auftreten können, 1783
Critique of Practical Reason, trs. 1949, Critik der practischen Vernunft 1788
Critique of Judgment, vol. 1, Kant's Critique of Aesthetic Judgment and vol. 2, Critique of Teleological Judgment, 1911–28, republished 1952, Critik der Urteilskraft 1790, 2nd ed. 1793

Hegel, George Wilhelm Friedrich
The Phenomenology of Mind, 1807, trs. J. B. Baille, 1967
Science of Logic, 1812-1816 [Objective Logic, 1812 and Subjective Logic, 1816]
Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline, 1817 [Logic, Nature, Mind]
The Philosophy of Right, 1821, trs. J. B. Baille, 1952
Lecture Notes on Aesthetics, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of History, and History of Philosophy, written about 1823-1827

Schopenhauer, Arthur
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason: a Philosophical Essay, 1813
The World as Will and Representation, in two volumes, Volume I, trs. E. F. J. Payne, 1958, original German edition, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, 1819; Volume II, trs. E. F. J. Payne, 1958, the original German edition of Volume II appears with the second edition of the work in 1844 in which Volume I is essentially unchanged; a third German edition was published in 1859
Parerga and Paralimpomena [minor works and remnants,] 1851

Nietzsche, Friedrich
Nietzsche is treated in Recent Philosophers

Philosophy III: Mind: Nature and Map; Origins of Language

Essays on Evolutionary Epistemology, WW Bartley III, ed

Ernst Mayr for teleology, teleonomy

Searle / examples of speech acts and so on; propositions and propositional attitudes, questions, exclamations…

Web papers on consciousness – unavailable on the Internet. For an Internet resource go to Online Papers on Consciousness compiled by David Chalmers

Philosophy IV: Recent Philosophers

The following, listed alphabetically, are only those who may be fundamental to Journey in Being –and have not been treated sufficiently in History of Western Philosophy– or may make a point that I have not yet used; Heidegger and Wittgenstein are not included since they have been extensively treated in History of Western Philosophy

Adorno, Theodore Wiesengrund
Formost member of the Frankfurt School
Social philosophy, critical theory, epistemology
Studies on Hegel, Heidegger, Husserl – in Against Epistemology, Kierkegaard
Texts:
Kierkegaard: Construction of the Aesthetic, 1933, trs. and ed. Robert Hullot-Kentor, 1989
Against Epistemology: a Metacritique, 1956, trs. Willis Domigno, 1982

Bradley, Francis Herbert
Absolute idealism, ethics and logic
Texts:
Principles of Logic, 1883
Appearance and Reality, 1893
Essays on Truth and Reality, 1914
Collected Essays, 1935

Carnap, Rudolf
Logic, semantics, epistemology and philosophy of science
Note Carnap’s second meaning of probability i.e. that of ‘theoretical coherence’
Texts:
The Logical Syntax of Language, trs. 1937; original German, 1934
Empiricism, semantics and Ontology, in Revue Internationale de Philosophie 4, 1950
The Logical Foundations of Probability, 1950
Meaning and Necessity, 1956
‘The elimination of metaphysics through the logical analysis of language,’ in A. J. Ayer, ed. Logical Positivism, 1957

Davidson, Donald Herbert
Philosophy of mind and of language
It is Davidson’s philosophy of mind, especially his anomalous monism, that is of importance to my analysis of mind and the mind-body issue in Journey of Being
Texts:
Mental Events, in Essays on Actions and Events, 1980

Frege, Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob
Logic, analytic philosophy, Platonist philosophy of mathematics
Texts:
The Foundations of Arithmetic, trs. J. L. Austin, 1952; original German 1884
The Basic Laws of Arithmetic I, trs. and ed. Montgomery Furth, 1964; 1893
The Basic Laws of Arithmetic II, translations of extracts in Translations from the Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege trs. and ed. P. Geach and M. Black, 1980; 1903

Gilson, Étienne Henri
Neo-scholastic with interests in the main divisions of philosophy and its history
My interest in Gilson is that he was the ‘most influential’ historian of mediaval philosophy in the 20th century
… and, therefore, I will undertake a study Gilson if I need to study or think about medieval philosophy or Christian scholasticism
Text:
The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, trs. from the original French text, Le Thomisme, of 1919

Gödel, Kurt
Gödel remains a seminal figure and, hence his inclusion here. As a result of the startling impact of his 1931 paper “Uber formal unendscheitbare Sätze der… etc.” Gödel will remain forever fascinating in the present period. However, the significance of his work may not quite be the shaking of the foundations that it has often thought to be… and this has, of course, been shown in the literature
I will undertake further study of Gödel as the occasion arises

Husserl, Edmund
Included in this list because of the importance, especially to phenomenology and not because of an imperative to be immersed in the works
Text:
Logical Investigations, trs. JN Findlay, 1970, from Logische Untersuchungeng, 1900–1

Kripke, Saul Aaron
Logic – especially modal logic i.e. the logical principles of ‘modal’ notions such as possibility, necessity, contingency and ‘strict’ implication; philosophy of language and, secondarily, of mind
Kripke’s interest is partly that he was a phenomenon – his first paper, a theorm in modal logic was published in 1959 when he was 19… but also because of: his clarification of the meaning and validity of modal logics, contributions to the theory of truth, analysis of the recalcitrant logical and semantical paradoxes, denial of the distinctions: necessary / a posteriori truths, naming / meaning, sense / reference… ‘Certainly, propositions can be necessary when actually so but a posteriori to a finite mind
Text:
Naming and Necessity, 1980

Lenin, Vladimir ll’ich
How can one not be interested in Lenin? Bertrand Russell once said that he regarded Lenin as the greatest man he had ever met because, quoting from Bryan Magee, who knew Russell, in Confessions of a Philosopher, 1997 “Lenin combined a brilliant mind with genius-level ability as a man of action, and this gave him extraordinary stature and effectiveness as a person. Also, he had changed the course of world history in a way few individuals ever do.”… note the modern pertinence of text, “Imperialism, the Highest etc… ,” below… because of his dynamism he is almost as interesting as Marx who I do not currently include here [if his name were to occur it would be upon a later writing]… and he is incredibly more interesting than Trotsky or Stalin, the latter whom I might include if I were writing a history of fortuitous thuggery and the former who I would include only in a sentimental moment… I will study Lenin, if at all, at a much later time
Texts of interest:
What is to be done? Burning Questions of our Movement, 1929 trs. from the 1902 Russian
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: A Popular Outline, 1933, trs. from the 1916 Russian
Collected Works, 47 vols…

Nietzsche, Friedrich
Nietzsche’s interests were in ontology, epistemology, Greek and Christian thought, theory of values, nihilism, aesthetics and cultural theory
Texts:
The Birth of Tragedy, trs. W. Kaufmann, 1954; original German, 1872
Daybreak, trs. R. J. Hollingdale, 1982; 1881
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, trs. R. J. Hollingdale, 1968; 1883-5
Beyond Good and Evil, trs. R. J. Hollingdale, 1966; 1886
The Twilight of the Idols, trs. R. J. Hollingdale, 1968; 1889
The Anti-Christ, R. J. Hollingdale, 1968; 1895
Nietzsche against Wagner, trs. W. Kaufmann in The Portable Nietzsche, ed. W. Kaufmann, 1954; 1895
Ecce Homo, trs. W. Kaufmann, 1968; 1908

Popper, Karl Raimund
Popper’s interests were in epistemology, philosophy of science, and political philosophy
Texts
:
The Logic of Scientific Discovery, 1959, trs. of revised and expanded version of Logik der Forschung, 1934
The Open Society and Its Enemies, 1945
Indeterminism in quantum physics and in classical physics, in British Journal for Philosophy of Science, 1950
The Poverty of Historicism, 1957
Conjectures and Refutations, 1963
[the next three titles are the three volumes of Postscript: After Twenty Years, in proof since 1957]
The Open Universe: An Argument for Indeterminism, 1982
Quantum Theory and the Schism in Physics, 1982
Realism and the Aim of Science, 1983

Quine, Willard Van Orman
Logic, epistemology, philosophy of science and language
Texts:
On What There Is, 1953
Word and Object, 1960
Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, 1969
The Roots of Reference, 1974
Theories and Things, 1981
Pursuit of Truth, 1990

Russell, Bertrand Arthur William
Texts:
A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz, 1900
The Principles of Mathematics, 1903
On Denoting, in Mind, 1905
Philosophical Essays, 1910
Principia Mathematica, with A. N. Whitehead, 3 vols., 1910-13, 2 ed., 1927
The Problems of Philosophy, 1912
The Theory of Knowledge, 1913, pub. Posthumously in Colledted Papers, v. VII, 1984
Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy, 1914
The Philosophy of Logical Atomism, in Monist, 1918-19
Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, 1919
The Analysis of Mind, 1921
The Analysis of Matter, 1927
An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, 1940
Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits, 1948
My Philosophical Development, 1959
Autobiography, 1967-9

Whitehead, Alfred North
Texts
:
The Concept of Nature, 1920
Science and the Modern World, 1925
Process and Reality, 1929, corrected ed. D. R. Griffin and D. W. Sherburne, 1967
Adventures of Ideas, 1933
Modes of Thought, 1938

Philosophy V: Important Works from the History of Political and Economic Philosophy

Politics and Political Philosophy: Individuals and Major Works

Plato, Republic

Aristotle, Politics

Cicero, The Republic

St Augustine, The City of God

Aquinas, Summa Theologica

Dante, On World Government

Machiavelli, The Prince

Hobbes, Leviathan

Locke, Two Treatises on Civil Government

Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws

Rousseau, Social Contract 1762

Burke, Reflections on the French Revolution

Paine, The Rights of Man

Hegel, The Philosophy of Rights

Saint-Simon, The Industrial System

Proudhon, What is Property?

Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto

JS Mill, On Liberty

Bakunin, God and the State

Economics and Economic Philosophy: Individuals and Major Works

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations 1776

Thomas Malthus, Essay on the Principles of Population l798

David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy 1817

Karl Marx, Das Kapital 1867-95

Leon Walras, Elements d’économie politique pure 1874-77

Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics 1890

John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money 1936

Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy 1942

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society 1958

Milton Friedman, Inflation: Causes and Consequences 1953

Philosophy VI: Recent Writers in Political Philosophy and Related Contributing Disciplines

The following are only those who may be fundamental to Journey in Being or may make a point that I have not yet used; I have used Robert E. Goodin and Philip Pettit eds., A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, 1993 in this section

Articles mentioned above may be repeated below

Analytical Philosophy

Analytical and Continental Philosophy are the main strands contributing to Modern Western Political Philosophy

Note that the characteristics of analytical and continental philosophy are discussed in Essays on Being

Popper, K., The Open Society and Its Enemies, 1945

Popper, K., The Poverty of Historicism, 1957

Benn, S.I. and R.S. Peters, Social Principles and the Democratic State, 1959

Hart, H.L.A., The Concept of Law, 1961

Barry, B., Political Argument, 1965

Rawls, J., A Theory of Justice, 1971

Barry, B., The Liberal Theory of Justice: A Critical Examination of the Principal Doctrines in ‘A Theory of Justice’ by John Rawls, 1973

Nozick, R., Anarchy, State and Utopia, 1974

Dworkin, G., Taking Rights Seriously, 1977

Habermas, J., ‘Wahrheitstheorien’, in Wirklichkeit und Reflexion: Walter Schulz zum 60 Geburstag, 1973

Hayek, F.A. von, Law, Legislation and Liberty: A New Statement of the Liberal Principles of Justice and Political Economy, 3 vols, 1982

Sandel, M., Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, 1982

Pateman, C., ‘Feminist critiques of the public-private dichotomy’, in S.I. Benn and G. F. Gaus, eds, Public and Private and Social Life, 1983

MacKinnon, C., Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law, 1987

Dworkin, G., The Theory and Practice of Autonomy, 1988

Buchanan, A.E., ‘Asserting the communitarian critique of liberalism’, Ethics, 99 (1989), 852-82

Kukathas, C., Hayek and Modern Liberalism, 1989

Barry, B., Theories of Justice, 1989

Barry, B., Political Argument: A Reissue, 1990

Nagel, T., Equality and Partiality, 1991

Okin, S.M., ‘Gender, the Public and the Private’, in D.Held, ed., Political Theory Today, 1991

Sen, A., Commodities and Capabilities, 1985

Continental Philosophy

Adorno, T.W., Minima Moralia, 1974

Adorno, T.W., et. al., The Authoritarian Personality, 1950

Adorno, T.W., et. al., The Positivist Dispute in German Sociology, 1976

Camus, A,, The Rebel, trs. A. Bower, 1954

Derrida, J., Speech and Phenomena, trs. D. B. Allison, 1973

Derrida, J., Of Grammatology, trs. G. C. Spivak, 1976

Derrida, J., Writing and Difference, trs. A. Bass, 1978

Foucault, M., Madness and Civilization, trs. T. Howard, 1971

Foucault, M., The Archaeology of Knowledge, trs. A. M. Sheridan, 1976

Foucault, M., Discipline and Punishmen, trs. A. M. Sheridan, 1977

Freud, S., The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, trs. A. A. Brill, 1938

Freud, S., The Interpretation of Dreams, trs. J. Strachey, 1976

Habermas, J., ‘Technology and science as “ideology” ’,Towards a Rational Society, trs. J. J. Shapiro, 1970

Habermas, J., Theory of Communicative Action, 2 vols., trs. T. McCarthy, 1984

Habermas, J., The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, 2 vols., trs. F. G. Lawrence, 1987

Hegel, G.W.F., The Phenomenology of Mind, 1807, trs. J. B. Baille, 1967

Hegel, G.W.F., The Philosophy of Right, 1821, trs. J. B. Baille, 1952

Heidegger, M., ‘The origin of the work of art’, 1936 and ‘Letter on humanism’, 1947, in Basic Writings, ed. D. F. Krell, ed., 1977

Heidegger, M., Being and Time, trs. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson, 1967 and trs. Joan Stambaugh, 1996

Horkheimer, M., and Adorno, T.W., The Dialectic of Enlightenment, trs. J. Cumming, 1972

Kierkegaard, S., ‘Fear and trembling’ in Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard, trs. L. M. Hollander, 1960

Kierkegaard, S., Either-Or, trs. H. V. Kong and E. H. Kong, 1987

Lévi-Strauss, C., Structural Anthropology, trs. C. Jacobson and B. G.. Schoepf, 1968

Lévi-Strauss, C., The Elementary Structures of Kinship, trs. J. H. Bell, J. R. von Sturmer and R. Needham, 1969

Lukács, G., ‘What is orthodox Marxism?’, in History and Class Consciousness, trs. R. Livingstone, 1971

Lyotard, J.-F., The Postmodern Condition, trs. G. Bennington and B. Massumi, 1984

Marcuse H., One-Dimensional Man, 1968(a)

Marcuse H., ‘Philosophy and critical theory’, in Negations, 1968 (b)

Marcuse H., ‘On revolution’, in Student Power, eds. A. Cockburn and R. Blackburn, 1969

Marcuse H., Soviet Marxism, 1971

Marx, K., ‘Economic and philosophical manuscripts’, in Early Writings, trs. R. Livingstone and G. Benton, 1975

Marx, K., ‘Theses on Feuerbach’, in Early Writings, trs. R. Livingstone and G. Benton, 1975

Marx, K., The German Ideology, trs. C. J. Arthur, 1977

Nietzsche, F., Beyond Good and Evil, trs. R. J. Hollingdale, 1973

Nietzsche, F., Untimely Meditations, trs. R. J. Hollingdale, 1983

Roussseau, J.-J., The Social Contract and Discourses, 1762, trs. G. D. H. Cole, 1973

Roussseau, J.-J., Emile, 1762, trs. B. Foxley, 1974

Saussure, F. de, Course in General Linguistics, 1916, ed. C. Bally and A. Sechehaye, trs. W. Baskin, 1959

Weber, M., The Protestant Ethic and the Rise of Capitalism, trs. T. Parsons, 1930

History

Use of past theory to understand modern issues

Arrow, K.J., Social Choice and Individual Values, 1951, 2 ed. 1963

Debreu, G., Theory of Value, 1959

Grote, J., An Examination of the Utilitarian Philosophy, 1870

Jevons, W.S., The Theory of Political Economy, 1871

Lange, O., ‘Foundations of welfare economics’, Econometrica, 10 (1942), 215-28

Laslett, P., Philosophy, Politics and Society, 1956

Pareto, V., Manual of Political Economy, 1909, trs. A. S. Schwier, 1972

Pocock, J. G. A., The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law, 1957

Pocock, J. G. A., ‘The history of political thought: a methodological enquiry’, Philosophy, Politics and Society, Series II, 1962

Sidgwick, H., Methods of Ethics, 1874

Skinner, Q. R. D., ‘Meaning and understanding in the history of ideas’, History and Theory, 8, 1969, 199-215: Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and his Critics, 1988, 29-67

Skinner, Q. R. D., ‘The republican ideal of political liberty’ Machiavelli and Republicanism, ed. G. Bock, Q. R. D. Skinner and M. Viroli, 293-309

Tuck, R.F., Natural Rights and Theories, 1979

Tully, J.H., A Discourse on Property, 1980

Walras, L., Elements of Pure Economics, 1874, trs. W. Jaffe, 1954

Winch, P., The Idea of a Social Science, 1958

Sociology

Understanding of social institutions is important in political philosophy

Brennan, G. and Walsh, C., eds., Rationality, Individualism and Public Policy, 1990

Broome, J., ‘Irreducibly social goods – comment II’, in Rationality, Individualism and Public Policy, ed. G. Brennan and C. Walsh, 1990

Durkheim, E., The Division of Labor in Society, 1893

Giddens, A., Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, 1971

MacIntyre, A., After Virtue, 2 ed., 1984

Runciman, W. G., A Critique of Max Weber’s Philosophy of Social Science, 1972

Saint-Simon, H., Selected Writings, trs. and ed. Keith Taylor, 1975

Taylor, C., Philosophical Papers, 2 vols., 1985

Veblen, T., The Leisure Class, 1889

Weber, M., The Methodology of the Social Sciences, trs. E. A. Shills and H. A. Finch, 1949

Weber, M., Economy and Society, eds. G. Roth and C. Wittich, 3 vols., 1968

Economics

Economics is relevant to political possibility. In order to understand the contribution of economics, ‘political philosophy’ is taken to be normative social theory. The contributions of economics, then, may be understood in terms of a style of thinking – normative thinking is supplemented by and replaced when possible by ‘positive’ feasibility analysis where the use of analysis is concentrated. Feasibility affects desirability since what may have been desirable cannot be so if infeasible. Here, the contributions of Pareto, Arrow, Buchanan and Harsanyi are significant. The collapse of utilitarianism as a concept of feasibility leads to the ‘Economists Theory of State,’ which economists love because it appears to legitimize their grandiosity…

However, the lessons of economics should not be taken too seriously because ‘many things have been regarded impossible, including those theoretically demonstrated, until shown to be actually possible.’ While the contributions of modern economics are important, they are also an abstruse apology for the dominant paradigm and dominant regimes. Other reasons for doubt are distributed throughout the present document and the sources from the foundations

Arrow, K., Social Choice and Individual Values, 1951

Buchanan, J., ‘The relevance of Pareto optimality’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 6 (1962), 341-54

Buchanan, J., The Limits of Liberty, 1975

Buchanan, J., Freedom in Constitutional Contract, 1977

Buchanan, J., and Tullock, G., The Calculus of Consent, 1962

Hamlin, A., Ethics, Economics and the State, 1986

Hardin, R., Collective Action, 1982

Harsanyi, J., ‘Cardinal welfare, individualistic ethics, and inter-personal comparisons of utility’, Journal of Political Economy, 63 (1955), 309-21

Harsanyi, J., Essays in Ethics, 1976

Hotelling, H., ‘Stability in Competition’, Economic Journal, 39 (1929), 41-57

Lerner, A., The Economics of Control, 1944

Little, I. M. D., A Critique of Welfare Economics, 1957

Olson, M., The Logic of Collective Action, 1965

Robbins, L., The Nature and Significance of Economic Science, 1932

Samuelson, Paul A., ‘The pure theory of public expenditure’, Review of Economics and Statistics, 36 (1954), 387-9

Samuelson, Paul A., ‘Diagrammatic exposition of a theory of public expenditure’, Review of Economics and Statistics, 37 (1955), 350-6

Samuelson, Paul A., with William D. Nordhaus since 1985, Economics: an Introductory analysis, 1948, 18th ed., 2004

Scitovsky, T., ‘A note on welfare propositions in economics’, Review of Economic Studies, 9 (1941-2), 77-88

Sen, A., ‘Rational fools: a critique of the behavioral foundations of economic theory’, Philosophy and Public Affairs, 6 (1977), 314-44

Political Science

Selection favors fundamentals and possibility rather than logical issues but only when solutions exist

Abercrombie, N., Hill, S. and Turner, B. S., The Dominant Ideology, 1980

Allison, G. T., The Essence of Decision, 1971

Binder, L., et. al. Crises and Sequences in Political Development, 1971

Cohen, G. A., Karl Marx’s Theory of History, 1978

Geertz, C. A., Old Societies and New States, 1963

Goodin, R. E., ‘The development-rights trade-off’, Universal Human Rights, 1 (1979), 31-42

Lane, R. E., ‘Waiting for lefty: the capitalist genesis of socialist man’, Theory & Society, 6 (1978), 1-28

Lasswell, H. D., Politics: Who Gets What, When, How?, 1950

Levine, H. D., ‘Some things to all men: the politics of cruise missile development’, Public Policy, 7 (1972), 117-68

Mann, M., ‘The social cohesion of liberal democracy’, American Sociological Review, 35 (1970), 423-29

March, J. G., ‘Model bias in social action’, Review of Educational Research, 42 (1972), 413-29

Olsen, J. P., ‘Public policy-making and theories of organizational choice’, Scandinavian Political Studies, 7 (1972), 45-62

Wittfogel, K. A., Oriental Despotism, 1957

Zolberg, A., ‘Moments of madness’, Politics & Society, 1 (1972), 183-208

Legal Studies

Legal studies in the ‘analytic tradition’ appear intellectual but are an apology for the law and the state. It is paradoxical that France, where there is no tradition of justification of law, is the greatest of police states

Braithwaite, J. and Pettit, P., Not Just Deserts, 1990

Dworkin, R., Law’s Empire, 1986

Fuller, L., The Morality of the Law, 1969

Gunningham, N., Safeguarding the Worker: the Role of the Law, 1984

Hart, H. L. A., The Concept of the Law, 1961

Hart, H. L. A., Punishment and Responsibility, 1968

Hart, H. L. A., Essays in Jurisprudence and Philosophy, 1983

Hart, H. L. A. and Honoré, A., Causation and the Law, 1985

Kennedy, D., ‘Form and substance in private law adjudication’, Harvard Law Review, 89 (1976), 1685

Kennedy, D., ‘The Structure of Blackstone’s Commentaries’, Buffalo Law Review, 28 (1979), 209

Kennedy, D., ‘Legal Education as Training for Hierarchy’, in D. Kairys, ed., The Politics of Law: A Progression Technique, 1982

McBarnet, D., Conviction: Law, the State and the Construction of Justice, 1981

Meiklejohn, A., Political Freedom: the Constitutional Powers of the People, 1965

Posner, R., Economic Analysis of the Law, 1977

Rose-Ackerman, S., ‘Progressive Law and Economics’, Yale Law Journal, 98 (1988), 341

Sadurski, W., Giving Desert its Due, 1985

Sunstein, C. R., ‘Pornography and the first amendment’, Duke Law Journal (1986), 589

Tribe, L. H., American Constitutional Law, 2nd ed., 1988

Tribe, L. H., Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes, 1990

Tushnet, M., The American Law of Slavery, 1981

Waldron, J., The Law, 1990

History

The general purposes to any study include the following: 1. The specific interest of the study. ‘Interest’ includes both curiosity or enjoyment and ‘application;’ and 2. Truth is illuminating and transforming

There is a redundancy to the consideration of interest and application because each includes the other

Item [2] is a repetition of item [1] in general terms

Journey in Being is a journey in understanding and transformation; therefore history is significant to the journey as

History of understanding, and

History of transformation

The reference for these emphases is History of thought and action

Plan: combine History of thought and action and History of Western Philosophy

Symbol

The Symbolic Disciplines: Signs, Language, Logic and Mathematics – Foundations and Relation to Being

What are they?

Functions: thought and communication

The human symbolic instrument is language; mathematics is the science of form; abstract relations show all systems that have a common form

LOGOS is system of the possibilities of being relative to nothingness; logic is the system of relationships among truths; real Logic is the science of the possible [relative to nothingness,] [note that the necessary is analyzable in terms of the possible]

Logic applies in mathematics; mathematics analyses logic

More on Brouwer; on Hilbert’s program; on logicism – concept and argument, Russell, Frege and Wittgenstein’s counterarguments; Platonism

Foundation and meaning of logic, geometry

The theory of the infinite; discrete mathematics, Stephen Wolfram Site

Languages: Sanskrit, Hindi, Other…

… for linguistic bases of thought and categories; data for linguistics; foundations of the disciplines

Art, Myth and Religion

Mythology and Religion, Literature and Music: Contribution to Meaning, Deep Symbols, Action, Understanding and Human Nature

Religion

Buddha, Lao-tse, Christ, Muhammad, Zarathustra…

Myth

Primitive and experiential myth and mythology

Ritual Death; primitive planters; symbol: life requires death

The Shaman; primitive hunters; symbol: vision and leadership born of example and charisma, the animal master

Indian Mythology is adequately represented in the section, below, on Indian Philosophy

Literature

Philosophy is literature, especially great philosophy. Here, focus is on literature – whether fiction or not – as it describes life or tells stories that illuminate ways and possibilities of life. The chief kinds of literature are: epic, tragedy, comedy, lyric, satire, history, biography, and prose narrative

‘Homer,’ The Iliad and The Odyssey

Virgil, Aenid

Augustine, The City of God

Icelandic sagas, Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, …the fullest and most detailed source for modern knowledge of Germanic mythology.

Beowulf, the heroic poem of Old English Literature

Song of Hildebrand, German

The Divine Comedy, Dante

Paradise Lost, 1667; Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, 1671, John Milton

Molière, Racine, Boileau, and La Fontaine of what has been called the greatest age of French literature

The 18th century. Britain: Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and Samuel Johnson, Henry Fielding, Daniel Defoe, Tobias Smollett, Samuel Richardson and Laurence Sterne. France: Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles de Montesquieu, Denis Diderot and Jean d'Alembert. In Germany: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller

The 19th century – Romanticism. Fabre d'Olivet in France; Wordsworth, Coleridge, John Keats and Lord Byron in England; and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Aleksandr Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov in Russia; James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe; Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in America which, as Wordsworth's pronouncements had done, affirmed the power of “insight” to transcend ordinary logic and experience

The 19th century – Post-Romanticism. Heinrich Heine in Germany; Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé and Arthur Rimbaud in France; Jane Austen with Northanger Abbey and Sense and Sensibility in England; especially Benjamin Constant, Stendhal Gustave Flaubert and Émile Zola, also in France; Eliot, Charles Dickens, and Thomas Hardy in England and Nikolay Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Anton Chekhov in Russia; Henrik Ibsen in Norway; August Strindberg in Sweden; Gogol, Turgenev and Anton Chekov in Russia

The 20th century. Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, D.H. Lawrence, Marcel Proust, André Gide, James Joyce's, Franz Kafka, and Thomas Mann, André Breton, Rainer Maria Rilkem, T.S. Eliot

Music

Presently, this list does not include or do justice to music as it is performed and moves people in their lives – in peace and in war

Indian classical music as rendered by Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan and others

Western Music before the 19th century. Henry Purcell, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) and George Frideric Handel

19th century – The Romantic Period. Transition: Beethoven, Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Anton Bruckner; romantic: Berlioz, Liszt, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss; and Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky

19th century – Richard Wagner

20th century: Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Anton von Webern, Aaron Copeland

20th century “popular” music

Art, Symbol and Being

Art periods: prehistoric – the old and new stone ages Celtic, Egyptian, Greek, Mesopotamian, Islamic, African, Oceanic, Indian, Japanese, Christian, Gothic, Baroque, European / Renaissance, Recent [1800 and later]

Great art and artists

The intent of the selection that follows is to evoke feeling, specifically my feeling, from the paintings, sculpture, buildings and other objects. I look not only for emotion but also and especially a sense of placement in and creation of time, space and the stream of being. The selection is not comprehensive relative to the history of art for that would dilute what it is that I intend. Source: H. W. Janson, History of Art, 1962, 5th ed, Anthony F. Janson, 1995

Cave paintings especially animals and the hunt and objects such as Horse a 2½" mammoth ivory carving from Bogelherd cave 28,000 BC the old stoneage [40,000 – 10,000 BC ending with the cessation of the most recent Ice Age]

In the new stonage [till historic times] from which the following are remarkable: architecture with houses and shrines including paintings of the animal hunt and monuments such as Stonehenge c. 2000 B.C

Egypt: the pyramids and the Great Sphinx at Giza and the statues of the pharaohs; the court of Ramesses II; the coffin of Tutankhamen

Sumer: Ziggurat of King Urnammu, Ur, Iraq c. 2100 B.C

Greece: The Parthenon; statues - Nike of Samothrace c. 200 BC and The Laocoön Group

Rome: The Pantheon, Rome, 118 – 25 A.D

Gothic: Notre-Dame, Paris, 1163 – c. 1250; Chartres Cathedral 1145 - 1220, and the stained glass Notre Dame de la Belle Verrière, c. 1170; Amiens Cathedral begun 1220; Salisbury Cathedral, England 1220 – 1770; Gloucester Cathedral, England, 1332 – 1357; Sta. Croce, Florence, begun c. 1295; Florence Cathedral, begun by Arnolfo di Cambio, 1296, dome by Filippo Brunelleschi, 1420 – 36; Milan Cathedral, begun 1386, considered by H. W. Janson to be overly elaborate as a result of detail applied in mechanical fashion over the centuries was completed in 1910

Early Renaissance in Italy: Donatello, statues, 1386 – 1466, Prophet, 1423 – 25, 6' 5"; David, c. 1425 – 1430, bronze, 62¼"; Mary Magdalene, c. 1455, wood, partially gilded. Early Renaissance in Italy: Boticelli, c. 1480, The Birth of Venus

High Renaissance in Italy – I cannot, now, do justice to the feeling evoked by Leonardo, Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Giorgione, Titian and therefore the selection here is very thin; I hope that this is balanced by the power of evocation of the works. Leonardo da Vinci: Adoration of the Magi, 1481 – 82; The Last Supper c. 1495 – 98. Michelangelo: Pieta, c. 1500; David, 1501 – 4, 13' 5"; The Sistine Ceiling, 1508 – 12 including The Creation of Adam; St. Peter’s, Rome, 1546 – 64, dome completed by Giacomo della Porta, 1590. Raphael: La Belle Jardinière, 1507; The Sacrifice at Lystra, 1514 – 15. Giorgione, The Tempest, c. 1505. Titian: Bacchanal, c. 1518; Man with the Glove, c. 1520; Christ Crowned with Thorns, c. 1570

From 1525 to 1600, in Italy, the period now referred to as Mannerism, the following paintings are audible as voices: Giorgio Vasari, Perseus and Andromedia, 1570 – 72; Sofonisba Anguissola, Portrait of the Artist’s Sister Minerva, c. 1559; Jacopo Tintoretto, The Last Super, 1592 – 94

Of the remaining period until modern times, and even though there is much that speaks, I will note only the art of Albrecht Dürer: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, woodcut, c. 1497 – 98; Self-Portrait, painting, 1500; Knight, Death and Devil, engraving, 1513

The Modern Period: here I am being very selective and choose only those works that seem to speak to me from universal and even distant sources. I have probably included some that I would not; omitted some that I would. Cammille Corot, Morning: Dance of the Nymphs, painting, 1850. William Turner, The Slave Ship, 1840; Rain, Steam and Speed, 1844. Caspar David Friedrich, The Polar Sea, 1824. Paul Klee, Twittering Machine, 1922. Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm: Number 30, 1950. Anselm Kiefer, To the Unknown Painter, 1983. Frank Lloyd Wright, Robie House, Chicago, 1909. Foster Associates, Honkong Bank, 1979 – 86. Ansel Adams, Monrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941. Josef Sudek, View from Studio Window in Winter, 1954. Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, California, 1936. Mark Tansey, Derrida Queries de Man

Art – evocation and communication especially of “what is not said:” time, space, pattern [cause and law,] creation [pattern from nothingness and chaos,] nature, mood and will, feeling

Art divisions: literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, theatre

Art – concept: see Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, details in the Great Western Philosophers, above

Art – history: H. W. Janson, History of Art

Healing

Healing, and Medicine

Individual as physical, bio-psycho-social and spiritual

Dynamics of Being and the concept of healing:  Journey in Being | Metaphysics | and, especially, Experiments in the Transformation of Being

Psychiatry | Psychology | Research topics | Treatment Planning

Examples:

Personality disorders, borderline personality disorder: Dialectical Behavior Therapy etc; treatment of eating disorders

Vitamins and micronutrients

Chron’s disease

Wilderness Medicine

Mental health information from the folder: organization\anil

Science

The goal is to understand the essential science needed to inform my thought. My understanding of the nature of science and scientific theory—fact in a limited domain of validity, at most tentative as universal, neutral outside the domain—is adequate: my position is the result of thought and not mere import of ideas. However, I need details and principles to work out the mutual implications of, say, the cosmology and physical cosmology, the metaphysics and physics, and the principle of indeterminism and evolutionary biology

Sociology and Anthropology for Foundations of Being; Social Action; Charisma and Patriarchalism

Influence and Change | section, Action and Influence in Journey in Being for some topics

The nature of society, institutions, humankind; the concept of culture [EB Tylor…]

The foundations of being, the individual, knowledge and language

Today’s world: actual and potential

Science in Knowledge, Progress of Being… and as a Metaphor for Metaphysics, Epistemology

Science as knowledge; as a comprehensive worldview; as a method; a practice; as a social [political, economic…] instrument; as parochial vs. universal

Logic, Mathematics and Science

Archimedes, Galileo, Newton, Gauss, Darwin, Maxwell, Emile Durkheim, Freud, Max Weber, Einstein, Schrödinger, Dirac

Information, and Network Technology; Cognitive Sciences – Symbolic / Mechanical Being, Agents; Use and Application

Main disciplines: philosophy; psychology; neuroscience; computational intelligence; linguistics / language; and culture, cognition, evolution, and anthropology

Computer science and robotics; human-machine synergy

Some intelligent applications – various stages of development

See Variety of Being [section in this document] | The Variety of Being [essay]

May add the following to Journey in Being | The Variety of Being [essay]

Architecture

Treatment Planning

Physics… and Reality, Classical / Formal… and Cosmology… and Metaphysics… and foundations for the sciences

String / M-theory: strings / m-branes as warps in a continuum, c = constant, fixed, the maximum = the speed of propagation of warps with zero mass… why? Calabi-Yau spaces at Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics | Calabi-YauSpace

Outline of Quantum Mechanics and Relativistic theory of Gravitation and Fields; forefront today; foundation in nothingness / vacuum; real examples of the origin, development and stability of structure; physics of the vacuum, nothingness; time and recurrence

Toolkit of ideas for reality testing: Bell's theorem, Aspect, causality and communication, determinism and indeterminism, Schrödinger's cat... significance for reality; wave-particle-field; epistemological vs. ontological interpretations of quantum mechanics. Time-space curvature... significance, recurrence - loop in time… every quantum of existence can interact with every other; thermodynamics, energy and the universe

Origins; origin of this universe; natural selection in the origin of physical nature and the universes… work of Lee Smolin, Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose; cosmology and conditions for life, intelligence, and mind; history of the universe / solar system; physics and mind

Some information papers: Cosmology and Inflation | General Physics | The Standard Model of Particle Physics

Chemistry: Materials for Technology and Industrial Processes; Possibility of Molecules; Origin and Function of Life

Chemistry and technology: the construction of tools and living elements

Chemistry and the origins of life on earth; possibility of origins of life in space

Chemistry and functional biology: chemical nature of life; nervous system and neurotransmitters, endocrine system, immune system; chemistry and mind

Geology: Effect on Conditions for Life, Evolution, Speciation; Minerals, Fuels, their Origins

The history of earth; history of continents and oceans, drivers of continental drift; drivers of earth’s magnetic field; geoclimatology; cosmic radiation; effect of the foregoing evolution of life

Biology / life sciences: History of Life, Humans and Mind; Potential of Life; Biological Foundations of Mind, Consciousness, Knowledge, Symbol

Functional biology: development, epigenesis; genetics; biology and mind; ecology and complex systems

Plants: biology, chemistry, and ethnobotany

Chemicals and Biochemicals--alkaloids, steroids...

Biochemistry, Molecular biology, Cell biology

Physiology, Anatomy (Plan--use Life.doc)

Plants

Animals

Evolutionary biology: the story of evolution; evolution of mind and complexity – problem of complexity

Applied biology: forestry, domestication, agriculture

Non-technical writers on nature: Annie Dillard, R. D. Lawrence, Peter Matthiessen, Barry Lopez, David L. Mech, Farley Mowatt… the ethnobotanists

Psychology, Neurophysiology, Anthropology, Sociology: Variation / Malleability in Mental Process, Development and Personality

Biological foundations; origin and growth of mind and mental function; mind, brain, behavior

Other Elements of the Western Tradition

Other Elements of the Western Tradition: contribution and contrast to the old world, India, Native American and the animal

Mysticism - Buddha, Christ, Eckart, Descartes, Pascal, Kierkegaard, Freud, Jung

William James, The Variety of Religious Experience, 1902

Aldous Huxley

Other Traditions

India and Indian Philosophy

Veda-Upanisad-Gita for truth / force; Samkhya-Yoga and Yogis for the focus / objective; Vedanta for understanding / insight

See The Periods of Indian Philosophy for an outline; the classic Indian systems [sutras] with main doctrines and originators are: Purva-mimamsa: the interpretation of the Veda in the light of Dharma, Jamini; Vedanta: the philosophic interpretation of the Veda with focus on knowledge, Brahman and its identity with the self, Badarayana; Samkhya-karikas: the unmanifest is identical to the self, the three gunas or elements of sattva or light – rajas or activity – tamas or inertia, the three ways of pramana or knowing… of perception – of inference and of verbal testimony, Isvarakrsna; Yoga: Patanjali; Vaisesika: pluralistic metaphysics, Kanada; Nyaya: foundations of Buddhist Philosophy, Gautama / Aksapada; Mahayana Buddhist philosophy [beginnings]; Arthasastra: Kautilya; Ajivikas: Makkhali Gosala; and the Carvakas: Carvaka; Vaisnavism and Saivism develop later; Vaisnava is traced to the worship of Vishnu in the Rg Veda, the doctrine of prapatti, or complete self-surrender, is emphasized [Vaisnava-Sahajiya: a later 17th century development in Bengal that seeks religious experience through the world of the senses, specifically human sexual love… here parakiya-rati or the love of a man for a woman who legally belongs to another is considered to be above svakiya-rati or conjugal love as more intense, so parakiyarati was felt without consideration for the conventions of society or for personal gain and thus was more analogous to divine love, Radha is conceived as the ideal of the parakiya woman, because of the extreme privacy of the cult, little is known about its prevalence or its practices today;] Saiva is the worship of Shiva and Saivism is the school of thought that develops in this fold

In an unpublished manuscript [Jaison A. Manjaly, Exploring Alternative Possibilities for Metaphysics of Mind, 2003] it is pointed out that certain non-dualistic traditions from Indian philosophy may suggest resolutions for the classic problems in Western philosophy of mind that result from Cartesian dualism. The following is a paraphrase: Some Indian traditions deploy a ‘continuum metaphysics’ where body and mind are not Cartesian polarities; many consider mind as material in nature with a primarily internal monitoring role; the non-physical status is reserved only for the ‘self’ or Atman. In Nyaya-Vaisesika, mind, or antahkarana, is material, yet not at par with the purely physical; it is non-dualistic but maintains a division between gross matter, subtle matter, and the non-physical; and, the Nyaya ascribes cognition, consciousness etc. to atman or self rather than to antahkarana or mind as in the West. Samkhya also regards mind as part of the internal organ system (antahkarana) which has priority over external sense organs because the cognition of external objects is possible only through antahkarana. In Advaita, mind is still the essential internal tool, while the actual knower is the individual self, which is Brahman. Interestingly, according to Advaita School also antahkarana is material because it is composed of all five physical elements

Modern Indian philosophers

Pre-1947 Most of the following group were idealist metaphysicians i.e., they believed that reality is spiritual: Aurobindo Ghosh “Sri Aurobindo” 1872 – 1950 a modern Vedantic philosopher, K.C. Bhattacharya, Rabindranath Tagore, M.K. Gandhi, S. Radhakrishnan, B. Seal, H. Haldar, R.D. Ranade, D.M. Datta, N.V. Bannerjee, R. Das, A.C. Mukherji; N.V. Bannerjee, and R Das, in contrast, were influenced by Hegel and Sankara

Post 1947 The following two groups are influenced by analytic philosophy, modern logic, phenomenology and/or Navya-Nyâya –– the logical-epistemological school of Indian Philosophy: P.J. Chaudhury, K.D. Bhattacharya, A.S. Ayub; and a younger group: M. Chatterjee, N.K. Devaraja, Daya Krishna, Bimal Matilal, J.N. Mohanty, Rajendra Prasad, P.K. Sen

Non-Indians practicing modes of Indian Philosophy: Daniel Ingalls, Eric Fraunwallner, Eliot Deutsch, Karl Potter

Native American; other primal including Siberia

Vision quest; world view; shamanism [Neolithic origins; saman = ‘he who knows;’ two common functions = knowledge + healing]

The Animal World

Being as a field

Richard K. Nelson, Make Prayers to the Raven: A Koyukon View of the Northern Forest, 1983

Richard K. Nelson, Shadow of the Hunter: Stories of Eskimo Life, 1983


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