There’s no reason to privilege mind

Blogging by Larval Subjects is a high point of Cyberspace:

• "Graham, of course, has had a decisive impact on my thought and has led me to read figures such as Zubiri, Bhaskar, and Latour. Mel introduced me to Latour, Kittler, Ong, Bogost, and a whole host of other thinkers. Shaviro got me back into Whitehead. And so on." October 22, 2009 Speculative Realism, Armies of Objects, and the Social Sciences
• "However, if the last 300 years of philosophy have shown us anything, it has shown us that we do not have any direct or immanent or immediate access to our own minds. As Lacan liked to say, following Freud, the subject is split. This is true even in Kant, as can be seen in both the paralogisms and the the deduction where Kant distinguishes between the subject as phenomena to itself, the transcendental unity of apperception, and the subject in-itself. Similarly, phenomenology increasingly discovered just how elusive givenness is in intuition, or how there is no immediacy in consciousness.
  Yet if we follow through the implications of these points, then it would seem that there’s no reason to privilege mind (or some variant thereof) in our transcendental arguments." October 22, 2009 Transcendental Realism?
• "To be quite honest, I’m rather surprised that certain philosophers of religion and theologians haven’t exploited this point when characterizing me as the wicked, secular-humanist, materialist atheist.
  For if the ontic principle is rigorously followed through, then there’s nothing that allows me to prohibit God, and other things besides, from the order of being. A theology or philosophy of religion premised on the ontic principle might lead to some surprising results contrary to traditional theistic conceptions of God where God overdetermines everything else, but the very coordinates of my thought prevent me from excluding the divine as productive of difference... I also suspect that this is the reason that some theologians and philosophers of religion have been rather enthusiastic about object-oriented ontology and the ontic principle.
  In the end, I take it that as leaky as my ship is, this capacity to surprise is the mark of a good philosophy or ontology. Since I first formulated the ontic principle in January or February, I’ve been on a witches broom of thought, no longer knowing where I’m being led or am going. In other words, my basic ontological commitments might not only be surprising to others, but are surprising to me as I carry out their implications. I do not take this as a negative thing, but as precisely what a philosophy should do." Realism is not a Synonym for Materialism

Let's hope that the logic of Larval Subjects finally rams into Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine. [TNM]

No one yet knows for certain what exactly Sri Aurobindo says

The judgmental spirit has overtaken us; a magisterial impulse. Everyone is on a spree to pass verdicts on anything under the sun. It seems that years of fear and suppression has found a vent as more and more of us are mustering courage to contribute to a discursive environment.

The difficulties are many. For instance, the complete works of Sri Aurobindo are yet to come out. So, no one can claim that he has gone through the Master’s entire oeuvre. In other words, no one yet knows for certain what exactly Sri Aurobindo says.

The publishing programme thus far has adopted an ivory tower approach. Evidently, complains and criticisms are surfacing. Involving informed users would go a long way in making the books blemish free in future.

Writings apart, the dynamics of interaction among the followers needs to be adequately debated upon and suitable structural apparatus put in place. Espousing a democratic and tolerant milieu for relating to The Mother & Sri Aurobindo at diverse levels is also a cardinal requisite.

Sri Aurobindian ontology and its socio-political implications is an unfolding story for which we need to be patient and polite without betting on any kind of finality. What all we have been told so far are just hints and allusions, and hence it would be foolish to make them prestige issues.

Public pronouncements by the followers, therefore, should be made after careful consideration of the matter. While commenting on socio-economic issues, responsibility should be assumed by disclosing full name, address and profession. Otherwise many a time, it looks like a childish hit-and-run tactic. [TNM-241009-Sat]

Dialogical in Sri Aurobindo and Habermas

Affirming "We are all in his debt," on Jürgen Habermas’s eightieth birthday (The philosopher-citizen 6:39 PM), Charles Taylor underscores several points:

• "Whereas for Kant the principal criterion of a rational and therefore defensible deliberation was that it was sought universalizable maxims, for Habermas the very notion of deliberation is transformed."
• "In other words, for Habermas, ethical deliberation is primarily social, dialogical; it is worked out between agents."
• "Drawing on the work of Weber, Habermas sees modernity as having brought about a transformation in our understanding of reason."
• "For Plato and much of the Western tradition, reason is a single faculty or power which can strive to define not only the True, but also the Good and the Beautiful. That is, the same reason can establish the shape of all the important dimensions of human life: establishing what really is, deciding what we ought to do, and determining what is truly beautiful. We might speak of the scientific, the moral and the aesthetic dimensions of human life. What Habermas proposes in the place of this is not, as we have seen, a restriction of reason to the scientific domain, and a relegation of morals and aesthetics to the arbitration of emotion or subjective taste. Rather it is a diversification of the very procedures of reason."

Sri Aurobindo too expounded on a similar need for diversification and self-enlargement in the last issue of Arya (January 1921) as below:

• "The German thinker’s idea that there is a categorical imperative laid upon man to seek after the right and good, an insistent law of right conduct, but no categorical imperative of the Oversoul compelling him to seek after the beautiful or the true, after a law of right beauty and harmony and right knowledge, is a singular misprision. It is a false deduction born of too much preoccupation with the transitional movement of man's mind and, there too, only with one side of its complex phenomena. The Indian thinkers had a wiser sight who, while conceding right ethical being and conduct as a first need, still considered knowledge to be the greater ultimate demand, the indispensable condition, and much nearer to a full seeing came that larger experience of theirs that either through an urge towards absolute knowledge or a pure impersonality of the will or an ecstasy of divine love and absolute delight, — and even through an absorbing concentration of the psychical and the vital and physical being, — the soul turns towards the Supreme and that on each part of our self and nature and consciousness there can come a call and irresistible attraction of the Divine. Indeed, an uplift of all these, an imperative of the Divine upon all the ways of our being, is the impetus of self-enlargement to a complete, an integralising possession of God, freedom and immortality, and that therefore is the highest law of our nature." (Page-214, The Higher Lines Of Truth Part II, The Problem of Rebirth)

It is interesting to note that the Arya began with an invocation to the Kantian categories of God, freedom and immortality in the opening paragraph of The Life Divine, and the scrutiny was on even in the last issue and remained inconclusive. [TNM-201009]

The Mother & Sri Aurobindo are not accorded the central role

[Sri Aurobindo does concur with the monotheistic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that the Divine is ultimately single and unitary, and that It represents itself in humans as immortal souls. However, he prefers the Hindu metaphysic of polymorphous monotheism, according to which the one God can differentiate itself into in a plethora of attenuated forms, vehicles, creations, forces, and beings. So, in summary, Sri Aurobindo believes that God made all, all is God, God is in all and also beyond all, the All is all growing, God is growing in all, and we are all growing into God. Towards a spiritual psychology Bridging psychodynamic psychotherapy with integral yoga
Michael Miovic Consciousness and Its Transformation Cornelissen, Matthijs (Ed.) (2001)]

[Sri Aurobindo calls the soul the “psychic being”, coining his term from the Greek root psyche, and defines it as the true and eternal entity within us that is part of the Divine and persists after the body dies. Sri Aurobindo concurs with the monotheistic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that God (the Divine) is ultimately the sole reality and supreme being. However, he prefers the Hindu metaphysic of polymorphous monotheism, which generously allows the one God to differentiate into the multitudinous forms, beings, and forces of the spiritual and material worlds. This kind of God is simultaneously transcendent, immanent in all creation, and personally present for the individual according to the needs of his/her character and culture. Sri Aurobindo does accept the Hindu notion of reincarnation, but places a new emphasis on the evolutionary aim of the Divine plan. That is, he believes that the purpose of reincarnation is not to prepare the soul to transcend the cycle of karma (as in the classical definition of nirvana), but to increase the soul’s capacity to perfect life in the world. Indeed, he argues that this evolution of consciousness is the spiritual force driving the evolution of biological forms that are increasingly able to express it (e.g., the evolution of the mammalian brain culminating in the human brain). TOWARDS A SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY: Bridging Psychotherapy with the Yoga Psychology of Sri Aurobindo
Michael Miovic, M.D. A Journal of Integral studies - February 2005]

In such an ontological frame, The Mother & Sri Aurobindo are not accorded the central role. [TNM]

Spend some time in the Aurobindian archive

[For The Turnstiles By DGA - My position is that Aurobindo is a writer of significance, a major cultural figure, who is sadly under-read by those who are not his disciples.... If one is concerned that Aurobindo is not represented properly or fairly or in a balanced way in academic discourse (I am such a one), spend some time in the Aurobindian archive, develop a worthwhile question, do your research, and publish your findings. For The Turnstiles]

Thank you, Anderson. [TNM]

Religion, language and region

[Guard against politics of religion, language and region: Sonia
Times of India - Vishwas Kothari - ‎KOLHAPUR: In a veiled reference to rival Shiv Sena-BJP alliance, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said here that people need to ask those who play politics of votes in the name of religion, language and region, as to what work they did for Maharashtra ...]

What is politics then? one wonders. [TNM]

How to choose a leader

[AMBANI DISPUTE: The finance minister advised the feuding Ambani brothers to reflect on the impact their quarrel is having on the corporate sector, days before they face off in the Supreme Court in a dispute over the sharing of gas from the KG Basin. An old friend of the Ambani family, Mr Mukherjee reminded Mukesh and Anil that their dispute “is not merely an individual matter” and hoped that "good sense would prevail on the two brothers.” Economy to pick up pace from 2nd half: Pranab Mukherjee
Economic Times - Andy Mukherjee]

['Loyalist' Venkaiah thickens Advani quit plot
Calcutta Telegraph - New Delhi, Oct. 8: LK Advani “loyalist” M. Venkaiah Naidu has indicated that Advani will quit as leader of the Opposition at a time of his choosing,]

Not only the Ambani brothers, leadership struggle is currently an integral part of every political party. Even our professedly Hindu parties have no clue as to how to choose a leader in consonance with traditional wisdom. [TNM]

How in heavens to do you translate 'daiya!'?

[Google Reader (14): We might run our governments in English and write our balance sheets in Roman, but we sing, cry, laugh and love in Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Kashmiri, Tamil or any of the innumerable mother tongues with which our nation is blessed. A paean to India's melody queen
from M.J. Akbar - Author and Veteran Journalist by M J Akbar Appeared in Times of India - October 4, 2009]

Blessed or cursed? [TNM]

Socratic nook

[Google Reader (51): Comments from Larval Subjects . by larvalsubjects
In light of recent events, and after lots of reflection and a good deal of regret, I have decided to follow the advice of a number of you and turn off the comments section on Larval Subjects.]

As one of the most invigorating spaces, this would be shortlived, one wishes. [TNM]

Buddha disinformation

from Tusar N. Mohapatra tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com to Jagannath Chatterjee
date3 October 2009 10:18
subject Re: [DevComm] Orissa is the birthplace of Lord Buddha.

The popular notion of Buddha, like many relics of the past, is a myth. Emotional bonding with a certain legend is a childlike quality and hence harmless, but to prop it with rational seeming proofs is a political misadventure likely to spread disinformation.

Reading the works of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo can teach us many things. Rectitude in thought is one of them. [TNM]

Karlekar's own clan is no less responsible

[The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> A nation in amnesia: OPED Thursday, October 1, 2009 Email Print
A nation in amnesia
Hiranmay Karlekar
Why pundits ignore Sri Aurobindo’s vision
Prof Sachidananda Mohanty says in his well-written and painstakingly-researched work, Sri Aurobindo: A Contemporary Reader (Routledge), “I have often wondered why university intellectuals are reluctant to engage with Sri Aurobindo.” ... However carefully nuanced Marx’s critique, his rejection of religion was total; so was that by Marxist intellectuals, whose influence grew in a great measure because of the support of the entire global and Indian Communist movements behind them. On the other hand, the Vedantic tradition no longer had a charismatic leader like Swami Vivekanand and Sri Aurobindo or a stalwart literary and mystical figure like Rabindranath Tagore. Finally, given the growing complexity of modern societies and the increasing importance social, political, administrative and economic activity, subjects related to these commanded precedence in the universities. Growing specialisation in the academic world left one with little time for anything-including one’s own spiritual heritage and its exponents — outside one’s own discipline. This is an absolute shame. Sri Aurobindo’s universal and cosmic vision has much to offer to a troubled world.]

Karlekar's own clan is no less responsible for neglect of Sri Aurobindo. [TNM]