Je pense, donc je suis: I think, therefore I am—that is René Descartes. A Philosophy course introduces him as follows: "Modern Philosophy is the name traditionally used in Anglo-American philosophy departments to denote the period of philosophy from Descartes (1596-1650) to Kant (1724-1804). A better description would be seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophy, or early modern philosophy, but that's the tradition. In our class we focus on seven philosophers: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Again, tradition tells us that the first three are 'Continental Rationalists' and the next three are 'British Empiricists,' but like all brief descriptions these are only partly accurate. Because the class is only one semester we can't do more than get a first taste of each philosopher. Even that requires a lot of thought (and reading)."

The present article by Asok Kumar Ray, retired Professor of Mathematics, Jadhavpur University, is from his recently published book Truth Nothing Else Than. It is apt that Prof Ray should combine in him the Cartesian qualities of a mathematician and a philosopher more felicitously integrated in the Aurobindonian vision and thought. ~ RYD ...   more »

In 1879, when the British were ruling over India, Lt. Col. Martin of Agar Malva was leading the army in the war against Afghanistan. Col. Martin used to regularly send messages of his well-being to his wife. The war continued for long and Lady Martin stopped getting messages. She was very upset. Once riding on her horse, she passed by the temple of Baijnath Mahadev. She was attracted to the sound of Conch and Mantra. She went inside and came to know that the Brahmanas were worshipping Lord Shiva. They saw her sad face and asked her problem. She explained everything to them. They told her that Lord Shiva listens to the prayers of devotees and takes them out of difficult situations in no time. With the advice of the Brahmanas she started the Laghurudra Anushtthāna of the Mantra Om Namah Shivāya for 11 days. She prayed to Lord Shiva that if her husband reaches home safely, then she would get the temple renovated...   more »

Once the highest expression of Chinese culture, the Peking Opera is a dying art today. Efforts to revive it have met with a mixed response. The current decline in interest in the opera is attributed to the global phenomenon of a tension between the classical and the modern...   more »

In 1860, while studying primroses in the garden of Down House, his home in Kent, England, Charles Darwin noticed something odd about their blooms. While all the flowers had both male and female parts — anthers and pistils — in some the anthers were prominent and in others the pistils were longer. So he experimented in his home laboratory and greenhouses, cross-pollinating some plants with their anatomical opposites. The results were striking. “He determined that if they cross-pollinate, they produce more seed and more vigorous seedlings,” said Margaret Falk, a horticulturalist and associate vice president at the New York Botanical Garden. The variation is evolution’s way of increasing cross-pollination, she said. Now the Botanical Garden is replicating this work, and more of Darwin’s Down House experiments, in a stunning, multipart exhibition called “Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure.” …   more »

Following the publication of “Understanding Thoughts of Sri Aurobindo,” Indrani Sanyal and Krishna Roy of the Centre for Sri Aurobindo Studies, Calcutta have complied a set of eighteen scholarly essays on Sri Aurobindo and his contemporaries in the ideational context of what has been called the Bengal Renaissance. Sri Aurobindo’s physical involvement in the politics and culture of early Bengal nationalism was of relatively short duration (1905-1910), albeit an intense and all-sided participation which internalized the entire regional history of the movement and left a powerful creative impress in the milieu of its time and space. Moreover, the discursive background of this involvement continued to develop organically and find voice throughout his life in his subjective articulation just as his own situated contribution continued to resonate in later Indian nationalism. Thus this collection of considered interpretive contemplation fills an important need in our historical understanding. But more importantly, it is the post-colonial legacy of these engagements which draws us today by their fertile and future-gazing content, inviting reflection not merely for India’s but the world’s re-generation at a time of global ferment.   more »

The bumblebee and other native wild bees are all the more important in the garden now that the population of honeybees is in such decline — down to 2.4 million colonies last year from 5.5 million in 1945, according to the Department of Agriculture, due mainly, scientists say, to mites infesting the hives and, lately, to a mysterious epidemic called colony collapse disorder. Native bees pollinate everything from pear and cherry trees to blueberries, tomatoes and eggplant. They are also fascinating to watch.So the next time a bumblebee buzzes around your head, don’t swat at it. Follow it around. You might see it mating, or gathering nectar and pollen and flying off to its nest…

You can help native bees by building them shelters. Bundle sticks of sumac and bamboo, with the open ends all going one way and the closed ends going the other. Then place the bundle where it is sheltered from the rain. To make houses for mason bees, drill holes of different sizes in a block of wood. Bumblebee boxes are a bit more complicated: they resemble bird houses, but with a smaller hole, and are filled with some kind of nesting material, like cotton batting…   more »

… The annus horribilis preceding the revolution that came about in 1789 had already deprived the queen of whatever courage she had left to face these calumnies. The death of the dauphin at age seven, a totally trumped up accusation of having ordered an outrageously expensive diamond necklace and the particularly harsh winter which had resulted in soaring bread prices that were naturally blamed on the extravagances of the queen, all contributed heavily to her fall from the people’s graces and to her eventual arrest and trial. The infamous necklace, quite ugly as a matter of fact, is part of the show, as is a plethora of exhibits that revive the misery and despondency of the queen’s final hours; the simple white cotton dress she wore at the moment of her beheading on Oct 16, 1793, as well as Jacques-Louis David’s sombre sketch of her in this dress just before the execution. As for cake-eating, the quote can actually be traced back to philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau who in his turn was citing Queen Maria Theresa of Spain, decades before Marie Antoinette: “If there’s no bread, give them the crust of pâté”. The infamous phrase was later adapted by revolutionaries to suit the bread crisis in order to malign their favourite victim. If you happen to be in Paris before June 30, don’t miss the show. The Metro station for Grand Palais is Champs Elysées-Clémenceau on Line 1.   more »

Two computer screens display images of the first edition copy of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in London on Thursday.

The project began in 2002 and this is the last major set of additions. Dr John van Wyhe, Darwin Online’s director, said: “[The documents] have been known to scholars, but for the first time they are available to everyone for free online.” One set of pages that is likely to attract considerable interest is Darwin’s scrawled first draft of his theory of evolution from 1842. The scribbled argument is crammed with afterthoughts, footnotes and crossed-out text. A transcript of the text has been published previously, but few will have seen the original facsimile of Darwin’s unpolished thought process. “There is a kind of fascination about it having all the original handwriting and the places where he was making changes and was struggling with issues,” said Dr. Paul White, part of the Darwin Correspondence Project, a separate effort to catalogue Darwin’s letters. …   more »

For someone who was born and brought up in Karachi, I must confess the cultural distance between the metropolis and the hinterland exists not just in miles. The inhabitants of the city, especially as young and brash as Karachi, have built a hybrid identity from the experience of constant change, chaos and cultural interface. Meanwhile, the people of the interior of Sindh, steeped in the folklore and poetry of its Sufis, zealously guard the purity of their language and interpret life through the prism of conventions shaped by ancient history. What Pakistan, a county that brought together heterogeneous people from all over South Asia, has needed since its inception is an education policy to unify cultures through knowledge and respect for pluralism. While this dream of the founding fathers is forgotten in the midst of political volatility and confrontation, opportunities for reconciliation and an understanding of Pakistan’s diverse traditions are lost. …   more »

It is known that Da Vinci’s parents were not married and that his father was a Florentine notary, Ser Piero. In a tax record dating from 1457, five years after the Italian polymath’s birth, his mother is described as one Caterina, who by then was married to a man from the Tuscan town of Vinci. It was assumed she was a local woman. But, according to Francesco Cianchi, the author of the study, “There is no Caterina in Vinci or nearby villages who can be linked to Ser Piero. The only Caterina in Piero’s life seems to be a slave girl who lived in the house of his wealthy friend, Vanni di Niccolo di Ser Vann.”...   more »

New life for an old church in Maastricht: a lesson for all. What other store can boast ceiling paintings dating back so far? The dominant new element in the church is the high-rise bookshelf structure…    more »

A gold-encrusted dagger belonging to Mughal emperor Shah Jahan is expected to fetch £500,000 when auctioned at Bonhams on Thursday. The dagger is part of the collection of Islamic and Indian art and artefacts of the late textile businessman, Jacques Desenfans. ...   more »

The global economy is not decarbonising—it is recarbonising. There must be a much larger commitment to fundamental energy technology R &D …   more »

In his copy of Arjava’s Poems, Amal Kiran has pasted as frontispiece the pencil impression of Arjava made by himself, Amal Kiran. He is shown clad in dhoti and a buttoned-up shortish kurta, with a walking stick in his hand. He is well-groomed, has a pointed nose and a pointed chin. In this copy of his Amal has, importantly, copied Sri Aurobindo’s comments on the poems. Amal writes about Arjava’s poetry as follows: “As we might expect of a mind trained to careful intellectuality, Chadwick—or Arjava, as he came to be known from the name Arjavananda (meaning "Joy of straightforwardness") given him by Sri Aurobindo—did not achieve closeness to the Ideal through a lavish spontaneity whose very breath is song. A deliberate self-critical compact perfection belonged to him. Instead of taking the Kingdom of Heaven by a stormy frontal assault, he laid slow siege to it and won its treasures by patient compulsion—a victory no less complete though differing in plan and technique. Here too is a superb energy of imagination expended not so much in a royal diffusion as in concentrated exquisiteness or magnificence. We feel, to quote the poet's own words from a sonnet, "a chaos-ending chisel-smite" in each work—a faultless statue emerges in which every line and curve has been traced by an inspired precision…” This is one of the deepest studies on the Ovehead poetry that has come after Sri Aurobindo and it must prove immensely helpful in our critical appreciation as well as creative effort. ...   more »

Trees play an important part in regulating pollution and climate in towns and cities, but are falling foul of insurance companies and councils who are felling healthy, mature trees in their thousands. An unusual contest is taking shape during the London mayoral campaign: candidates are fighting to see who can promise to plant the most trees. Boris Johnson has pledged to put up 10,000 street trees in London while Ken Livingstone has described the Conservative candidate's target as "incredibly unambitious" and claimed he will plant 600,000 trees by 2012. All the time, however, trees are being removed from the capital, and in other cities across the country, because of health and safety issues, security fears and, most commonly, insurance claims and threats from loss adjusters.…   more »

It has been a hundred years since the two geniuses, one an outstanding American inventor and one a great Russian writer, exchanged what we might now call “intellectual products.” However, the story still has many historical riddles associated with it.
The two men are Thomas Edison, who perfected and patented more than a thousand inventions, and Leo Tolstoy…

Edison’s album in which he kept comments by famous people on his inventions contains a note by Tolstoy: “The most powerful force in the world is thought. The more forms of expression it finds the more that force can manifest itself. The invention of printing was a milestone in human history. The appearance of the telephone and especially the phonograph, which is the most effective and impressive medium for recording and preserving not only the words, but the shades of the voice that says them, will mark another era.” [signed] ‘Leo Tolstoy.’ ...   more »