Tag Archives: philosophy

Some words on mathematical truth, scientific conviction and the sociology of science

Sometime in the bronze age more than one group of humans, including our own Aryan ancestors, discovered that the squares of the two legs of a right triangle sum up to the square of the hypotenuse. This is the famed … Continue reading

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Some visions of infinity from the past and our times

The great Hindu mathematician and astronomer Bhāskara-II’s work preserves a high-point of Hindu knowledge. His work contains ideas that are often seen as characterizing “modern” scientific understanding i.e. what in the west would seen as starting with Leibniz and Newton … Continue reading

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In the gray zone

Among the thinkers of the modern Occident one may take note of the Englishman John Gray. He is firmly an insider of the Anglosphere not just by origin but also by worldview: he is quick to spot the barbarisms in … Continue reading

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van Aubel’s theorem

The van Aubel’s theorem is a simple theorem which is comparable to the theorem attributed to the French conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte regarding triangles. It is easy to prove once you know the upāya, even as the yogin-s would say ānanda … Continue reading

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śūlapuruṣa-catvārakam-3: A method for the analysis of history

Somakhya, standing beside a pillar outside his university department, glanced at his watch with a tinge of irritation as he waited for Lootika to show up. She was to bring her sister Vrishchika from the medical school, which was some … Continue reading

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upakathā of previous: śūlapuruṣa-catvārakam

It was a bright spring day, when the vaṭakinī mahotsava was being celebrated. Several families from the town were arriving early in the morning at a shrine, which contained a gigantic image of the terrible ape Hanūmat. Even as Somakhya … Continue reading

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bhR^igu smR^iti

We provide below a translation of the proto-scientific section of bhR^igu smR^iti along with a comparative analysis vis-a-vis Miletian school of Greeks: Translation of the bhR^igu smR^iti 1-4 We are not entirely happy with this translation done sometime back: Despite … Continue reading

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Idiosyncratic synesthetic experiences in some trivial trigonometric identities

Mathematical objects, despite existing in a purely abstract “Platonic” realm, have the ability (perhaps by the very virtue of their Platonic idealism) to produce synesthetic experiences. We have often wondered in our life as to why the realization or experience … Continue reading

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The basis for philosophy in science (especially biology) and religion

We did not want to write this epistle as we have said things along these lines a few times before, and have spoken even more of it to our friends. Richard Dawkins had once said something like philosophers do not … Continue reading

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Big science and grant-driven science and how discoveries are made

When we were young some we had made some scientific discoveries that we described to the elders around us. They were unable to make any sense of it but had an intuitive feel that there might be something to our … Continue reading

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An indigo South Asian, hemu’s salt and other interlocutions

For a while Mn has been keeping only Ivy league company – as he would say from one Ivy league school to another, much to the envy of flotsam deshI mortals. Indeed, he made his appearance with an entourage of … Continue reading

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Some more ramblings on the mlechCha-marUnmatta abhisaMdhAnaM

The mlechCha-s outwardly appear to have been at war with the shashidhvaja-s since the first days of the khilI-moha propagated by the adi-marUnmatta. But throughout history several actions of mlechCha-s have ended up strengthening the marUnmatta-s rather than weakening them. … Continue reading

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Meanderings in the vedAnta-nAstika interface

One of the central figures of classical advaita vedAnta is the AchArya gauDapAda. Hagiographic tradition holds that gauDacharaNa was the paramaguru of the great advaitAchArya shaMkara bhagavatpAda (and guru of govinda bhagavatpAda). This is confirmed by shaMkara in his concluding … Continue reading

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