Hinduism has six theistic schools of philosophy (astika darshana). The first one is called Nyaya. Today, Nyaya in Hindi & Tamil mean justice. This was originally developed as a system of logic. Justice has to follow logic.
The originator of this philosophy was Gautama. The treatises are Nyaya Shastra, Nyaya Sutra & Nyaya Bhashya. A Shastra is a detailed treatise, a Sutra is a concise explanation of the philosophy, while a Bhashya is a commentary.
Nyaya states that every object has a nature (svarupa) that differentiates it from others.
Nyaya accepts four ways of obtaining knowledge, called Pramaanams. They are:
* Pratyaksha (perception): If I see a fire, I know that the fire exists.
* Anumaana (inference): If I see smoke, I can infer that there's a fire.
* Shabdha (sound): If a trusted source tells me there's a fire in a different area (say in Radio or TV), there is a fire in that area.
* Upamaana (analogy).
It also frames the rules for a good debate (Samvaada) & compares it to the lesser Jalpa Vaada (egoistic debate), Vithanda Vaada (rule-less abusive) & Vivaada (circular reasoning). The debater has to restate the opponent's argument in a satisfactory manner (Purva Paksha). The conclusion of an argument is called Drstantha.
A type of the Nyaya philosophy explaining the world is the Matsya Nayaya (Fish Law), which is defined by Chanakya in his Arthashastra. This means Big fish eats the little fish, jungle law, or the strongest survive. Society can either tend towards Matsya Nyaya (strong overpower the weak) or Dharma (a system that protects the weak & the innocent).
Nyaya also has the first theistic arguments for the existence of a divinity, refuting the atheistic arguments of the Charvakas (atheists).
Nyaya was developed further into Navya Nyaya starting with a scholar called Udayana. This has a historical connection to modern day computers. What does an old logical philosophy have to do with computers? Here is some background on some interesting people and an even more interesting letter.
George Everest was working for the East India company as a geographer & surveyor of a median arc. (Trivia: Ujjaini used to be the median of ancient India). Mt. Everest, the tallest peak in the world, is named in his honor. He had a niece, Mary Everest Boole.
Mary was the wife of George Boole. George Boole developed Boolean Algebra which is the foundation of computers.
Boole worked with Augustus De Morgan. De Morgan was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India (his father worked in the army of the East India company). He introduced mathematical induction, algebra & set theory. De Morgan promoted the work of self-taught Indian mathematician, Ram Chandra. Ram Chandra's story is similar to the story of another self-taught Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujam. Ram Chandra is called De Morgan's Ramanujam.
Boole & De Morgan worked with Charles Babbage. He has been called the father of computers.
Mary Boole wrote this letter to Indian scientist, Jagdish Chandra Bose.
This letter has some interesting information. She says that Babbage, De Morgan & George Boole were intensely Hinduized and that her uncle, George Everest, acted as an intermediary. She praises Ram Chundra's work and objects to British trampling of Hindu culture while exhorting them to learn.
De Morgan states in his book: Syllabus of a Proposed System of Logic, published in 1860, that the two races who founded Mathematics in Greek & Sanskrit have developed independent systems of logic. Intriguingly, there are Greek & Persian stories that Callisthenes, the Greek historian who accompanied Alexander, took Indian logic texts to Greece.
Jonar Ganeri, author of Indian Logic, thinks that Babbage may have been influenced by Hindu thought through Henry Thomas Colebrooke, who is considered the first great European Sanskrit scholar.
Nyaya's debate rules follow a principle called Chatushkoti (4 sided negation). This is similar to the concept of a confusion matrix in computer science. It acknowledges that there are two issues with every argument.
1. Our own knowledge is limited & is reflected in our arguments.
2. Language itself has bias & is incomplete.
Let's consider an example. Consider this statement: A cheetah is the fastest animal. Do you think it is correct? Yes? It does sound reasonable, right?
What if there is some animal in the jungle that is not discovered yet? This is the limitation of our own knowledge.
How do you define a cheetah? Is a jaguar or leopard a cheetah?
What ages will you measure a cheetah? Can I compare the speed of a baby cheetah or a single slow cheetah to make the determination?
How do you define fastest? How short or long is the period of time that you'll measure? Is it an average? Median? Range? Or fastest cheetah ever recorded?
How do you define an animal? Is it only land, or can you consider sea & air?
This is the limitation of language. What appeared to be correct at first is now unclear, unless it is clearly defined.
Jains also have a similar yet different seven fold system system of logic for debates (Syaad-vaada) called Saptibhanginaaya. This requires the restating of the original hypothesis (Purva Paksha) without generalizing in the argument.
Sources:
http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/114/12/2570.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyaya#Nyaya_on_God_and_salvation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_De_Morgan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Morgan%27s_laws
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Boole
https://www.scribd.com/document/61916350/Indian-Thought-and-Western-Science-in-the-Nineteenth-Century
https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/de-gruyter/why-dr-j-c-bose-did-not-reply-to-mary-boole-s-open-letter-of-1901-qcqr2c8822
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1803.04994.pdf
https://swarajyamag.com/books/did-logic-go-from-india-to-greece
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyaya#Nyaya_on_God_and_salvation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramchundra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Thomas_Colebrooke
http://indiafacts.org/chatuskoti-four-sided-negation/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastest_animals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catuṣkoṭi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confusion_matrix
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anekantavada#Sy.C4.81dv.C4.81da
Monday, June 25, 2018
Friday, June 22, 2018
We all rip families apart
In the current US political climate of June 2018, the US administration is under criticism for separating parents & children of illegal immigrants at the border. The political debate brought in comparisons with prior administrations and differing interpretations of the same data. Other debates included policies on US citizens and legal immigrations.
We all think of ourselves as good compassionate people who wouldn't rip apart families. But what if the truth is, we are all responsible for ripping families apart.
If we are silent witnesses to injustice, it is a crime itself. When faced with hypocrisy, it is also a duty to point out the hypocrisy.
I've witnessed the incompetence of law enforcement and the criminal justice system when unnecessarily criminalizing people with mental health issues, even in open and shut cases. Families of US citizens & legal residents have been ripped apart. The criminal justice system is also exceedingly harsh for even minor non-violent crimes. This rips families apart when putting people behind bars. Somehow, we have failed to express compassion towards this section of society. Criminal justice reform is the solution.
Have you witnessed any nasty divorces? I have. Unscrupulous lawyers have developed a modus-operandi. Have the woman first file a restraining order. Disappear suddenly with the child, surprising the spouse. It becomes an uphill battle for the father to even get the order lifted & even see the child. Lawyers & accountants make money while the father has to fight to have the child for increased hours. There is no accountability for perjury, which is made when filing the restraining order & the divorce petition. In India, the draconian 498a & the default of giving full custody to the woman has resulted in multiple fathers committing suicide. Some soldiers who had faced & survived enemy bullets have ended their life at being unable to even see their child. We have failed to show any compassion when these families are being ripped apart. Divorce system reform & the repeal of 498a in India is the solution.
We may argue that we are not directly complicit because of silence or lack of awareness. But what if I said that we are directly complicity as well?
We all consume milk products. These are mostly from cows and sometimes from goats and in India, water buffaloes. Milk comes from mammals. Mammals need to give birth to product milk for its offspring. What happens to the little babies of these animals? If they drink the milk, the businesses will have less milk to sell, won't they? So, the babies are taken away immediately after birth. The mother never sees her babies again.
In other animal factory farms, this cycle continues. Pigs have their babies taken away, killed if they don't grow fast enough. If they do grow well, they are moved to another crate where they can't move for their entire life.
The mother hen never sees her chicks in the egg industry. Male chicks are ground up by the egg industry; they don't lay eggs, so they're useless.
We are all complicit in ripping the families of these animals apart. We pay businesses to do this for us. Gandhi said that the weaker the creature, the greater it deserves our voice. The solution is the end of intensive animal factory farming.
We now experienced compassion. Can we extend our compassion towards our those who are weaker & even less fortunate? Or will we perform mental gymnastics and be hypocritical?
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu. Om Shanthi.
We all think of ourselves as good compassionate people who wouldn't rip apart families. But what if the truth is, we are all responsible for ripping families apart.
If we are silent witnesses to injustice, it is a crime itself. When faced with hypocrisy, it is also a duty to point out the hypocrisy.
I've witnessed the incompetence of law enforcement and the criminal justice system when unnecessarily criminalizing people with mental health issues, even in open and shut cases. Families of US citizens & legal residents have been ripped apart. The criminal justice system is also exceedingly harsh for even minor non-violent crimes. This rips families apart when putting people behind bars. Somehow, we have failed to express compassion towards this section of society. Criminal justice reform is the solution.
Have you witnessed any nasty divorces? I have. Unscrupulous lawyers have developed a modus-operandi. Have the woman first file a restraining order. Disappear suddenly with the child, surprising the spouse. It becomes an uphill battle for the father to even get the order lifted & even see the child. Lawyers & accountants make money while the father has to fight to have the child for increased hours. There is no accountability for perjury, which is made when filing the restraining order & the divorce petition. In India, the draconian 498a & the default of giving full custody to the woman has resulted in multiple fathers committing suicide. Some soldiers who had faced & survived enemy bullets have ended their life at being unable to even see their child. We have failed to show any compassion when these families are being ripped apart. Divorce system reform & the repeal of 498a in India is the solution.
We may argue that we are not directly complicit because of silence or lack of awareness. But what if I said that we are directly complicity as well?
We all consume milk products. These are mostly from cows and sometimes from goats and in India, water buffaloes. Milk comes from mammals. Mammals need to give birth to product milk for its offspring. What happens to the little babies of these animals? If they drink the milk, the businesses will have less milk to sell, won't they? So, the babies are taken away immediately after birth. The mother never sees her babies again.
In other animal factory farms, this cycle continues. Pigs have their babies taken away, killed if they don't grow fast enough. If they do grow well, they are moved to another crate where they can't move for their entire life.
The mother hen never sees her chicks in the egg industry. Male chicks are ground up by the egg industry; they don't lay eggs, so they're useless.
We are all complicit in ripping the families of these animals apart. We pay businesses to do this for us. Gandhi said that the weaker the creature, the greater it deserves our voice. The solution is the end of intensive animal factory farming.
We now experienced compassion. Can we extend our compassion towards our those who are weaker & even less fortunate? Or will we perform mental gymnastics and be hypocritical?
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu. Om Shanthi.
Thursday, June 14, 2018
The first atheistic arguments-Ramayana
Hinduism has six theistic darshanas (ways of perceiving the truth or philosophis).
In addition, it also has an atheistic philosophy. It is called the Charvaka Darshana. Its symbol is that of a snake eating itself, much like August Kekule's dream which led him to Benzene's chemical structure.
Founded by Brihaspathi, its text is called Brihaspathya Sutra. A Shastra is text in a lot of detail, while a Sutra is very concise.
Charvaka is also called Lokaayata & Brihaspathya. This is equivalent of materialism, hedonism or atheism.
One of its sayings is: Paralokam naasthi, which means: there is no world other than this. Charvaka philosophy says that there is no life but this one, you have only one life and enjoy this life. Eat well & make merry.
Its Pramaanam (means of obtaining knowledge) is Pratyaksha (perception), which means, all that you see exists, all that you don't see doesn't exist.
In the Ramayana, Kaikeyi is a skilled charioteer who saves her husband Dasaratha, when he faints in battle. In return, he offers her two boons, which she initially rejects, but later jokingly says that she'd use it later. When Rama is about to be coronated, she's initially happy, but her mind is later poisoned by Manthara. She invokes her two boons, and asks for her son, Bharatha to be king, and for Rama to be sent to the forest. Dasaratha is unable to bring himself to tell Rama, so Kaikeyi tells Rama about her boons. Rama agrees to fulfill his father's vow & goes to the forest.
Later, Bharatha, accompanied by sages & the common people, request Rama to ignore the boon & return as king. Dasharatha is dead by then. A rishi (sage), Jabali, makes Charvaka arguments to convince Rama to return to the kingdom. No one belongs to anyone. We all come & leave alone. Why do you think you belong to your father & need to follow your father's word? All the people & your brothers want you as king. Finally, all people, including those who suffer for some assumed greater cause also die. All the ancestral worship, food offerings, sacrifices, gifts were created by others to induce you to give them your wealth. What you see is real, what you don't is not.
Rama refutes these arguments. Rama calls them bad arguments with bad premises that appear to be sweet. It is important to follow morals, such as keeping one's word & devoting yourself to the truth. It is even more important to follow this as a king, since others will follow the leader. The mind first commits a sin, and then the body. Knowingly rejecting a promise & an oath is a sin. It is important to keep your word & do your duty, though it may be painful.
Jabali responds that he is not a Charvaka & that he used these arguments only to convince Rama.
Both arguments existed at the time of the Ramayana, exist today, and will continue to exist in the future.
In addition, it also has an atheistic philosophy. It is called the Charvaka Darshana. Its symbol is that of a snake eating itself, much like August Kekule's dream which led him to Benzene's chemical structure.
Founded by Brihaspathi, its text is called Brihaspathya Sutra. A Shastra is text in a lot of detail, while a Sutra is very concise.
Charvaka is also called Lokaayata & Brihaspathya. This is equivalent of materialism, hedonism or atheism.
One of its sayings is: Paralokam naasthi, which means: there is no world other than this. Charvaka philosophy says that there is no life but this one, you have only one life and enjoy this life. Eat well & make merry.
Its Pramaanam (means of obtaining knowledge) is Pratyaksha (perception), which means, all that you see exists, all that you don't see doesn't exist.
In the Ramayana, Kaikeyi is a skilled charioteer who saves her husband Dasaratha, when he faints in battle. In return, he offers her two boons, which she initially rejects, but later jokingly says that she'd use it later. When Rama is about to be coronated, she's initially happy, but her mind is later poisoned by Manthara. She invokes her two boons, and asks for her son, Bharatha to be king, and for Rama to be sent to the forest. Dasaratha is unable to bring himself to tell Rama, so Kaikeyi tells Rama about her boons. Rama agrees to fulfill his father's vow & goes to the forest.
Later, Bharatha, accompanied by sages & the common people, request Rama to ignore the boon & return as king. Dasharatha is dead by then. A rishi (sage), Jabali, makes Charvaka arguments to convince Rama to return to the kingdom. No one belongs to anyone. We all come & leave alone. Why do you think you belong to your father & need to follow your father's word? All the people & your brothers want you as king. Finally, all people, including those who suffer for some assumed greater cause also die. All the ancestral worship, food offerings, sacrifices, gifts were created by others to induce you to give them your wealth. What you see is real, what you don't is not.
Rama refutes these arguments. Rama calls them bad arguments with bad premises that appear to be sweet. It is important to follow morals, such as keeping one's word & devoting yourself to the truth. It is even more important to follow this as a king, since others will follow the leader. The mind first commits a sin, and then the body. Knowingly rejecting a promise & an oath is a sin. It is important to keep your word & do your duty, though it may be painful.
Jabali responds that he is not a Charvaka & that he used these arguments only to convince Rama.
Both arguments existed at the time of the Ramayana, exist today, and will continue to exist in the future.
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