Thursday, July 1, 2010

Reason Vs Faith in reason

There was this turbulence which arrived from no where into all the open and serene grounds I ventured. The bonds seemed to exist, the binding was in question all around. The bind was shivering. The weight of questions were so heavy, it seemed as if bonds of earth are being hammered , this was leading to the turbulence that seemed to engulf the earth, no matter where I went.

The quest has lead to this abstract topic of rationalism and what is not.

Importance of rationalism is that, it has been an elusive concept even though it has become a mass culture . One is out-caste from the closest friends if one is not rational ( implicitly meaning rationalist). No one understands it however. Formality and Violence has replaced fun, merry and leisure in many parts of the country because of restlessness created by an irrational quest for rationalism.The contradiction is rational farthest away from its noisy practitioners, it has been many things to many people, multiple things to same person, like lord Vishnu or his maya, it takes form, its illusive, it has been made to a faith. It is like clouds of maya descended to cover up.

Rationalism, In standard philosophical vocabulary, can described as "Faith in pure reason".
Ideas on Its Origin :- Pure reason is a term with origins in renaissance europe. Westerners attribute it to plato, Descartes. I think it is a great mistake to think so. In plato's time, pure reason would operate in a different universe in different parts of world... In Bharat the equivalence of extra sensual reason was never to be attained by the senseless. Considering literature that was considered in colonial europe, therefore I disagree that suddenly so many people of medieval europe became devotees of Descartes, or for that matter Plato of distant past.

To credit the rationalists, they seem to be shaped more by looking at Descartes ideas . If rationalism is a faith , the prophet of the faithful is Descartes. However, Descartes the mathematician is relevant due to scientific discoveries, many of which would conform to Descartes thought. He is not relevant due some extra sensual hypothetical postulations. His relevance is hizacked by useless colonial historians,european supremists, hacks and some philosophers to create an ism of rationalism. Here in the faith of rationalism, Descartes the mathematician is converted to prophet. Reason was there before the faithful congregated to make an ism of rational - even according to Descartes. Hizacking reason to faith of rationalist is foolish at best, work of devilish at worst.

Opposition :-One of the most celebrated to opposition to rationalism or faith in pure reason is byImmanuel Kant, it would fill an entire blog to discuss it. Kant was celebrated writer, so let us throw aside the idea that his thesis was ramblings sans reason. His transcendental logic was neither an apology to hindus of ancient Bharat...Many rationalists may be uncomfortable if I bring in the subject of colonized Bharat to the subject of best of enlightened europe - But It is not t out of place here. Kant saw reason, however he didn't argue senselessness. Kant had no use for requirement of a pure reason. Though a typical modern day noisy rationalist in India would be a leftist materialist in the flow of history, in an enlightened sense this difference between the pure reason and transcendence of Kant is like the difference between the Brahmin and Budhists. Emphais must be added, Brahmins were not preaching letting sense free. Just that budhist methods added supreme emphasis on this. Reading Kant is farthest from refutation of reason, My idea of Kant is about refutation of faith of rationalism, thus he was saving(!) the science as well as religion.

Degradation to a rationalist faith :-
Faith was important in european culture. Renaissance brought in rational. Voltire talks of a Brahmin Vs a ladyin one of his literature...The lady has faith, she is settled for such ideas as a bath in Ganges so on...are good enough, she is in peace...The Brahmin, supposed to be a better authority in religion is unsettled, struggling in constant quest of elusive mind... The story of a struggle in a distant land is set to show the importance of skepticism, reason, quest etc....

Reason is not same as faith, there mayn't be anybody in real world without a faith...I am not competent to comment on Sri Sri Ravishankar, Ramdevji....Similarly there mayn't be any human or higher animals beyond some reason...They contradict, they collude...that is intrinsic. But it is improbable, foolishness and almost devilish act to kill one of that...rationalism is a "faith" in reason. It makes miserable when perceived reason is unmatched...It has brought on formality, violence and mistrust. It kills reason when reason validates faith... Thus we have Gandhians who have been susceptible to guns...Not worthy of a miserable criminal.

A Great mistake of many sensible and reasonable people was to surrender rational to the faithful and their coterie - the rationalists.

More examples from europe :

Attack on "jewish science" in early 19th century europe. I suspect the european culture is susceptible to faith, and a bunch of do-gooders had converted the rational to a faith. And then there were politicians, european racial and cultural supremacists and their agents in academics - they had created ideas such as national socialism which were supposedly 'scientific' . (There are enough dimwits in India today, who never suspected marx's rants mayn't be scintific gospel. Rants could be just that. ) They were carrying the burden of civilization. "Jewish science" essentially had altered their infallible claim - reality was real even in subtelity, the dimensions of new reality were no more in their cultural context. The mathematics was too involved and enlightened than statistical measurement of races. It was a thing to enjoy for science, but for European national socialists, the sand was shifting under their feet. An attack on "jewish science" ?

Considering the recent events around Israel - it has more UN condemnation than Libya- I doubt if European national socialists ever forgave the Jews. The state board in my state in India dropped theory of relativity in favor of addl electronic chapters in class XII -I am open to skepticism if there was a socialist who dropped jewish science .


Reality bestowed on India :

Jews have suffered lot, but they have done remarkably well. Max Mueller, a hack from Germany who studied indology with devilish intention, had put Hindus and jews together. There is some document of sad events of human history that happened to jews in Germany, something for humans to cry ...No authoritative document exists what happened to Hindus in Pakisthan. There were a lot of them...by some accounts upto 20% before Indian independence. Deepa meheta, Kuldeep Nayar - people who talked about the subject didn't get it. Using races and fraud theories of history, Rationalists had thoroughly discredited hinduism in history, sociology, anthropology. British govt banned books that talked well of India, instead they promoted the idea of races...Aryan Dravidian races. Tons of Indians joined them for becoming rationalists, and to get good salaries from govt.

Rationalism is firmly a matter of faith and opportunity to be upward mobile in India. Standard rationals are fixed in accordance with the racial formulations, marxist formulations of mediaval europe. One has encountered sociologists of all Talking reason audaciously, professor from best science institute of India, subdued in thinking probably Descartes had nothing to do with these chaos in philosophy. Political movement is possible by deceiving, or conforming to rationalists faith...The idea of pure reason, idea of transcendence is so remote when everyday news paper talks of maoists and then govt and then selected victims.....Faith and reason are getting blurred into confidence, audacity , utility and popularity. Reality is again getting ossified.



No comments: