Tuesday, December 11, 2007 

Destiny of Man's Consciousness in the Age of Rationalism

What is destiny of man? Or what is destiny of humanity? There are several answers suggested by philosophers but very few could answer it correctly. Philosophies of infinity declare that mans destiny should not be less than his absolute freedom. Freedom not in relative term rather freedom from all relative phenomena. These philosophies were not meditated from the point of man as desiring being rather from the point of being as pure and eternal. Mans destiny thus is not to satisfy only desires rather to realize some more important truths of life. But philosophies of modern age declare another truth and decided another destination for humanity to achieve and it was desire. Desire became the sacred philosophical truth which bore the seed of modernity. And the epistemology that narrated the philosophy of desire was rationalism.

This great narrative of desire which was narrated from the reason took many turns, this time is has incarnated in the form of philosophy of post modernism. In the history of western thought philosophy of desire had always been central theme, it was necessary for every philosopher to make it central point of investigation. Reason which is always contradictory became mans light. This reason which narrates the desire was/is desire itself. It dismantled very thing which did not supported it. Desire is blind, it sees nothing accept desire. Thus all religions and religious philosophies became obscure, irrational, speculations; rationalism which declared hitherto existed everything irrational and speculations was itself speculative from the very beginning . Started with Rene Descartes to till now, the philosophers of rationalism are speculating.

Science too which is based on the rationalist philosophy speculated not less and still is speculating however they declare that their theories are solely based on concrete observations. For example the concept of atom propagated by Vaisheshik philosophy was just speculation but the same thing when invented later by Dalton it became science. Though Dalton could not provided any proof other than a speculative hypothesis that there is a smallest particle in the matter called atom which later declared wrong since there were uncountable particles. Till today, science is speculating about the root of the matter, recently they have speculated that there is a phenomenon in the heart of the matter and thus cosmos, called string; on which everything is based. And this string is floating in time and space, it is both outside and inside, it is a kind of absolute element, from which everything is formed or which forms everything. But a symbolic expression of philosophies of infinity in this regard is useless and just an irrational idea. Einstein in his hypothetical journey once speculated that presence of mass curves space gravity is a property of space but before his death he declared that space has devoured ether and time; it seems to be on the point of swallowing up also the field and corpuscles, so that it alone remains as the vehicle of reality. But when a Vedanta philosopher says that space is primary element in the material phenomena it becomes speculation.

The rationalist- empiricist philosophy which is solely based on rational categorization of things, on sign system, on system of unity destroyed the very human endeavor to jump in the truth infinite. system of knowledge which was earlier free wandering in the matter of things became so rational and closed that it lost its inner wisdom. Rationalisms sole concern was not to take any flight rather to structuralize things, situations, events etc in order to hold power. Its major philosophical concern was to exploit people in the name of progress.

In all this progress of science and society, man was no where only there were concepts in which mans destiny was captured. Mans consciousness which he brought with him became a subject to be governed and all this was done with the political concept of common of rationalists. Man was bolted in the mechanism of common beyond it he has no individuality. Man is man through the common. The day this concept of common came into existence man lost his very freedom to think and meditate. It was Hobbes who formulated it first in his book Leviathan. He was the first rational political philosopher who said that, in the beginning, before the formation of society there was war (and it was for sex and material gain) to get rid of this bloody situation of war in which each was against each one; they came to form a common; a contract that from now on we are bound by a law of common. Of which king became head in which absolute sovereignty resided, no one could transcend his absolute sovereign power of law making and enforcing.

Since than, the theory of common is in practice, no political theory raised any question on the metaphysics of common in which man is destined to suffer. Since Hobbes, all the political theories only upgraded his theory, only refined it and made it more and more complex. Even most acclaimed revolutionary political theory of Marx too could not go beyond Hobbes. Only Heidegger raised question regarding reasons authenticity he said, the domination of intellect and logic has to be broken in order that we may raise question concerning being and nothingness. He contemplated on the relationship between man and every man (common). In being and time he said, the dictatorship of every man might be seen as a conservative, unimaginative narrow minded, and conformist way of endorsing a common cultural background, in which one identifies oneself entirely with traditional stereotype role. He too could not think beyond common though he was against mans rational positioning in the common. He says that one should learn to be responsible for oneself within the matrix of the common. Thus man can not free himself from the commonality of the common. But the Common which was formed as a system of law, in its later phase of evolution transformed in to a mechanism, of which there was a goal.

This goal, which was attributed to the common, was not of people who formed it rather of those who got hold on production mechanism. Thus the common got a goal that in its later development became universal. The goal which was set forth for the common was not any ideal or any virtue or any higher goal like liberation or moksha rather to produce. Production of materials and things related to materialism became the highest goal of common other than this what ever was existed became irrelevant. There is no pursuit of truth, if there is; it should be productive to the mechanism of production. This mechanism of production which is a movement of consciousness of self-interested rationalists, in which comes industrialists and philosophers, poets, cultural thinkers associated to it; is solely based on metaphysics of desire. Desire is the moving force of the production mechanism, in which desire is produced, things of desire is produced even culture of desire is also produced. In this production of desire man is transformed into a little beast, having lost his individuality, his freedom of consciousness; he dreams nothing other than the things of desire. This is the reason that there is no philosophy of dream, no literature of solitude, and no art which reveals mystery.

Philosophy of desire became the enemy of goodness and godliness. In it every thing is bound by desire; it is the soul of all living beings. It is the soul of art and culture which has come to an end with the revolutionary appearance of culture industry. Mans consciousness which have lost its freedom has become common consciousness; the consciousness directed towards the goal to produce the humanity of sex and war. Mans consciousness in the movement of common consciousness neither dances nor sings, if he dances and sings it is because of his business; all sacred values are considered marketable and productive. Man has been dehumanized, objectified, and rationalized in the dynamic of materialist production. In the dynamic of production man is constructed, his subjectivity is defined and re-defined. Through out history mans subjectivity has always been displaced, located, shifted from one system of production mechanism to another.

Is there any option other than the dynamic of materialist production which has now become universal concept of progress, in which man does not exist? When will man find his natural dwelling? When the set meaning of being in the world will change? Is being in the world is being through dynamic of materialist production? Isnt Heideggers suggestion a relevant one in this regard, that man should find an authentic condition of his existence in order to achieve the ideal of being authentically oneself. The ideal of being authentically oneself is what the ideal of Vedanta philosophy is. And later Vedanta as taught in Bhagvata Gita provides complete authentic condition for man to achieve his goal, which he can achieve without losing anything.

Karma yoga opens highway for humanity to reach its goal but without any accident, without any suffering. Rationalists think that there is no philosophy other than objective rationalism in which desire finds its eminence. Because they do say that all philosophies of infinite turn their face towards asceticism. These thinkers never come across the theory of karma yoga and Indian tantrik philosophies in which desire is not discarded rather is being put in a proper plane of idealist discourse. Desire is considered divine in Gita, the teacher of Gita says, desire is myself i.e. of the nature of truth itself; but only that desire which does not violate the law of Rit -the dharma underlying all phenomena.(dharma viruddhokamosmi).

In Buddhist Mahayana tantricism desire and passion is being considered as a path to realization of ultimate truth-Sunyata. In Indian philosophies desire has been regarded most important aspect of humans and it was never repressed as in the case of Christianity. In Christianity it is sin because of which man has fallen from the heaven but in Hindu philosophies it is desire when raised spiritually causes liberation.

But alas! Real question of materialist philosophers is not that that desire is not finding its eminence rather how desire could find a proper plane in their discourse of exploitation. Rationalist discourses on life never provided any solution for man. What they provided throughout the ages is the discourses of exploitations; this that how man could be enchained. How mans dignity and freedom of consciousness could be placed in the proper plane of materialist production machinery but not in materialist discourse since they know this that it can take a leap( it too can be dangerous for them). And in this they succeeded but since man can not live with bread only, every time they face problem from mans inner fluttering for liberation. This is why they go on philosophizing, creating bunch of philosophies.

Capitalist production machinery is spending a lot of money to produce a solution to the basic human problem of freedom but under the mechanism of common only. But they dont understand that reason can not provide any solution to humanity since it is divided and confused. Reason can not see the complete truth in its entirety. This is the reason that throughout its history it has a tendency to return back to theologies for support. Reason has destroyed all possibilities of mans leaping into unknown realities. It has destroyed the tradition of philosophizing the questioning of extra ordinary as Nietzsche have said. The philosophies of reason have always organized things, made arrangements, fitted man in a situation from where he could not escape. The whole history of rationalism shows that it has never had any holy purpose; it was vicious from the very outset, since than, when it rejected the very tendency of peoples questioning about infinity. It rejected mans quest for timeless value, a timeless truth not from the rational point of view rather from the sake of rejecting itself since it never fully took the systematic rational approach.

For instance, the approach of scientific experimentation is based on the to see the truth in the laboratory through physical means only, if any said truth is not tested in laboratory or through any physical testing mechanism it is bluntly declared false. Truth must be seen in microscope since only than it could be utilized, could be usable, could be made for production. Everything sublime was thus destroyed for the sake of materialist production. Though these philosophies of infinity were always helpful in providing humanity some immortal values as for as humanity as such is concerned. For materialist production mechanism these philosophies had been useful throughout the ages and still it is, but now some postmodernist want to destroy the remaining ties too. Because they want to make humanity utterly material, the materially refined man, a man-machine even they want to open factories where subjectivities would be produced.

In producing mechanical subjectivities culture would play the most important role as it played in history. Marxists have used it in their struggle against capitalism. This question of culture is most important regarding society of control and on this issue Theodore Adorno has fought most remarkable war against capitalist ideologues. Being Marxist he was always in the favor of autonomy of culture since he wanted to save mans being: pure and authentic. When he was invited by one American researcher of American Traditions of Applied Social Research Mr. Paul Lazaesfeld to help in his research on the relations between culture and policy, he refuted his request remarking that, culture is opposed to administration. Culture would like to be higher and more pure, something untouchable which can not be tailored according to any tactical or technical considerations.

In educated language, this line of thought makes reference to the autonomy of culture. Popular opinion even takes pleasure in associating the concept of personality with it. Culture is viewed as the manifestation of pure humanity without regard for its functional relationships within society. Against his approach to culture Researcher Mr. Paul reacted that Adorno should aspire to greater empirical precision, that culture might be precisely that condition that excludes a mentality capable of measuring it. Thus the capitalist intellectuals want to exclude people (those who can raise any question) from the field of culture in order to control them through the culture itself. New destiny of man is machine and he is becoming. All philosophies which advocate mans freedom through a system are administrative philosophies and are aspiring towards absolute power therefore are against man. When most sublime aspect of humanity is structured, becomes organizational, territorial, productive, and mechanical than know that man is dead. In this dark age of mechanical production of mans consciousness there is only light; to raise questions and wage a war against those criminals of humanity, who having lost all hopes in the divine play of life want to play the game of war and sex.

Author is an art critic and writer of three books 'contemporizing Buddha', ' Hindu Tantra Yoga' and 'Concerning The spiritual In Art-an Indian modern art perspective'. He has been awarded with 'Lalit kala Academy Scholarship Award' for art criticism in 2005. Currently working on a book 'Buddhist tantra yoga'. He lives and works in Delhi india.

Yogilates R Integrating Yoga And Pilates For Complete

 

Reviewing The Plantronics Pulsar 590A Speakers & Headphones

We have already tried out various A2DP headphones and we have found the Plantronics Pulsar 590A to be the best among all when it comes to comfort. But, we did find the audio quality to be a bit off from what we were expecting. Maybe we were having too high expectations for it, but you still can have a good listening experience with this set of speakers and headphones. Oh, by the way, you do get other things to as part of the whole package an audio streamer, a carry case, plus a stand.

And for its price of $299, you might want to weight things out first before you do go ahead and purchase the whole set. If you think this might be the kind of speakers and headphones that you have been looking for all your life, then maybe the $299 would be worth it.

Anyhow, the headphones do feel solid and it has got a silver frame to possibly add up to its appeal. The band that goes around your head is firm but it does not give you discomfort. Everything looks sturdy with this headphone.

The whole gadget has various types of controls including a switch to turn the power on and off plus a microphone just in case you would like to do some VoIP calls. If you are connected to a Bluetooth device, you will be alerted by a flashing light somewhere within the controls.

If you are thinking about where this one gets its power, just remember that it does come with a round charging connector. You also do get a stand so you can display your headphones while it charges up.

As previously mentioned, the sound quality was a bit off. We found the bass to be too overwhelming while the treble seemed to be definitely lost. But between this and everything else, this Plantronics Pulsar 590A seems to be quite a good buy at that.

More of the latest Plantronics headsets visit http://www.cordless-phones.uk.com/newest-products/ .

Jill Carron is a 32 year old native of Ireland and has a knack for research on Ligo news, mobile gadgets, VoIP and Skype and anything and everything about them. He works full time as a Market Analyst for one of the leading DECT Digital cordless Phones, cheap Telephones, and Headsets suppliers in UK today. For more product news and updates visit http://www.cordless-phones.uk.com/news/.

Music For Yoga Free

 

Comparing The Playstation 3, Xbox 360, And Nintendo WII

Finally, theyre all here. The Xbox 360 has had the next generation gaming market to itself for a year. Now its two competitors, the Playstation 3 and nintendo Wii, are here. No more speculating about speed. No more guessing about memory. Now we can take a look and see exactly how they stack up compared to each other.

Let the console wars begin again.

price

The ps3 has two configurations much like the Xbox 360. The ps3 comes in a $499 version that comes with a 20 GB hard drive and a $599 version that comes with a 60 GB hard drive; Wi-Fi; and memory stick, SD, and Compact flash slots.

The Xbox 360 has two configurations. It comes in a $299 core version and a $399 version that comes with a 20GB hard drive.

The nintendo Wii is the cheapest of the bunch with just one configuration that costs $250.

Processing Power

The Playstation 3 comes with its cell processor. Its a PowerPC based core that runs at 3.2 GHz that also have seven DSPs that run at 3.2 GHz. This configuration can do about 2 Teraflops.

The Xbox 360 has a custom IBM PowerPC processor. This processor also runs at 3.2 GHz. However, Xbox went with a true 3 core processor compared to the one general processor of the cell and seven additional DSPs. This configuration can do about 1 Teraflop.

The nintendo Wii includes its Broadway processor, a PowerPC based processor running at 729 MHz.

disc Media

Part of the reason the ps3 is so much more expensive than the Xbox 360 is because the Sony decided to include a Blu-ray drive on the system. The drive can play both Blu-ray movies and regular DVDs. The Xbox 360 comes with a DVD player and an HD-DVD add-on is planned. The nintendo Wii uses a DVD drive; however, the system will not work for playback of movies, just nintendo games.

Backwards compatibility

The Playstation 3 is just like the PS2 was. Youll be able to play both PS2 and PSone games on the ps3. nintendo is taking things a bit further. Their system will be compatible with the Gamecube games and also the Gamecube controllers since the two systems use very different controllers. Not only that, but the Wii will also have the ability to download games from the original nintendo (NES), Super nintendo (SNES), and the nintendo 64.

Sweet Features

If you want high definition gaming, then the PS3 is the way to go. It comes with a Blu-ray drive built in and can output in 1080p. Although the PS3 controller may look familiar, its had some updates. The controller is now motion sensing so in some games youll be able to move your character or fly a plane just by moving the controller.

The Xbox 360 was built to work with Windows XP media center. If you have a computer that already has media center on it, youll be able to view pictures, videos, and even recorded TV by using your Xbox. You wont need to put your PC in your living room to take advantage of having a Media Center PC.

The nintendo Wii decided to completely change the way gaming controllers are built. In the past, one controller was always held with both hands. The Wiis controller looks more like a TV remote control than a game controller. It has a built in motion sensor so, for example, to swing a sword, you simply move you hand just like you were really swinging a sword.

Hopefully this review has helped you compare the three next generation gaming systems. Each has its pluses and minuses, and feature that are unique to it. Ultimately, your decision will likely come down to which system has the games that most appeal to you. And that is a decision that only you can make when deciding on a system to buy.

Gary Ruplinger is the editor of http://www.ps3asap.com, a resource for getting the in demand PS3 system. He also is a writer for http://www.gamesystemreviews.com where you can learn about all of the next generation systems.

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