Feuerbach’s Concept of Religious Alienation and Its Influence

The present study is an attempt to revisit how Feuerbach discusses the concept of alienation from religious point of view. According to Feuerbach, Religion and God do not exist beyond the human reach; rather they are the creation of human being. True religion is the relation of man with himself or with his own true nature. God according to Feuerbach is the manifested inward nature of man. But when man cannot understand that the religion and God are nothing but the creation of human being, he becomes alienated from his actual nature. Worshiping external God is nothing but expression of human emotion. If God is regarded as something different from man, man becomes separated from his own true nature and ultimately he becomes alienated. In other words, if human essence is considered as truly belongs to God who exists beyond human reach, man becomes alienated from himself. Later on Marx regards this religious alienation as means of capitalists’ process of exploitation. In other words, with the help of religious alienation capitalists’ perpetuate their class exploitation. Thus, the present work will mainly focus on Feuerbach’s concept of religious alienation and how subsequently Marx has adopted and critically analyzed this concept of religious alienation in his philosophy.

Kuhn’s Theory of Incommensurability: A Special Reference to Theory of Meaning

The Structure of Scientific Revolution (1962) is the famous work by Thomas Kuhn which challenged traditional understanding of science and philosophy of science. His research activities are wide-ranging; central to his notion of incommensurability are the ideas of meaning variance and lexicon, and the impossibility of translation of terms across different theories. It is closely related to the linguistic analysis of scientific language. The schematic nature of Kuhn’s work and his ongoing clarification of its key concepts fostered additional problems of understanding, interpretation, and attribution. This paper analyses the notion of scientific language in the context of incommensurability with special reference to the theory of meaning. Linguistic experts have not attempted to incorporate Kuhn’s incommensurability to address the issues related to epistemology. This Paper shows how Kuhn’s theory of incommensurability can be applied to linguistics to overcome the problems that arise due to similar lexical terms. It argues that Kuhn’s epistemological analysis of incommensurability, particularly the challenge of understanding the process of symbolization in scientific theories, when applied to linguistics can revolutionize the discipline itself which fills the existing knowledge gap.

Understanding Advaita: A Panikkarean Perspective for a Cross Cultural Journey.

In a world of fragmented approach and the loss of a holistic vision, an integrated view is called for to save the human community and at large the universe from many perils. One such integrated outlook germinates in Raimon Panikkar’s understanding of the most cherished Indian philosophical concept of advaita. The altogether different outlook he passes into the understanding of advaita – which is the main elaboration in this paper – takes the lead to various ramifications to see the reality in diversified manner and still with an undifferentiated unity. He highlights that the entities should be seen in their polarities and not in-themselves. This perspective leaps into the felt need for a cross-cultural journey which is an indispensable one at the current scenario of a pluralistic phenomenon and the availability of many options. Still, elaborating on the cross-cultural odyssey is not the objective here and therefore such an exposition does not have space here. The emphasis lies on the drive that pushes us for an interest into cross-cultural approach giving awareness that we can no more be isolated within an enclosure.

Kant on Radical Evil: A Pragmatic Reading

One of the primary concerns of Immanuel Kant in his major works on philosophy of religion is the doctrine of radical evil. He was greatly perplexed by the conundrums of this doctrine. Although Kant claimed it to be a universal trait, he failed to give a formal proof (evidence) supporting it. However, he asserted that the conducts of human beings are enough to demonstrate the nature of radical evil. The complexity of the doctrine is further fuelled by introducing the idea of the need of divine intervention for one to overcome such moral-religious predicament. Critical responses from both Christian and secular scholars reflect interesting take on his ethico-religious discourse. One of the prominent criticisms to Kant’s doctrine of radical evil is its relapse to religious absurdity reflecting the Christian doctrine of the ‘fall of mankind’ as narrated in the first book of the Bible. Consequently, the seriousness of the criticism not only affects the moral maxims but also the portrayal of its strong religious affinity, rendering the doctrine even more allusive and perplexing. The article intends to throw some light on the pragmatic perspective of the doctrine with special focus on the universality of the radical evil nature of human.

A Priori Problems with the Metaphysical and Causal Reduction of Consciousness

Consciousness exists, or so it seems to us most of the time. However, consciousness is unlike your car-keys or your cell-phone in that it is not located at a specific point in space and time. The applicability of physical laws like gravity seem moot at best when it comes to consciousness. What is desirable is an explanation of consciousness that allows it to exist and be part of the very same reality as the car-key or the cell-phone, a ‘philosophy of immanence’ as Gilles Deleuze would put it. I prefer a view that construes consciousness as causally-efficacious (having material effects upon one’s body in real time) and metaphysically separate from the brain. In essence, to say that the mind is metaphysically separate from the brain is to deny the proposition that there is nothing more to our subjective experience of mind than the mere activity of the physical brain. This paper looks at a view proposed by John Searle and tries to show that there are empirical problems with a consciousness that is causally inefficacious (unable to cause material changes) and metaphysically identical (not separate from the brain).

Truth, Identity, Pluralism in Contemporary Society - Gandhi's Response

This paper explores Gandhi’s attitude towards diversity of religions and examines as to how he attempted to bring inter-faith harmony. Religious diversity has been a topic of serious debate in the contemporary philosophical discourse on understanding religion. Religious pluralism is one of the approaches that deal with issues concerning the diversity of religions. It is believed that no single religion can make absolute claims about the nature of divine reality, its relation to man and the world. It stands in direct opposition to exclusivism, inclusivism and also to fundamentalism by denying that any one religion is the sole possession of the whole truth. Different religions seem to put forward different and incompatible interpretations about the nature of ultimate reality, about the modes of divine activity, the nature and destiny of the human race.

Education for Environmental Management

Human cooperation is composed of forces as given objective causal factors and they are integrated by organization, which is oriented by subjectivity.

Sobering Up To the Other: Levinas Paradoxical View on Mystical Enthusiasm

Levinas' movement of trasnsdescendence offers possibilities for a Christian 'thorough reflection' on mysticism, starting from Spirit-theology.

Negative Memory, Art and the World Peace

In the World agitated by terrorism, solidification of identity, paranoia, xenophobia and genocide, art indeed expresses the negativity, that is, the void, the chaos, or the spiritual blindness of the socio-cultural plight. But it also serves as a diagnostic tool for identifying the disease; a process of intensifying and heightening our perceptual awareness of the crises; a necessary visualization of the ciritical interface between body, mind and soul. Art renders palpabic the ugliness, the meanness, the unbearableness of life, and this, in turn, will open the possibility to see what ultimately is mroe desirable, the deeper mystery of the soul, what we usually call 'peace'. It is in this spiritual sense that art can serve as the negation of negation.

We are in the World and the World is in us

Existence must always be some form of togetherness.