Tag Archive for: Philosophy

Mind-energy: Lectures and Essays (1920) by Henri Bergson

Mind-Energy
Lectures and Essays

In these essays, Bergson writes, concerning the idea of parallelism between mind and body:

“Consciousness tells no more than what is going on in the brain, it only tells it in a different language.”  There can be no doubt that the origin of this thesis is entirely metaphysical. It comes to us in a direct line from the Cartesian philosophy of the seventeenth century. …I believe that the facts, examined without prejudice and without the bias towards a mathematical mechanism, suggest a more subtle hypothesis concerning the correspondence between the psychic (ie., mental) and the cerebral state. The latter only express the action which is prefigured in the former. …for to the same cerebral state there may equally well correspond many different psychic facts” (p. 144).

In his characteristically clear and precise manner Bergson pursues in these essays the elusive problem of the mind-body relationship which is once again at the forefront of both the science and the philosophy of consciousness today. The solution that he suggests is that these are two different approaches to the understanding of reality, each describing an aspect of that reality – one material and the other spiritual. Science tries to grasp the reality by means of physical observation and measurement; the philosophical approach tries to grasp reality by means of intuition and ideation. To fail to make the distinction necessarily leads to contradiction and error.

Bergson published these essays in 1919, more than 20 years after Matter and Memory (1896) and Creative Evolution (1907), at a time when his reputation as the leading philosopher of the day had spread throughout both the physical and the spiritual world. He was president of the Academie des science (France) and the Society for Psychical Research (UK), representing the two approaches to knowledge. And he had lectured at Oxford (UK) and Columbia (USA) universities. He was fluent in English and had decided as a young university student to become a citizen of France rather than of England.

The fact that Bergson’s work is currently enjoying a revival in both science and philosophy, due to the widespread interest in the study of  “consciousness”, along with the concurrence and convergence of his philosophy with that of Sri Aurobindo, suggests that these essays may be important to the understanding of both of these philosophers of Intuition and Consciousness, as well as to better understanding the relevance of their thought in the world today.

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AUROVILLE: The first six years 1968-1974 by Savitra

AUROVILLE: The first six years
1968-1974

“Auroville, the first 6 years – 1968-1974” written by Savitra is one of only two records of what was happening on the Auroville plateau during the first 6 years of its creation.

Book Details

Author: Savitra
Print Length: 102 pages
Publisher: Auropublications
Original source: Auroville Archives
Contributors: Gilles Guigan
Book format: PDF, ePub, Kindle
Language: English

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Un Vent de Liberté par Phileo

Un Vent de Liberté

À travers cet essai, l’auteur dresse un tableau des rapports humains dans le monde actuel, rapports inscrits dans une totale aliénation de l’Homme à l’Intellect, à la raison “raisonnante” qui le conduit sans discontinuer à vouloir imiter la Nature, à la singer sans jamais l’égaler, à vouloir la posséder sans jamais pouvoir la contrôler. Et cette volonté de possession et de contrôle s’exerce dans tous les espaces et à tous les niveaux de tous les systèmes hiérarchiques planétaires. Profits et Contrôle des Masses dirigent la Politique “libérale” de l’Humanité qui s’oriente fatalement vers un enfermement psychique généralisé, individuellement et collectivement.

Cet essai tente également de démontrer qu’il n’est pas souhaitable pour l’Homme d’attendre que sa libération de toute forme d’emprisonnement psychique s’accomplisse depuis le monde objectivé. Bien au contraire, c’est par une profonde connaissance de Soi, par l’exercice du nécessaire dialogue entre sa Conscience et son Inconscient, dialogue fondateur de notre Psychisme (notre Âme), que l’Homme parviendra enfin à sa Totalité (l’Homme Total).

Détails du livre

Auteur: Phileo
Longueur d’impression: 58
Éditeur: Auro e-Books
Format du livre: pdf, ePub, mobi
Langue: Français, Anglais

Table des matières

  • Introduction
  • Illusions
  • Science, Morale, Hiérarchie et Ordre Social
  • La Cybernétique
  • Notre Psychisme, Pour une Psychologie libertaire, L’autre part de la Philosophie

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A Wind of Freedom by Phileo

A Wind of Freedom

Through this essay, the author describes the psychic human relationships in the world today, which are inscribed in a total human alienation to the Intellect, to the “reasoning” reason which continually leads Man to imitate Nature, to ape it without never equaling to it, to want to possess nature without never being able to control it. And this will to possess and control is exercised in all areas and at levels of all planetary hierarchical systems. Profits and Control of Masses lead the “liberal” Politics of Humanity which is fatally oriented towards a generalized psychic confinement, individually and collectively.

This essay also tries to demonstrate that it is not desirable for man to wait for the achievement of his liberation of all forms of psychic imprisonment taking place from the objectified world. On the contrary, it is through a deep Self-knowledge, by the exercise of the necessary dialogue between his Consciousness and his Unconscious, the founding dialogue of our Psyche (our Soul), which Man will finally reach his Totality (the Total Man).

Book Details

Author: Phileo
Print Length: 49
Publisher: Auro e-Books
Book format: Pdf, ePub, Kindle
Language: English, French

Contents

  • Introduction
  • Illusions
  • Science, Morality, Hierarchy and Social Order
  • Cybernetics
  • Our Psyche, for a libertarian Psychology, the other part of Philosophy

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The Lost Light: An Interpretation of Ancient Scriptures by Alvin Boyd Kuhn

The Lost Light

An Interpretation of Ancient Scriptures

Highly influenced by the work of Gerald Massey and Godfrey Higgins, Kuhn contended that the Bible derived its origins from other Pagan religions and much of Christian history was pre-extant as Egyptian mythology. He also proposed that the Bible was symbolic and did not depict real events, and argued that the leaders of the church started to misinterpret the bible at the end of the third century. Many authors including Tom Harpur and John G. Jackson were influenced by the works of Kuhn. Harpur even dedicated his best-selling 2004 book, “The Pagan Christ” to Kuhn, calling him “a man of immense learning and even greater courage” and “one of the single greatest geniuses of the twentieth century” [who] “towers above all others of recent memory in intellect and his understanding of the world’s religions.” Harpur notes that Kuhn gave nearly 2,000 public lectures which were lengthy, detailed and well-attended. …

Book Details

Author: Alvin Boyd Kuhn
Print Length: 605
Publisher: The Academy Press
Contributor: Blindshiva
Book format: Pdf
Language: English
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The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in Its Continuity and Diversity by J. L. Brockington

The Sacred Thread

Hinduism in Its Continuity and Diversity

In a single book, which examines the history and development of Hindu religious experience and thought from its earliest records to modern times, it is inevitable that much has been left out in order to make the broad outlines clearer. What has been passed over in silence is just as much part of the rich fabric of Hinduism. For Hinduism has never been a unitary phenomenon. In particular, there has always been a fascinating interplay between its more religious and more speculative elements. As a religion Hinduism tends towards the philosophical in its emphasis on the importance of knowledge, while Hindu philosophy sees that knowledge as having essentially a religious purpose in the achievement of the goal.

The history of Hinduism stretches over a vast time-span, during most of which the existing political boundaries of the Indian sub-continent did not exist. Accordingly the term India is used in this book in a geographical sense as referring to the whole sub-continent, except in those parts of the last two chapters where recent political events are referred to. The names of areas are generally those of the modern states of the Indian Republic, which in many cases have reverted to older names (e.g. Tamilnad for Madras State and Karnataka for Mysore).

Book Details

Author: J. L. Brockington
Print Length: 232
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Book format: Pdf
Language: English
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The Philosophy of Consciousness: Hegel and Sri Aurobindo

The Philosophy of Consciousness: Hegel and Sri Aurobindo

The Philosophy of Consciousness:
Hegel and Sri Aurobindo

An investigation into the nature and evolution of consciousness through the lens of various philosophers, culminating with the experiential philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.

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The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

Emile Durkheim - The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

One-hundred years after its first publication, we resurrect here a scholarly tome written by one of the foremost fathers of sociology, Émile Durkheim. Much of Durkheim’s work was concerned with how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in modernity; an era in which traditional social and religious ties are no longer assumed, and in which new social institutions have come into being. The “modernity” of one-hundred years ago seems quaint to us today but the questions Émile sought to explore and answer then are perhaps even more urgent today. In The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, Durkheim lays bare the roots of human religiosity through an in-depth examination of the most primitive forms of religion then known on the very edges of an ever-encroaching “modernity”. Through this look at “primitive” man, perhaps we can find a deeper understanding of our own soul, what its needs are, and what drives it.

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Sri Aurobindo and the Logic of the Infinite

Rod Hemsell - Sri Aurobindo and the Logic of the Infinite

Sri Aurobindo and the Logic of the Infinite

About this book, the author, Rod Hemsell says, “Most of these essays were collected in 2003, a few recent ones have been added to this edition in the sections on philosophy and mantra, but obviously the earliest already contain the same basic insights that underlie the more systematic studies that I have done since 2008, after reading Sri Aurobindo for forty years.”

On the cover of the first edition, Georges Van Vrekhem wrote, “Not only are there in the essays which constitute this volume the philosophical landscapes the author has been and continues exploring, there is also the testimony of his practical commitment to the realization of a better world. As Sri Aurobindo wrote, the whirlpool of the present globalisation may well be the disorienting transition to the unity of humanity, necessary for the realization of the next step in evolution. After all, if evolution is a fact, why would it stop at the human species? It is in this perspective that Auroville, the City of Dawn, the most daring utopia of them all, has to be seen, and it is to the working out of this ideal that Rod Hemsell is contributing with his life. This is a thinker who dares to walk on the roads of infinity and find on them his fulfilment.”

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The Two Sources of Morality and Religion

The Two Sources of Morality and Religion by Henri Bergson

The Two Sources of Morality and Religion

In the spirit of Darwinian evolution, Henri Bergson, with this volume, makes the philosophical argument that morality and religion are the “natural” and necessary products of man’s evolution. With a look which extends back some 2,400 years to the ancient Greek philosophers, Bergson traces the evolution of man’s instinct, intelligence and intuition and shows how necessary their interactions were in the development of human societies, morality and religion and he looks ahead to the shapes they must take if man is to survive himself.

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