Philosophy and the most fundamental questions..!!

Philosophy ponders the most fundamental questions humankind has been able to ask. These are increasingly numerous and over time they have been arranged into the overlapping branches of philosophy:

Logic: What makes for good thinking? When can I say for sure that something just does not make sense? How can I think critically about complicated arguments? What makes a good argument?

Epistemology: What is the nature of knowledge? How do we come to know what we know? What are the limits and scope of knowledge? How can we know that there are other minds (if we can)? How can we know that there is an external world (if we can)? How can we prove our answers? What is a true statement? What methods are there to answer fundamental questions?

Metaphysics: What sorts of things exist? What is the nature of those things? Do some things exist independently of our perception? What is the nature of space and time? What is the relationship of the mind to the body? What is it to be a person? What is it to be conscious? Is there a god? Does God exist? Is there only the material realm?

Ethics: Is there a difference between ethically right and wrong actions (or values, or institutions)? If so, what is that difference? Which actions are right, and which wrong? Do divine commands make right acts right, or is their rightness based on something else? Are there standards of rightness that are absolute, or are all such standards relative to particular cultures? How should I live? What is happiness? What will I do under specific circumstances and why?

Aesthetics: What is art? What is beauty? Is everything that is beautiful art? Is there a standard of taste? Is art meaningful? If so, what does it mean? What is good art? Is art for the purpose of an end, or is "art for art's sake?" What connects us to art? How does art affect us? Is some art unethical? Does art have limits? Can art corrupt or elevate societies?

Think about all these things my dear friends..
We will discuss further...!!

Regards,
Satheesh



Data Source: Wikipedia
Picture Source:Dept. of Philosophy, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ 07470, USA.

Some Illusions...

In black you can read the word GOOD, in white the word EVIL (inside each black letter is a white letter). It's all very philosophical too, because it visualises the concept that good can't exist whithout evil (or the absence of good is evil ).




Can you see why this painting is called optical illusion ? You may not see it at first, but the white spaces read the word optical, the blue landscape reads the word illusion. See for yourself !




The word TEACH reflects as LEARN.



In brown you can read ME, and when you look through you can read YOU.

And, now..

Read this text aloud.



The word THE is repeated twice...but did u notice???

If no, don't worry.. you are one more normal human being..
If yes, congrats.. you are like me.. close to madness...
With IQ above 182 ..!!
I am serious..!!

Regards,
Satheesh

Applied.. Applied..!!

Appl(y your)ied thought..!!

Applied ? = Soul
Applied Soul= Cognition
Applied Cognition = Art
Applied Art = Science
Applied Science = Engineering
Applied Engineering= Technology
Applied Technology = ?

Please give me your answers in comments ... or
email it to me at einstein.satheesh@gmail.com ..!

The best assumption will be awarded with a small surprise gift..!!

Regards,
Satheesh

Metaphor and thought.

'Out of the box' thinking:

If you want to originate breakthrough solutions in science / philosophy / business / life, you need to think differently than you usually do. In a phrase, you will need to "get out of the box." But how? How does a person go beyond the boundaries of their own mind? Is there a key? A door? A nearby genie just waiting to be invoked? How, precisely, does a person think something they’ve never thought before?

Perhaps the simplest and most powerful way is to awaken the image-making part of your brain. To imagine (ever wonder why the word "image" is the root of the word "imagination?").

Poets and writers are masters at awakening the imagination. A simple turn of phrase, a simple metaphor, and voilà!, a reader’s mind a thousand miles away is opened to a whole new world of perception, understanding and experience. But not only poets and writers have this knack. Scientists do, too. Friedrich Kekule, the noted German chemist, at a loss for words, described his breakthrough understanding of the benzene molecule as "a snake biting its own tail." And Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was preceded by one of his famous "thought experiments," in which he imagined himself riding a light beam into outer space while holding a mirror in front of his face. No wonder Einstein said, "I rarely think in words at all."

No wonder Aristotle, centuries before, concluded, "It is impossible to even think without a mental image."

Unfortunately, business people do it all the time. Addicted to the logical, linear, analytical and rational, we have traded in our artistry for craftsmanship… our palette of possibilities for an increasingly thinning bottom line. The resulting state of our imagination? Downsized, outplaced and otherwise re-engineered into oblivion. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Not by a long shot. A simple turn of phrase can re-ignite it. And the most effective turn of phrase is the metaphor (and its kissing cousins, analogy and simile).

Simply put, a metaphor is the application of a word or phrase to an object or concept it does not literally denote (i.e., "The ghetto was a volcano about to erupt."). A metaphor calls attention to a similarity between two seemingly dissimilar things and, by so doing, establishes the kind of creative tension that has the potential to spark quantum leaps in thinking – the kind of leaping that generates insight and discovery. In fact, a well-placed metaphor is a lot like a… chemical reaction… or a meeting of the minds… or a successful merger between companies. Something good can happen when two similar, but different, elements enter into a relationship with each other.

"That’s a stretch," you might say. Yet it is this very act of "stretching" that opens the door to new solutions. If you’re stuck in the desert, which would you rather have: A 20-page report telling you where the water is… or a map? Metaphor is the map – a guide to your own, out-of-the-box solution-finding ability. Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Especially when that picture, consciously chosen, stretches the imagination just enough to disentangle it from the limitations of ordinary(business) logic.

Some nice metaphors here:

Weaving A Future From A Tangled Past

The Road To The Future

Timeless Rhythms Of Daily Life

Sit On The Edge Of The Future

A Race Against Time

I Put the City In My Rearview Mirror

All The Possibilities Lay Spread Out Before Us

The Rhythm Of Another Year

Ancient Hearts And Modern Minds

Time Has Slowly Melted Away

A Surprise In Store For Me

Piecing Together The Past

Decay Of An Old Order

Waiting For The Slow Passage Of Time

Numbing Sameness

Within The Womb Of Time

As Autumn Mists Drifted Up The River

A Lifetime Of Memories

One Month Melts Into The Next

Openings In The Fabric Of Space And Time

Please let me know your ideas and opinions.. metaphorically..!! :-)

Lovingly,
Satheesh
"Tomorrow is another day.. day after should be special"

Success of a mathematical theory ...

Disclaimer for all the articles published in this blog:
Any article having any coincidence with any scientist's research work is not a wrong observation as it will be from that scientist's work with due credits given here; But any article which has no credits given to anybody means its my own and the credit obviously goes to me..!

Credit:

Professor R. Brown,
Department of Mathematics,
University of Wales, Bangor,
Dean Street,
Bangor,
Gwynedd LL57 1UT
UK.

His thought is that if a mathematical or philosophical theory need to succeed, then it should fall into one or some or all of the following points...

Now read on.. the points are,

• A range of new algebraic structures, with new applications and new results in traditional areas.
• New viewpoints on classical material.
• Better understanding, from a higher dimensional viewpoint, of some phenomena in group theory.
• New computations with these objects, and hence also in the areas in which they apply.
• New algebraic understanding of the structure of certain geometric situations.
• A stimulus to new ideas in related areas.
• A range of unexplored ideas and potential applications.
• The solution of some classical famous problems.

Ronald Brown wrote some excellent expository pieces advocating the use of groupoids, esp the ever interesting Higher-Dimensional-Algebra... Which has some good points for philosophers to mull over...!!

Worried thinking what is this higher dimensional algebra..?
Find a small intro here:: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/%7Emas010/hdaweb2.htm

We will discuss this in detail later..!

I am an extremist..!!
Ah.. that means..
We will talk about the
most advanced and the
most basic
in science,
in mathematics, and
in philosophy
in and out
in this
blog..!!

The above snippet is not a peom.. just because it is written to give you a feeling that it may be..! What makes a poem..? Structure? Rhythm of words...? some different grammatical thing..?

If you are asked to write an artilce on " What makes a poem?", what all you will write..? :-)

Thinking much and getting pissed off..? All Illusions and delusions in mind..?
We will discuss that in one of the srticles.. don't worry..!!

Regards,
Satheesh