Verse compendium of the Advaita school in Hindu philosophy; includes complete Sanskrit text with English translation.

In this paper, we show that the Kirchhoff equations are derived from the Schrödinger equation by assuming the wave function to be a polynomial like solution. These Kirchhoff equations describe the evolution of n point vortices in hydrodynamics. In two dimensions, Kirchhoff equations are used to demonstrate the solution to single particle Laughlin wave function as complex Hermite polynomials. We also show that the equation for optical vortices, a two dimentional system, is derived from Kirchhoff equation by using paraxial wave (...) approximation. These Kirchhoff equations satisfy a Poisson bracket relationship in phase space which is identical to the Heisenberg uncertainty relationship. Therefore, we conclude that being classical equations, the Kirchhoff equations, describe both a particle and a wave nature of single particle quantum mechanics in two dimensions. (shrink)

On the reintegration of the biological sciences and humanities; second portion of a projected formulation of a comprehensive philosophy of freedom.

The word “privilege” has become a part of our everyday conversations. However, it is not evident whether the various interlocutors in discussions on privilege are using it in the same sense. While different instances of privilege like white, male, or caste privilege have been discussed in contemporary academic discourses, we believe there is a lack of clarity regarding the notion of privilege. We critically analyse existing accounts of privilege to show that they leave some room for improvement. We offer an (...) alternative account of privilege as “entitlements that fail to track deserts” that circumvents prevalent definitional ambiguities and emphasises the inherent undeserving nature of privilege. The hitherto underexplored links between privileges, deserts, entitlements, and rights can help us formulate a more accurate grasp of privilege. (shrink)

Commentary, with text, on Amr̥tānubhava, Hindu philosophical work by Jñānadeva, fl. 1290.

Treatise of the Vedanta philosophy ; based on discourses.

The current discourse on moral epistemology (ME), has hardly paid any attention to the question concerning the demarcation of the domain of ME within epistemology. Neither is the subject matter of ME considered unique, nor is the methodology adopted in its investigations considered distinct. We attempt to show in this paper that this omission does not restrict itself to a mere taxonomical oversight but rather leads to certain deeper conceptual concerns. We argue that a casual and porous understanding of the (...) subject matter of ME is the result of conflating moral beliefs and justification with non-moral beliefs and justification. If ME doesn't merit a clear demarcation within epistemology, then the very legitimacy of ME is brought under a cloud, thereby threatening the distinction between ethics and epistemology. We believe G. E Moore foresaw this predicament and our interpretation of his work could offer a possible solution. (shrink)

The consequences of foreign direct investment (FDI) for human rights protection are poorly understood. We propose that the impact of FDI varies across industries. In particular, extractive firms in the oil and mining industries go where the resources are located and are bound to such investment, which creates a status quo bias among them when it comes to supporting repressive rulers (“location-bound effect”). The same is not true for nonextractive multinational corporations (MNCs) in manufacturing or services, which can, in comparison, (...) exit problematic countries more easily. We also propose that strong democratic institutions can alleviate negative impacts of extractive FDI on human rights (“democratic safeguard effect”). Using U.S. FDI broken up into extractive and nonextractive industries in 157 host countries (1999–2015), we find support for these propositions.1 Extractive FDI is associated with more human rights abuse, but nonextractive FDI is associated with less abuse, after controlling for other factors, including concerns about endogeneity. We find also that the negative human rights impact of extractive FDI vanishes in countries where democratic institutions are stronger. Our results are robust to a range of alternative estimation techniques. (shrink)

Statistical topic models provide a general data - driven framework for automated discovery of high-level knowledge from large collections of text documents. Although topic models can potentially discover a broad range of themes in a data set, the interpretability of the learned topics is not always ideal. Human-defined concepts, however, tend to be semantically richer due to careful selection of words that define the concepts, but they may not span the themes in a data set exhaustively. In this study, we (...) review a new probabilistic framework for combining a hierarchy of human-defined semantic concepts with a statistical topic model to seek the best of both worlds. Results indicate that this combination leads to systematic improvements in generalization performance as well as enabling new techniques for inferring and visualizing the content of a document. (shrink)

Modern life sciences research is increasingly relying on artificial intelligence (AI) approaches to model biological systems, primarily centered around the use of machine learning (ML) models. Although ML is undeniably useful for identifying patterns in large, complex data sets, its widespread application in biological sciences represents a significant deviation from traditional methods of scientific inquiry. As such, the interplay between these models and scientific understanding in biology is a topic with important implications for the future of scientific research, yet it (...) is a subject that has received little attention. Here, we draw from an epistemological toolkit to contextualize recent applications of ML in biological sciences under modern philosophical theories of understanding, identifying general principles that can guide the design and application of ML systems to model biological phenomena and advance scientific knowledge. We propose that conceptions of scientific understanding as information compression, qualitative intelligibility, and dependency relation modelling provide a useful framework for interpreting ML-mediated understanding of biological systems. Through a detailed analysis of two key application areas of ML in modern biological research – protein structure prediction and single cell RNA-sequencing – we explore how these features have thus far enabled ML systems to advance scientific understanding of their target phenomena, how they may guide the development of future ML models, and the key obstacles that remain in preventing ML from achieving its potential as a tool for biological discovery. Consideration of the epistemological features of ML applications in biology will improve the prospects of these methods to solve important problems and advance scientific understanding of living systems. (shrink)

Meditation refers to a family of self-regulation practices that focuses on training attention and awareness to foster psycho-emotional well-being and to develop specific capacities such as calmness, clarity, and concentration. We report a prospective convenience-controlled study in which we analyzed the effect of two components of Preksha Dhyāna – buzzing bee sound meditation and color meditation on healthy college students. Mahapran and leśya dhyāna are two Preksha Dhyāna practices that are based on sound and green color, respectively. The study population (...) represents a suitable target as college students experience different stress factors during the school year. This study measures the individual and combined effects of two techniques, on short-term memory, attention, and affect, in novice meditators. We used a battery of cognitive, performance, and compared results with baseline and control values. We found improved cognition, especially attention, short-term memory, and affect in terms of positivity and reduced negativity. Overall, the two techniques produced variable benefits and subjects showed improved scores over baseline for short-term memory, cognitive function, and overall wellbeing. Further studies are required to understand underlying mechanisms for the observed differences between the two techniques and to elucidate mechanisms underlying the more pronounced and global benefits observed with the combined techniques. These results underscore a need to examine individual components of meditation practices in order to individualize treatment approaches for attention disorders in young adults.Clinical Trail Registration:ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03779269. (shrink)

This book focuses on one of the greatest saint/avatāras of all time: Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. This charismatic religious leader popularized song and dance as a yogic science and conveyed teachings as relevant today as they were in his native Bengal some five hundred years ago. This is the story of how his message spread throughout the world.

On the philosophy of some Hindu Vaishnavaite religious leaders.

Contributed seminar papers with special reference to Orissa, India.

Exegesis, with text, of the classical treatise expounding the philosophy of Chaitanya school in Vaishnavism.

Treatise, with commentaries, on ontology; according to the Chaitanya school in Vaishnavism.

On Bhakti and Bhāgavata philosophy according to Chaitanya school.

Classical interpretation of the ontology of Bhāgavatapurāṇa, mythological text, and Krishna, Hindu deity; viewpoint of the Chaitanya school in Vaishnavism.

pt. 1. Ramanuja, Madhva, Chaitanya, Vedanta Desika, Meykandar, Asvaghosoa, Utpaladeva, Kumarila Bhatta, Udayanacharya.

On concept of doctrine of Bhakti according to Chaitanya sect.

Becoming Vaishnava in an Ideal Vedic City centers on a growing multinational community of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) devotees in Mayapur, West Bengal. While ISKCON's history is often presented in terms of an Indian guru 'transplanting' Indian spirituality to the West, this book focusses on the efforts to bring ISKCON back to India. Paying particular attention to devotees' failure to consistently live up to ISKCON's ideals, and the ongoing struggle to realize the utopian vision of an 'ideal Vedic (...) city', this book argues that beyond a focus on virtue, the anthropology of ethics must account for how moral systems accommodate the problem of moral failure. (shrink)