A linear analysis of the innovations in modern science and technology creates a deceptive external aura of all encompassing growth, development and overall wellbeing of human beings. Philosophically skimming off the external glitz and glory of the tech revolution along with scientific analysis bring to the fore the nonlinear and grave internal contradictions that can turn out to be destructive in the long run. Customization, a trending technological marvel is philosophically analyzed with Chaos theory that brings to the fore the creative applications, destructive aftereffects and convincing solutions.

Customization, which in periphery showcases a deceptive, innocent and innovative face of science and technology can materialize individual choice and preferences in myriad ways. Customization means adding extra capabilities that are not included in the basic structure. Customization can be divided into two: Need oriented customization and desire infused customization. Philosophical and scientific analyses of Customization, especially desire infused customization, based on Chaos theory opens up devastating effects of customization.  The increased acceptance of abortion and euthanasia, decrease of interest in political and democratic processes, ridiculing religious institutions, disregard for ethics and morality etc., are some of the glaring aftereffects of desire infused customization. Just as Chaos theory opens up the possibility of control of Chaos, the effect of customization by desire can also be controlled. The solution lies in philosophy that can initiate men to critically and creatively reflect on the reality and arrive at philosophical conclusions that would beg to differ from the popular conclusions.

The introduction of philosophy as a subject of distance learning by IGNOU, aimed at making philosophy heard, studied, pursued, discussed, debated and practiced in the contemporary world is a noble attempt that would set people free from the limiting factors inherent to traditions as well as to critically reflect and creatively respond to the scientific and technological innovations which have the potential to spell doom for humanity.

A  Globalized Flat and Customized World

Powered by the unbridled innovation in science and technology the world has shifted from a static mode to dynamic mode, ushering in a new era of globalization. Anthony McGraw writes, Globalization refers to those processes, operating at a global scale, which cut across national boundaries, integrating or connecting communities and organizations in space-time combination, making the world in reality and in experience more inter connected.[1] This spirit of globalization makes a full bloom in the title of Thomas L. Friedman’s book, The World is Flat. Friedman defends his title stating, I have found that using the simple notion of flatness to describe how more people can plug, play, compete, connect and collaborate with more equal power than even before – which is what is happening the world – really helps people to understand the essential impact of all the technological changes coming together today.[2] All these hype about globalization and flatness results from a linear on a ‘popular’ understanding. A non linear on approach based on Chaos theory reveals the inherent uneven flat and disconnected world created by customization.  How does a simple act of customization play spoil sport in the world flattening game of globalization?

Customization

The terms customization, personalization and individualization are mostly used interchangeably though they have specific meaning. In this paper customization will encompass the other two meanings and would mean making or changing something by adding extra capabilities which are not there in the basic structure, to suit the need of the individual in such a way that it becomes his/her own. This can be done either by the individual or by an external agent.

Customer-focused strategies and customized products have become increasingly popular in the 1990’s.[3] Technology reduced the distance between produced and consumer. Thus, creation which was once a monopoly of the producer got transformed as customers became co-producers with customization. Barbara Khan, Wharton Professors of Marketing, stresses the impact on customer expectations over the last few years: “it used to be that consumers wanted something state-of-the-art. Now they want something tailored to them.[4]

Customized products have been defined as ‘…slight variations of standard configuration and are typically developed in response to a specific order by a customer.[5] Customization is not at all a new phenomenon. The designers and craftsmen used to customize things for the rich in the society. Thus customization till recently was a privilege of the rich. But with mass customization, the act of customization spread across all sections of the society. Mass customization is the personalization of products and services for individual customers at a mass production price.[6] Coined by Stan Davis in 1987 and made popular by Joseph Pine in 1993, the term mass customization has picked up significant momentum in recent years. It’s origins, however can be traced back to the 1970’s when the futurist Alvin Toffler described the opportunities which modern flexible manufacturing technologies will offer.[7]

Types of Customization

The act of customization can be divided into two. Need oriented customization and Desire infused customization. Need is that which is essential and can be fulfilled, whereas desires are non essential arising from emotions and remains open ended sans satisfaction. Need oriented customization can be justified by the fact that it involves those personalization that are to be necessarily made depending on the specific needs of a particular customer which if not done will be wastage of money and resources and won’t suit his purpose. Desire infused customization banks on the emotions and not need. Desire infused customization can arise from an individual acts or by an external agent so as to appease the senses and emotions of the other.

The desire infused customization openins yet another flood gate of individual ego.  ‘From loo seats with cheeky messages to fashion magazines with your ordinary face on the over, customized products are here to give your ego a very private boost.[8] The customization has gone down well with the generation next with customized sites and customized products getting the thumbs up laying the mass production centers and classical websites to eternal rest. The trend seems to be one among the flatteners of the science and technology dominated twenty-first century, but the inherent dangers in the concept of customization can turn things topsy-turvy.

Need Oriented Customization

As Reicken points out, “ Personalization [Customization] is about building customer loyalty  by building a meaningful one-to-one relationship; by understanding the needs of each individual (customer) and helping satisfy a goal that efficiently and knowledgably addressed each individuals/customers need. Referring to Chamberlin’s theory of monopolistic competition, customers gain from customization. The increment of utility of a good that better fits to their needs than the best standard product available.[9] The need oriented customization cuts down the cost, brings in greater comfort, greater utility and above all satisfaction that says, I am also a co-creator and it is my product.

When custom books are availabe, academicans can do away with choosing from already published books.  As Pearson learning solution website says, ‘Custom publishing allows academics to pick and choose content from one or more texts for their course and combine it into a definitive course text….You can even choose your own cover design and add your university logo.[10] Thus you get a custom book to suit your need. Apart from custom publishing, there are also options of custom library, custom case books and the like. Customization allows academic needs to be customized for the efficient functioning and productive research.

Two of the major sports merchandise brands Adidas and Nike offers customizing options under their business units miadidas and NIKEiD  respectively. The NIKEiD website says- Customize your performance, enhance your athletic skills with a perfect fit, wide and narrow sizing, independent left and right sizes, pick your outsoles, large and small sizing.[11] Thus customization fulfills the need of the sports person to have the perfect fit according to their  individual need, which will be vital to their success in the field.

The websites of computer manufactures allow customization of laptops and desktops to suit the individual needs. Dell was one of the companies to start the customization. A study by McKenzie in 2003 found that the productivity levels achieved by Dell far surpass companies such as Intel and Cisco due to streamlining of its business operations along with a build-to-order model.[12] What Dell offers currently at its customer interface is “adaptive personalization” where the customer chooses from a set of options.[13]

In the banking sector, the flexi card introduced by the Turkey’s Garanti Bank allows the user to choose about nine thousand different financial combination to suit his/her need. As Mehmet Sezgin, CEO of Garanti Payment Systems stressed, “We believed that the ideal credit card for any given person could only be developed by that customer him/herself. Every card holder has different spending and payment preferences. To answer each different need, we designed Flexi Card, which enables customers to created their ideal credit card.[14]

We have long list of in the drop down menu of firms offering need oriented customization like custom vehicles, custom dress, custom holiday packages etc. The option of customization lay attached to each service helps human beings to fulfill their needs in the best possible way.

Desire Infused Customization

There is only a thin line between need oriented customization and desire infused customization. As one gets accustomed to need oriented customization, three is an innate urge to customize anything and everything that the individual comes by and thus the desire oriented customization takes charge.  If it was genuine human need that was addressed by Need oriented Customization, in Desire Infused Customization, it is the emotional human desire that dictate the terms.

Banking on the desire of the customer, the customization philosophy of the care maker Porsche reads, ‘your wish is our command’[15] and not your need is our command. Porsche identifies the exclusivity and the individuality that is obviously identified with individuals’ desire or wish and promises to do what customer desires, provided it doesn’t mess with quality. It speaks about upgrading and not choosing the needs. ‘Would you like to upgrade the interiors or exteriors of your car, add a sport design package sport exhaust system?’[16] This is indeed a classic example of a desire infused customization where the instrumental desire to gain an extra edge over the other prevails.

Wile customizing sports shoes was a need to enhancing or to maintain a good performance for an athlete, for the one’s powered by desire. It is the ‘shoe are’ that matters. Designers such as Mumbai’s Savia Jain Pinto and Bangalore’s Anushka Mayne customize shoes with their paintings to fulfill the desires of the customers. ‘They will in fact, sketch, personal messages, elephants, sponge bob, square pants, Che Guevara, Michael Jackson or even bus numbers on request.[17]

A Delhi based firm, ‘Any Surprise Any Place’ is at your service ‘if you want to engineer a fake kidnapping, shower flowers from a helicopter, propose in a limo or serenade your bride-to-be’[18] These costly luxurious experience like yacht rider or air charter services, costing anywhere between Rs. 60,000 and Rs. 3.25 lakh per hour, stem from the instrumental desire and not from need. Recent research by Franke Piller and Schrierer has shown that up to 50% of the additional willingness to pay for customized (consumer) products can be explained by the positive perception of the co-design process[19] Here the co-design process fulfills the desire of the individual to impress others and carries an  I-did-it-differently feeling.

The immense application of customization in least expected and needed fields speaks for itself. It is the visible sign of desires taking the lead role. The customization of water bottles and perfumes with your name, customizing posters, lamps, shot glasses or refrigerator or any other medium. This can excite only the senses or emotion and not the reason of both the giver and taker of this customized product.

An analysis of customization with Chaos theory brings out startling philosophical implications that send chillers down the spine. The solution to the problem that lay hidden in chaos theory will also be unearthed.

Chaos Theory and Customization

Even though Chaos is most often interpreted in every day life as random, unpredictable and uncontrollable or that which is encompassed by complete disorder and confusion, chaos theory brings in a new perspective. Roderick V. Jensen of Yale University, a theoretical physicist exploring the possibilities of quantum chaos defines chaos as, “the irregular unpredictable behaviour of deterministic, non linear dynamical systems.”[20]A prestigious international conference on chaos held by the Royal Society in London in 1986 spelt out the definition of Chaos, “The stochastic behaviour occurring in deterministic system.”[21] Stochastic behaviour is the lawless and irregular behaviour governed by chance. So chaos would mean in the scientific sense the lawless behaviour governed entirely by law. Chaos does not arise from the same lawless forces that cause random behaviour and chaos is not randomness. We say it is deterministic Chaos because chaos results from completely known deterministic conditions and is not caused by random events and do not behave randomly.

If customization would have been linear it would have traded along the expected lines of customization for need for which it was initially meant. Customization, which is necessarily nonlinear, has gone past predictable lines, venturing into uncharted waters. So the pertinent question that one asks is, “If I can customize an inanimate object why can’t I customize the other? When morality, culture, ethics and religion which have answer to this question is customized to suit the individual desire or greed, the whole picture seem to be chaotic.

The Butterfly Effect

Coined by Edward Lorenz, the term butterfly effect means sensitive dependence on initial condition. The title of the paper for New York academy of sciences in 1972 reads,  “Predictability: Does the flap of a butterfly’s wing in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?” By Butterfly effect what he meant was sensitive dependence on initial conditions. He came across this interesting concept while working on the problem of weather prediction. In 1961 having calculated a solution, Lorenz wanted to study how it behaved over a longer period of time. Lorenz took the short cut and fed .506 instead of .506127, thinking that the shortened rounded off number which was once part in a thousand and would make no effect. This very small difference made a great diversion in the outcome. This effect came to be known as the butterfly effect. The amount of difference in the starting point of the two curves is so small that it is comparable to a butterfly flapping its wings.[22] This discovery of butterfly effect or sensitive dependence on initial conditions led Lorenz on to other aspects of what in the course of time came to be known as chaos theory.

Sensitive Dependence to Initial Condition and Customization

As there is sensitive dependence on initial condition, we can’t exactly say where the system will end up or long term predictions are impossible. In the case of customization too we are unable to determine what will be in store for the future. Customization commercially began transforming products to suit the need of a particular customer. But the effect of customization has grown leaps and bounds. From desi vendors selling customized key chains on the pavement to Platinum jewels at shopping malls, from most expensive Benz cars to inexpensive water bottles, customization has broken all barriers. The dangerous effects of customizing culture, politics, ethics, morality, religion and to be born babies, show the immense damage it has brought about. Even though long term predictions is ruled out, the short term predictions with regard to customization looks extremely dangerous.

While one involves in customizing, he or she transforms and inanimate thing to reflect his/her style or personality. From photo books to t-shirts to M&M [candies], the web is blossoming with products that can add a whole new meaning to “personal branding.”[23] While this personal branding powered by customization fits well with the in animate objects, the shocker comes up when the extensive customization in the inanimate level take one to customize the animate human beings. It does not matter whether it is his culture, society, religion or ethics. If he fails to get things done in his own customized manner, he either ignores it our finds other openings were his customization works.

Customization by desire brings in dangerous consequences. The sperm and the ova banks that help customize babies are on the rise. Rather than helping the infertile parents, they open the backdoors for normal married couples to pick and choose their specifications of their child. It is same as creating a customized child.

Extensive customization leads one to treat human beings as a customizable object.  Thus the underlying thought pattern in the present outcry to legalize abortion and euthanasia is the result of extensive customization which results in objectifying the other.  When the other human being can be considered as a mere object, taking the life of an object remains mere formality. This would spell doom for humanity.

Next in the line comes society.  Societal activities come to a standstill when an individual feels that he is unable to make a sudden and perceivable impact. While customization offers one a personally branded product in a few days time, to customize the society for good involves patience and years of hard work. Unable to get through the shortcuts to customize, the individual turns a blind eye towards various activates of the society. This can very well be seen in the democratic process. The lower voters turn outs in urban areas in India stands as a testimony to this fact. Of the 10.7 million eligible voters in Delhi, the capital city of India, the voter turn vote has been dwindling. While the 2002 assembly election saw little less than 50 percent turn out, the civic election last year saw 43 percent turn out.[24]

Religion, morality, and values are also being subject to customization. When the code of conduct, morality and values associated with a religion doesn’t allow one’s unbridled customization, he jumps out to other sects, groups or movements. These alternative religious establishments has cleverly formed philosophy that sidesteps the direct answers to everyday dilemmas and ethical issues and gives out an all appeasing and appealing flavor of love, joy and happiness.

As customization arose from the reasoning capacity human being it is not a random phenomenon. Even though it is chaotic, customization is not a random phenomena. As there is a possibility of the control of chaos, in the same way customization too can be controlled to some extent.

Control of Chaos

Control of Chaos refers to a process wherein a tiny perturbation is applied to chaotic system, in order to realize a desirable (chaotic, periodic or stationary) behaviour.[25] Chaotic systems as opposed to linear mechanical systems have a critical dependence on initial conditions, and because of that fact experimental initial conditions are never known perfectly, these systems are intrinsically unpredictable. Apart from critical dependence on initial conditions chaotic system exhibits two other important properties: The first one is that there are an infinite number of unstable periodic orbits embedded in the underlying chaotic set and the second one is that the dynamics in the chaotic attractor is ergodic which implies that during its temporal evolution the system ergodically visits small neighborhood of every point in each one of the unstable periodic orbits embedded within the chaotic attractors.[26]

A relevant consequence of these properties is that a chaotic dynamics can be seen as shadowing some periodic behaviour at a given time, and erratically jumping from one to another periodic orbit. The idea of controlling chaos is when a trajectory approaches ergodically a desired periodic orbit embedded in the attractor; one applies small perturbations to stabilize such an orbit.

Control of Customization

The desired behaviour in a chaotic system are produced with the help of tiny perturbations chosen properly. So in the case of customization, this tiny perturbation is the philosophical reasoning. When philosophical reasoning dawns, before the customization process people will ask, Why do I do it? What are the possible consequences? Is it a need or mere desire? followed by other pertinent questions.  So the customization by desire blinded by emotion is kept under check. This does not mean we put a full stop to customization process.  Philosophical ambience will make sure that people are not carried away by popular and attractive content. This is where the introduction of Philosophy as a course in distance learning, a humble initiative by IGNOU and CBCI, can itself turn out to be like a flap of a butterfly in a nonlinear system. With the aim of making philosophy heard, studied, pursued, discussed, debated and practiced in the contemporary world resulting in a greater positive consequence that takes people from the periphery to the depth of the state of affairs.

Conclusion

Stephen Hawking wrote in his latest book The Grand Design, ‘… but Philosophy is dead. Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in Science, particularly physics.[27] Hawking made such a statement blinded by the breathtaking developments in science and technology. Even if a single individual is alive in this world, there is always a scope for philosophy. Philosophy is indeed love of wisdom. The growth of science and technology un accompanied by philosophical reasoning can turn out be dangerous. Customization can be considered one such casualty.

A healthy development of humanity can be assured only if philosophy, science and technology grow hand in hand. Even though scientific precision may not be expected of a philosopher or the reflective mind for a scientist but both has a definitive role to play in the successful and responsible execution of technology.  In the laboratory the invention and innovation will be in spotlight. Once it gets out from human us then the focus has to be shifted back to the human beings the way he/she uses it, the impact it has and also the advantages and disadvantages. While the scientist focus on improving the product, the sense of meaning and direction is achieved only when critical and creative reflection are followed. If philosophy fails to do its duty then popular interpretations takes over upholding the opinion that pleases the majority and silencing the genuine concerns. Customization fell prey to the scientific-popular combine and unleashed a revolution that pose serious questions on its impact of various spheres of human life. The control of this chaotic phenomenon can be done only by making philosophy heard, studied, pursued, discussed, debated and practiced.

The nexus between popular thinking and science can turn dangerous in the long run. But when philosophy, science and technology go hand in hand, the world will witness a life enhancing progress, respecting fellowmen and nature and ushering in holistic growth.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boccaletti, S, C. Grebog, Y.C Lai, H. Mancini and D. Maza, “ The Control of Chaos: Theory and Application.” 5 April 2010. http://chaos1.la.asu.edu/~yclai/papers/Physics_Report.pdf

Doshi, S.L. Modernity, Postmodernity and Neo-Sociological Theories. Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 2003.

Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat; The Globalized World in the Twenty-First Century. London: Penguin Books, 2006.

Ganesan, Sharmila and Ram, “ The Market of One,” The Times of India – Crest Edition, 4 September 2010, 8.

Hawking, Stephen and Leonard Mlodinow. The Grand Design. New York: Bantam Books, 2010.

Indiaabroad, “A.R. Rahman to Help Delhi Improve Voter Turnout “10 October 2010. http://in.movies.yahoo.com/news-detail/38506/A-R-Rahman-help-Delhi-improve-voter-turnout.html

Piller, Frank and Ashok Kumar. “ Mass Customization: Providing Custom Products and Services with Mass Production Efficiencey.” Journal of Financial Transformation, Vol. 18, 125- 131.

Ramnarayan, Sujata, “Perceived Effectiveness of Personlization,” Journal of Business & Econcomics Research 3, 9 (September 2005), 41-49.

Gleick, James. Chaos: The Amazing Science of the Unpredictable. London: Vinate-The Random House Groud, 1987.

Stewart, Ian. Does God Play Dice: The New Mathematics of Chaos. London: Penguin Books, 1990.

“Philosophy,” 10 October 2010. http://www.porsche.com/international/accessoriesandservice/personalisation/philosophy/

“What is NIKEiD,” 10 October 2010. http://nikeid.nike.com/nikeid/index.jsp

“What is Pearson Custom Publishing,” 10 October 2010. http://www.pearsoned.co.uk/CustomPublishing/

Distortion, ” Infinity and Chaos,”10 October 2010. http://articles.philosophyforums.com/link.php?action=detail&id=14

Goyal, Priyank “Mass Customization,” 10 October 2010. http://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/8/727/mass-customization1.asp

Sievänen, M. “What is Customization,” 10 October 2010. http://tta.mediacabinet.fi/filebank/186-what-is-customization.pdf

Snow, Shane,  “7 Ways to Customize your Real Life Online,” 10 October 2010. http://mashable.com/2010/05/02/customized-products/

Marx’s materialist vision of the universe and the deterministic linear approach towards the communist ideal had its root in Newtonian Deterministic spirit; the productive revolution, that applied knowledge to the study of work shattered his dream of a communist revolution and the contemporary technologically flat world dominated by market imperatives dissolving feudal, national and religious identities is fulfilling some of the Marx’s prophetic vision outlined in the Manifesto of the Communist Party.

The era in which Marx lived bubbled with a new found mechanistic, material and rigorous deterministic confidence powered by the Classical Newtonian mechanics.  Marx in all probability would have taken into account these factors while formulating the Communist Manifesto.  This scientific perspective is analysed in reference to the book The Turning Point by Fritjof Capra.  Marx dreamed of a communist revolution, that would overthrow the capitalist dominance, but what shattered Marx’s dreams was the Productive Revolution, where the knowledge was applied to the work, bringing about creative changes. This is discussed in reference to the book Post-Capitalist Society by Peter F Drucker. Even though many of Marx’s calculations turned out to be a damp squib, some of them fulfilled in the course of time. This can very well be seen in the contemporary period, where the technologically flat worlds dominated by market imperatives are dissolving feudal, national and religious identities and is discussed in reference to the Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat. The primary source of reference to this paper is the Manifesto of the Communist Party.

The Newtonian Scientific perspective

The ‘Classical Science’ or ‘Newtonianism’ unveiled the laws governing the heaven and earth which lay hidden in mathematical undercoat.  The Scientific community and the world at large believed that April 29, 1686, the day when Sir Isaac Newton presented his research- Principia Mathematica to the Royal Society in London, heralded the birth of Determinism and predictability. Newton revolutionized the scientific thinking with the basic laws of motion and universal law of gravitation together with a clear formulation of some of the fundamental concepts like mass, acceleration and inertia.

Newton unveiled the laws governing the heaven and earth which lay hidden in mathematical undercoat. ‘Classical Science’ or ‘Newtonianism’ declared without doubt that every event in the world was determined by initial conditions that were at least in principle, determinable with precision. It was a world in which chance played no part, in which all the pieces came together like cogs in a cosmic machine.[1] The deterministic vision compared the universe to a precise clock in which the present state of things is on the one hand, simply the consequence of its prior state and on the other hand and the cause of its future state. Present, past and future are bound together by causal relationships.

Yet another factor that came out of Newtonian mechanics was the materialism that erased the need for a God.  In the Newtonian world view, God had created the material particles and set it in motion. The dynamics of the motion have been found and thus if the initial conditions are known, predicting the future is not at all a problem giving rise to rigorous determinism, that slowly eliminated the need for God. Newton successfully explained motion of planets, moons, and comets to flow of the tides and various phenomena related to gravity. The physical phenomena themselves were not thought to be divine in any sense, and when science made it more and more difficult to believe in such a god, the divine disappeared completely from the scientific world view, leaving behind the spiritual vacuum that has become characteristic of the mainstream culture.[2]

Influence of Newtonian Mechanics on Marx

Living during the golden era of Newtonian classical mechanics, there is every reason to believe that Marx was influenced by the scientific spirit that was prevalent during that time. Marx brought the deterministic vision of the world as gigantic machines and all things in the world being compared to cogs in the machine to the worker and capitalist relationship. The workers are compared to the cogs in the machine of the capitalist, who is being controlled or determined by the Capitalists for their profit and self interest.   As Marx says, ‘It has pitilessly torn as under the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors’ and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”.[3]Along with the man to man relation the dignity of labour too was at the receiving end in this deterministic, mechanical onslaught. The bourgeoisie has stripped of it halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of the science, into its paid wage-labourers.[4] As machines could be bought for money, so with the labours too, who were too considered as machines. Marx sensed this and became the voice of the voiceless.

While at one hand he understood the harmful effects of such a mechanistic vision upheld by the Capitalists, he himself felt prey to the mechanistic deterministic vision. He took up the material vision of the universe that was a necessary result of the mechanistic deterministic vision of the universe, that didn’t require the need of the creator.  Along with this, he also applied the deterministic vision in his theory. Like Newton Marx too believe that if the initial conditions are known then the future can be predicted with ease. Marx outlined the initial conditions, the plight of the workers and the oppression by the Capitalist, and predicted a revolution that would bring about claseless world.  As Marx says, The communist revolution will therefore be no merely national one; it will be a revolution taking place simultaneously in all civilized countries, that is, at least in England, America, France and Germany.[5]

But this revolution didn’t happen in the industrialized countries. Things didn’t work out linearly as Marx had planned it out, it turned out to be non linear. The scientific world too is seriously considering the non linearity with Chaos theory that focuses on the sensitivity to initial conditions.

The Sensitivity to Initial Conditions

In a 1963 paper for New York academy of sciences, Edward Lorenz a meteorologist had quoted an unnamed meteorologist assertion that if chaos theory were true, a single flap of a single sea gull’s wings would be enough to change the course of all future weather systems on earth. By the time of the 1972 meeting, he had examined and refined that idea for his talk. “Predictability: Does the flap of a butterfly’s wing in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?”[6] By Butterfly effect what he meant was sensitive dependence on initial conditions. The flapping of a single butterfly’s wing today produces a tiny change in the state of atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So in a month’s time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn’t happen. Or may be one that wasn’t going to happen does.[7]

At each moment, very small changes in the conditions can turn our predictions wrong. Marxism fell pray to sensitive dependence on initial conditions. Marx thought proletariats will remain for ever as proletariats, struggling for survival and oppressed by capitalist. From a deterministic linear assessment, it will lead to the collapse of Capitalist and rise of workers. But he overlooked other influences that might come on the way.  But the overall picture changed with what Peter Drucker would call the Productivity Revolution that came after the Industrial revolution.

Productivity Revolution

Productivity Revolution ranks high among the many reasons that shattered the Marx’s dream of a communist revolution. It all happened because of the power of knowledge.  The Industrial Revolution was ushered in when knowledge was applied to tools, processes and products.  But this gave rise to, in Marx’s terms, ‘alienation’ and new classes and class war.  In its second phase, beginning around 1880 and culminating around World War II, knowledge in its new meaning came to be applied to work.  This ushered in the Productivity revolution which in 75 years converted the proletarian into a middle-class bourgeois with near upper-class income. The Productivity Revolution thus defeated class war and communism.[8]

While the educated people ran behind developing machines, the workers were left behind without attention. Work was beneath the attention of educated people, of well-to –do people, of people of authority. Work is what slaves did.[9]According to Peter F. Drucker, Frederick Winslow Taylor[10] brought about a paradigm shift.  He started the study on work.  As Marx, he too was shocked to see the growing hatred between the capitalists and workers. But he also saw what they failed to see: the conflict was unnecessary. He set out to make workers productive so that they would earn decent money.[11]

What Taylor did was application of knowledge to the study of work. Till his time, the work was associated with skill. The craft skill had been associate with a mystique approach. Taylor’s axiom that all manual work, skilled or unskilled, could be analysed and organized by application of knowledge seemed preposterous to his contemporaries.[12] He asserted that there is no ‘skilled work.’ All manual operations can be considered as work. Any worker who is  then willing to do the work the way analysis shows it should be done is a ‘first-class man,’ deserving a ‘first-class wage’-that is, as much or more than the skilled worker got with this long years of apprenticeship.[13]

Applying Taylor’s task study, the United States proved that it could turn things topsy -turvy.  The United States didn’t have much of merchant marine. But they trained totally unskilled works, ‘many of the former sharecroppers rose in a pre-industrial environment, and converted them in 60 or 90 days into first-rate welders and ship builders.’[14] Thus training did the entire trick. Productivity shot off with the application of knowledge to work.  While the machines created greater capacity, the workers remained unproductive as they were in the workshops in ancient Greeks or building the roads of Imperial Rome. Since Taylor innovation of applying knowledge to work, ‘productivity has increased some fiftyfold in all advanced countries. On this unprecedented expansion rest all the increases in both standard of living and in the quality of life in developed countries.[15]

By 1930, Taylor’s scientific management started showing results with Marx’s ‘proletarians’ became ‘bourgeois.’ Thus they became the true beneficiaries of Capitalism.  Even though there was misery, hunger and unemployment in the defeated countries of Central Europe in 1918, the revolution that Marx expected to happen didn’t materialize because ‘the proletariats had already become middle class and they had become productive.’[16]

Marxism and the Flat World

Thomas L. Friedamn, in his book The World is Flat discusses the world becoming increasingly flat due to the developments in communication and technology and a host of other factors. It would be unbecoming to degrade the value of Marx as a great thinker. Thomas L. Friedman, in his book The World is Flat, quotes Harvard University’s noted political theorist Michael J. Sandel, in showing the greatness of Marx and Engels. ‘The sort of flattening process …was actually first identified by Karl Marx and Friderich Engels in the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848.’[17] Even though the flattened world with technological innovations is of a different ambience than Marx thought, Sandel would argue that, ‘ it is nevertheless part of the same historical trend Marx highlighted in his writings on Capitalism – the inexorable march of technology and capital to remove all barriers, boundaries, frictions and restraints to global commerce.’[18]

The following lines written in the Manifesto of the Communist Party when read from the modern outlook makes us dumb struck: ‘All fixed, fast frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions are swept away, all new formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face, with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.’[19] These can be considered truly prophetic, with the technological innovations breaking all barriers, new technologies coming up day by day and cultures, religions, traditions being seated uneasily with the changing trend.

We have to say that Marx foresaw the changes in communication systems, when he wrote, “ The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilization.[20] The marketing strategy of the retail chains like Walmart and the line too gets a mention in the 19^th century Manifesto of the Communist Party! ‘ The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese wall, with which it forces the barbarians’ intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate.’[21]Even though Marx got many things wrong, a few of his calculations hit the spot.

Conclusion

Marxist philosophy hit the road block with the basic premises of his philosophy going wrong even though some of the predictions went right. The linear deterministic vision of Marx back fired with the arrival of productivity revolution. Some of Marx visions are being fulfilled with respect to the increasing power of capitalist and market dominance. Has Marxist philosophy got any relevance in the modern world? It’s a matter of great debate. But if it does a total revamp it indeed has a great role to play. At present outsourcing has become the hot topic with regard to losing jobs in developed nations and the developed nations coming up with protectionist policies like Ohio ban. Even though the workers in the outsourced countries finds it interesting, there is also a threat of them losing jobs at any time as it can be shifted to any other country that offers low coast countries. After all its profit that matters.  In this context  there is a dire need for the workers of different nations to unite. If Communist could get the people of different countries unite at a time sans penetration of technology, it must unite the workers of the online world, protect and promote their interests.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“The Butterfly Effect” 14 September 2010. answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=424018

Capra, Fritjof. The Turning Point. London: Harper Collins Publishers, 1983.

Drucker, Peter F. Post- Capitalist Society. Delhi: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2008.

Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat. London: Penguin Books, 2005.

Marx, Karl and Frederick Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1977.

Prigogine Illya and Isabelle Stengers. Order out of Chaos. London: Flamingo-Harper Collins Publishers, 1985.

[1] Prigogine and Isabelle, Order out of Chaos, xii.

[2] Capra, The Turning Point, 53.

[3] Marx and Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party, 38.

[4] Marx and Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party, 38.

[5] Marx and Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party, 90.

[6] Chaos Theory [Online]

[7] Stewart, Does God Play Dice? 141.

[8] Drucker, Post Capitalist Society, 18.

[9] Drucker, Post Capitalist Society, 30.

[10] A well-to-do, educated man, whose poor eye sighted forced to him to give up going to Harvard and became a worker.

[11] Drucker, Post Capitalist Society, 31.

[12] Drucker, Post Capitalist Society, 33.

[13] Drucker, Post Capitalist Society, 32.

[14] Drucker, Post Capitalist Society, 33.

[15] Drucker, Post Capitalist Society, 34.

[16] Drucker, Post Capitalist Society, 35.

[17] Friedman, The World is Flat, 232.

[18] Friedman, The World is Flat, 234.

[19] Marx and Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party, 39.

[20] Marx and Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party, 40.

[21] Marx and Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party, 40.

When structuralism was at its peak, Derrida dropped the bombshell of deconstruction, which made structuralism hit the rock bottom from its pinnacle of glory.  To introduce his own reading of logo centrism, Derrida somewhat mysteriously says that what is required is not demolition but de-sedimentation, the deconstruction of the logos.[1] Text and Structure gives meaning independent of subject and context. Structuralism denies the importance of history, stressing rather the importance of system. It minimizes individuality and humanism, emphasizing the structure. It finds the differences among societies only apparent, emphasizing their identities. It reduces the emphasis on time, substituting synchrony…priority of the state of language to history.[2] In structuralism, a particular category is given a privileged position and is centered and the other is doomed to be dominated. Derrida sensed this play of binary opposites and found that right from the god-fathers of ancient western philosophy till date this is at work. According to Derrida, all western thought is based on the idea of a center, an origin, a thought, an ideal form, affixed point, an immovable mover, an essence , a God, a presence, which is usually capitalized and guarantees all meaning.[3] Derrida makes interesting exposition, where nature, man, spirit, Christian were all privileged against culture, women, matter, pagan, respectively. The latter were excluded or marginalized or ignored and the former dominated.

In this paper the focus is on the binary opposite of absence and presence where presence is much valued and given prominence over the absence all through the history of philosophy and that would also lead us to the problem of speaking gaining edge over writing and also nature having preference over culture.  This assignment is based on my reading on the book Of Grammatology by Derrida, where he Deconstructs Levi Strauss’ text from Tristes Tropiques and shows the underlying play of binary opposites and the preference given to speaking over writing. Then I go on to deconstruct a brand new website Web 2. 0 suicide machine, which helps one to end their virtual life in the social networking sites, and show that in this postmodern virtual kingdom too the binary opposite is at play, where speaking, presence is valued over writing and absence above all a rule of metaphysics of presence. This exposition shows that the play of binary opposites is still present in the postmodern world in disguise.  The Web 2.0 suicide machine is only a tip of an ice berg, there are many more websites, movements, organizations and other initiatives that may seem interesting at first sight but having the prominence given to either one or the other which can have grave consequences if not properly deciphered.

1.  De constructing Levi Strauss’ Tristes Tropiques

Derrida was a beacon who didn’t walk through the beaten path through which the western philosophers had already walked. He innovated a new path with deconstruction. His deconstruction brought forth the hidden, unknown and ‘natural’ play of binary opposites in language. Derrida’s sight does not hit a road block after deconstructing linguists, he treaded towards structural anthropology. Derrida did not use his deconstructive method only to throw into question the assumptions of structural linguists like Saussure and linguists like some of those found in the analytic tradition. He also used it to attack the structural anthropology of Claude Levi Strauss.[4]

The structural linguistic method of Saussure was applied to the study of anthropology by Levi Strauss. Cultural analysis based on structural linguists completely transformed the discipline of anthropology. Strauss and Rousseau share a common platform. The bottom line of the argument is the binary opposition between nature and culture where  nature is rated above culture as the former is good, original, virtuous, noble and present whereas culture is corrupt, degenerate and a ‘supplement’ to nature’s fullness of presence. As we analyze the dynamics behind these arguments we are back to square one- writing seen as a perverse supplement to natural speech.

In order to prove the play of binary opposites, Derrida deconstructs Tristes Tropiques written by Levi Strauss. Tristes Tropiques narrates the series of encounters that Levis Strauss had with a South American Tribe in Nambikwara. He chose this tribe because it was untouched by western influence and were leading a primitive natural life. Levi Strauss narrates this passage from nature to culture, from peace to violence and from speech to writing in Nambikwara Society. What is apparently taking place here is   the violation of a state of nature by the arrival of and essentially foreign element into its midst.[5] Derrida does not subscribe to this view and in Grammatology he deconstructs the texts and unravels the underlying realms in Strauss’ text.

The part of the text which I chose for this study is given under the title Writing and Man’s Exploitation by Man.[6] Where those incidents from Tristes Tropiques, which are used by Levis Strauss to picture writing as a means of exploitation is deconstructed. Derrida would demonstrate that even though empirical writing cannot be seen, deeper and more essential arche writing is already at work within Nambikwara society. Levi Strauss explains a number of incidents during his encounter with the people of Nambikwara and is quick to make of sweeping conclusion with a prejudiced stand that the nature and speech stand a step ahead over culture and writing.

1.1 The Rousseaun and Saussurean Link

Derrida recollects that the extra ordinary incident that involved the tribal chief using writing as a means of oppression was also described by Strauss in his dissertation of Nambikwara seven years back. But he says that, finally it is only in Tristes Tropiques that the system is articulated in the most rigorous and complete way.[7]

Derrida begins by showing the link that Levi Strauss has with Rousseau and Saussure. Derrida would say that he doesn’t impose the words, “writing as the exploitation of man by man” on Levi Strauss, instead he quotes from the book ‘Conversations’ and states that “ ….writing itself, in that first instance,  seemed to be associated in any permanent way only with societies which were based on the exploitation of man by man.”[8] Derrida also says of the ambiguity of the ideology that governs the Saussurian exclusion of writing where language is separated from writing and the latter is either placed below or outside, so as to bring in and restore the authentic language, human and fully signifying language. So Derrida would say that the same ambiguity affects Levi Strauss Intentions.[9]

1.2 A People sans Writing?

The attempt of Levi Strauss in the beginning is to build a base to his argument of writing as exploiting and corrupting by stating that the tribe of Nambikwara didn’t have a language of its own. He writes in Tristes Tropiques, that the Nambikwara (tribes) could not write goes without saying.[10] But Derrida draws out an interesting omission in Tristes Tropiques, a reworked version of his dissertation where he had written about a word iekariukedjutu that would mean drawing lines.

Derrida quotes that form his dissertation, “Some time later, we saw them busy drawing wavy lines…They called act of writing iekariukedjutu namely drawing lines. [11] Strauss is of the opinion that this world in no way show that they have writing skills and the concept of writing was completely alien to them. But Derrida strongly criticizes this and he brings in Rean who said that, “in the most ancient languages, the word used to designate foreign people re drawn from two sources; either words that signify ‘to stammer, to mumble or words that signify mute.”[12] The word used for writing ‘wen’ in China also begs a question to Strauss as ‘wen’ designates many things besides writing in the narrow sense. So Strauss is arbitrarily trying to prove that as the terms iekariukedjutu doesn’t directly mean writing, the whole writing phenomena was absent from Nambikwara tribe.

Yet another problem that crops up is when Levi Strauss would state that, ‘they called that act of writing iekariukedjutu, namely drawing lines, which had an aesthetic interest for them.’ [13] Strauss came to this conclusion through a sentence noted in another sub group ‘kihikagnere mu iene’ meaning drawing line’s that is pretty. Derrida questions the narrow logic that is employed to construct the conclusion. He also is critical of the way in which Strauss uses a western classical concept like aesthetics in a very different context. More generally, is it possible to simply isolate the aesthetic function of writing from its utilitarian function as if one were more than the other?[14]

The birth of writing is usually involved with genealogical anxiety where one’s memory level hit the full storage limit and are forced to write it down. Strauss writes that…we have been told about Polynesian communities who can recite straight off family tress involving dozens of generations; but that kind of feat obviously has its limits.[15] Derrida would say that when this limit is crossed writing appears but he quickly adds that it’s not merely a passage from speech to writing but from arche writing to writing. The genealogical relations and social classifications are the stitched seam of arche writing, conditions of the (so-called) oral language and of writing in the colloquial sense.[16]

1.3 Writing and Exploitation

The extra ordinary incident that Levi Strauss explains is the incident that happened after he distributed pencils and sheets of paper to the small Nambikwara group. They had only scribbled way, horizontal lines on the pads. Strauss would say that the only person who understood the purpose of writing namely exploitation was the tribal chief who not only scribbled horizontal lines on his pad but pretended that these line possessed meaning and he went out and read to group. Tribal chief again uses this trick when the takes Strauss to another tribal group. There they met with hostility and it was the custom to exchange gifts. To the surprise of Strauss, the tribal chief took out his writing pad and began to read out the things that had to be exchanged. So Strauss sys, his attitude to writing is most revealing. He immediately understood its role as a sign and the social superiority that it confers.[17]

Derrida would say that it is in fact tempting to read it as parable in which each element, each sentence, refers to a recognized function of writing: hierachisation, the economic function of mediation and of capitalization, participation in a quasi- religious secret; all this verified in any phenomenon of writing is here assembled, concentrated, organized in the structure of an exemplary or a very brief sequence of fact and gestures.[18]

Derrida comes up and deconstructs the two significances that are drawn from this incident: The first point is regarding the appearance of writing as instantaneous. Strauss would say that writing had appeared not by laborious process as one would expect but instantaneously again he also says that symbols were borrowed. But Derrida would put a counter argument saying that it was not the occasion of the origin of writing but imitation of writing. He would again state that …. and the rapidity of borrowing, when it happens pre supposes the previous presence of the structures that makes it possible.[19]

The second point which Derrida questions is with regard to Strauss’ statement that writing is political not theoretical also sociological rather than intellectual. Derrida would say that by making this distinction one makes a problematic difference between inter subjective relationship and knowledge. If it is true, as in fact believe that writing cannot be thought outside of the horizon of inter subjective violence…the conclusion they sustain goes far beyond the field of what is here called writing.

1.4 The Three Propositions

Derrida identifies three potentially controversial propositions from the Strauss text.

Strauss makes the statement that – Yet nothing of what we know of writing or of its role in evolution can be said to justify the conception that those who know writing has progressed and those who didn’t were unified within the limits of memory. Derrida would state that scientific knowledge is contingent upon the invention of writing. Any objective or universal truth that remains the same for everyone, everywhere throughout space and time is only possible on the basis of it being preserved, recorded and transmitted through writing.[20]

Strauss makes a very speculative statement that between invention of writing and modern science, sum of its knowledge has rather gone up and down than known a steady increase.[21] Derrida takes on this statement and says that he would neither say it is true or false but that it is an answer to suite a particular purpose, to a meaningless question. He would also ask how it can be evaluated in quantity? Can we measure knowledge as we measure vegetables?

The third proposition is regarding the contention of Strauss that the advent of writing three, four thousand years ago had brought nothing decisive to the domain of knowledge. But Derrida would say that there is no cut off point mentioned from where this claim can be made. And with regard to writing as a means of communication to facilitate what Derrida would bring in here is that arche writing always existed.  From the moment they began to organize themselves in an economic way by… immediate consumption of their harvests; putting produce into reserves for the next season and so on. [22] So Derrida would say that is it the metaphysics of presence that is predominant there.

1.5 Colonialism and Writing

Embracing the attitude that it’s writing that is behind all violence and oppression, Strauss takes on colonialism from this perspective. He would say that armed with writing the nations who knew writing had a deliberate and consciously organized plot. Again he would state that written formulae is more modifiable at will rather than the oral one. Derrida then says,  “ I don’t profess that writing may not and doesn’t in fact play this role, but from that to attribute to writing the specificity of this role and to conclude that speech is exempt from it, is an  abyss that one must not leap over so lightly.[23]

Strauss would say that at home (in his country) the anthropologist may be the opponent of traditional usage, but when he comes to a different society he becomes respectful to the most conservative practices. Striking at this point, Derrida would say that on the one hand, as with Rousseau the theme of a necessary or rather fatal degradation, as the very form of progress and on the other hand; nostalgia for what preceded this degradation.[24] Here Derrida brings out the link that Strauss maintains with Rousseau, when he says about upholding the conservative practices or a return to nature rather than culture.

1.6 Contradictions Within

Levi Strauss holds on to the view that appearance of writing is catastrophe that befalls the state of nature because his anthropological discourse is shaped by the Rousseaun mythology of origins, where the nature is elevated and culture is doomed. Keeping this in mind, Derrida shows the internal contradictions in Tristes Tropiques . He says that if the ‘Lesson’ is to be believed the Nambikwara did not know violence before writing, not hierarchisation, since that is quickly assimilated into exploitation. Round about the ‘Lesson’ it suffices to opens Tristes Tropiques and the theses [written by Levi Strauss on Nambikwara tribe before he published Tristes Tropiques] at any page to find striking evidence to the contrary.[25]

Derrida brings to light various instances where Strauss himself narrates that before he introduced writing, violence and other activities were prevalent in society. At one instance he says about the battles in the nomadic group and also about rapes where women are open to rape by stronger neighbors. [26]Again from Strauss’ text Derrida bring forth another instance where Levi Strauss was forced to mix poison. “ A delegation of four men came to me and in a quite threatening manner, asked me to mix poison with next dish I should off to A6. ….I was told he was ‘very wicked’ and totally worthless”[27]

Thus Derrida deconstructs the whole structure that Strauss has built up, cleverly showing the internal contradictions.  Being true to the spirit of deconstruction he doesn’t give priority to writing either. But what Derrida points out is the play of differences, the order of writing which forms an integral part of human communities. Derrida also calls for putting aside the nostalgic feeling of going for the past times where there was no writing. He also shows that the rash degrading of the writing has in its back drop the Straussian philosophy of raising nature over culture and also the structuralist influence of Saussure.

2.0 Web 2.0 Suicide Machine

The Web 2.0 suicide machine[28] is anew euphoria that has taken the social networking world by storm. This website with its tagline Meet your real neighbors again, is aimed to delete the accounts in social networking sites like facebook, myspace, linked in and Twitter. Though at first sight it may seem to be a site that can bring back to real life than virtual fie, it need not be so. The Web 2.0 suicide machine backs on the nostalgia of people. People of all ages have the nostalgia to go back to what they have left behind. The most dangerous undercurrents that I see in this website is a postmodern advocate that privileges speech over writing or presence over absence, the site indeed goes behind the metaphysics of presence.

Web 2.0 Suicide machine is a Rotterdam based website which comes from he house of Moddr, founded by Langelaar, Gordon Savicic and Danya Vasiliev. This website is aimed to free million of users who are entrapped in the social networking sites forgetting their real life. The makers of this site say that “users are entrapped in high resolution panoptic prison without walls accessible from anywhere in the world.”[29]

By making users free from social networking sites the makers say they can lead people to real life as their website say- this machine lets you delete all your energy sucking social networking profiles kill your fake virtual friends and completely do away with your web 2.0 alter ego.[30]

2.2 Metaphysics of Presence and Suicide Machine

Though it seems to be an innovative solution, it’s again a re incarnation of metaphysics of presence. The prominence given to speech or presence over writing or absence. In its frequently asked questions to the site owners there is one interesting question asked, “what shall I do after I’ve killed myself with Web 2.0 suicide machine?” The answers they give are, ‘try calling some friends,’ ‘take a walk in a park’ or ‘buy a bottle of wine’ and start enjoying your real life again.”

But when we deconstruct dangerous revelations comes to the fore. What is happening in the social networking sites? We have friends with whom we exchange messages mostly in the written from in the wall, tweet or scrap. We have also virtual communities on almost everything under the sun like our old school, the persons, subject or persons of our interest and like. There too we exchange virtual messages. It is in virtuality that we do all these. In Virtuality we don’t have the real presence but absence of the really real. While we are behind this virtual or absence what I at stake is the real network, real friend, the meetings or to say the presence is being substituted. If Strauss and Rousseau would have been there they would have told that the writing that usually happens in the virtual word is corrupting the whole nature. Again we will be drawn into a virtual culture vs. real nature debate. As Derrida would say, there are binary opposites at work here like virtual culture and real nature, presence and absence, writing and speaking.

But web 2.0 suicide machine terribly overlooks various good aspects of social networking sites like its power to organize people to ignite movements. Some of the famous social networking protests include – Against 2009 election results in Moldova, against the suspension of parliament in Canada and in support of Buddhist monks in Burma.[31] Call it simplistic or the signs of the times, social networks are interestingly emerging as the town squares of the sixties and seventies.[32] It can also be the place for sharing informative place to mentor, guide people with various communities in action. So Web 2.0 suicide machine as a standing testimony that the privilege of presence of absence is very much alive.

Conclusion

Derrida has logically and insightfully unearthed the binary opposites at work in the pioneering work of Levi Strauss namely Tristes Tropiques. Derrida has shown how narrowly and unjustly the prejudice of the superiority of the ‘metaphysics of presence’ play a dominant role in reaching logical but unjustified conclusions that can trickle into diverse fields.  In Tristes Tropiques, Levi Strauss applies the dominating character of speech over writing in the nature and culture context, where nature is valued and identified with speech and culture with writing.

Even as all these binary opposites have come to the fore and society is responding to it like in the case of women empowerment, protecting nature from excessive human intervention and the like. Derrida though reveals the binary opposite does not elevate the subjugated one to the top. He does show the worthiness of the subjugated stuff to be at the top. But he doesn’t stop by this, he puts both these opposites under erasure and with arche writing he shows the play of differences.  This postmodern world too has the dominance of metaphysics of presence and is having a say in the much sought virtual world too. The arrival and popularity of web 2.0 suicide machine website, the killer site for social networking, shows the prominence given to speech over writing.  The exchange of written messages over social networking sites are made to consider doomed with the tag line of the website- meet your real neighbors. To look at the whole scenario from another perspective, we can see the prominence given to real over the virtual.  There is metaphysics of presence that which always which man longs to achieve which is the state of fullness. This nostalgia for presence which western philosophers from Plato banked in for a long time has settled deep down to the so called ‘obvious’ feature of human life. To come down to the real life phenomena we wish to see and think and cherish the memories of the dear ones that have had a say in our life. But the response that we get from the fellow human beings will be ‘get real and get back to present.’  What is underplayed here is the virtual presence over real presence.

I do join the chorus of the followers of Derrida in saying that there exists binary opposites and the play of differences.  But as Derrida has not gone into a dialectics where one gets replaced by the other or getting into a totally new concept.  The balance has to be maintained between the two. The attempts to rise one above the other, even if it is subjugated will lead to instability. There must be space left for the play of difference.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Moore, Brooke Noel and Kenneth Broder. Philosophy: The Power of Ideas. Delhi: The Tata Mc Grawhill Publishing Company, 2005.

Derrida, Jacques. Of Grammatology. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1976.

Bradley, Arthur. Derrida’s Of Grammatology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008.

Dubey, Nimish. “ The Face(book) of Protest.” The Times of India (Crest Edition), 20 February 2010, 27.

Powell, Jim. Derrida for Beginners. New York: Writers and Readers Publishing. No Year Given.

Resse, W. L. Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion: Eastern and Western Thought, S.v. “Structuralism.” New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1980.

Suicidemachine.org. “Frequently asked Questions.” 1 March 2010. http://suicidemachine.org/

[2] Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion, 1980 edition, s.v. “ Structuralism.”

[3] Powell, Derrida for Beginners, 21.

[4] Moore and Broder, Philosophy the Power of Ideas, 189.

[5] Bradley, Derrida’s of Grammatology, 83.

[6] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 118.

[7] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 119.

[8] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 119.

[9] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 120.

[10] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 122.

[11] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 123.

[12] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 123.

[13] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 124.

[14] Bradley, Derrida’s of Grammatology, 93.

[15] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 125.

[16] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 125.

[17] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 125.

[18] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 127.

[19] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 127.

[20] Bradley, Derrida’s of Grammatology, 95.

[21] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 129.

[22] Bradley, Derrida’s of Grammatology, 96.

[23] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 133.

[24] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 133.

[25] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 135.

[26] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 135.

[27] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 129.

[28] This website can be accessed from http://suicidemachine.org/

[29] Suicide machine.org “Frequently Asked Questions” [Online]

[30] Suicide machine.org “Frequently Asked Questions” [Online]

[31] Dubey, “ The Face(book) of Protest.” The Times of India (Crest Edition), 20 February 2010, 27.

[32] Dubey, “ The Face(book) of Protest.” The Times of India (Crest Edition), 20 February 2010, 27.

The three postulates namely freedom, God and Immortality though can’t be theoretically proven, is incorporated into the already coherent and meaningful ethical structure of Kant to give more practicability to his ethical theory taking into account the fact that man is not a purely rational being but a creature haunted by inclinations.

Freedom, God and Immortality, the three postulates are not theoretical dogmas but are presuppositions having necessary practical reference. The introduction of postulate in Kant’s philosophy can be considered as an attempt to limit the theoretical and extend the practical so as to make them stand together. God as postulate by Kant is not the God of religion. This postulate of God has origin in one’s own reason which would necessarily mean that submitting to will of God is submitting to one’s own reason. The need of God arises because the relationship between moral law and happiness is not guaranteed in this world. So here God comes to the rescue and thus necessitates the compatibility of virtue and realization of highest good. The postulate of immortality is very much interwoven with the postulate of God. Taking into account the sensuous nature of human beings, Kant states that it is very difficult for a man to be righteous without hope. Immortality guarantees this hope and ensures that there is a place sufficient for the reckoning of happiness in proportion to worthiness to be happy. The postulate of freedom is given a special position among the other two postulates. Freedom is an apriori that we do not understand but we know it as the condition of the moral law which we do know. It is because of freedom that God and Immortality gain objective reality and legitimacy and subjective necessity. Freedom then can be considered as the keystone of the structure of pure reason.

The postulates take us to the practical realm of Kant’s otherwise theoretical and rationally overpowered ethical structure. But these postulates too were of little help in Kant’s attempt to make his philosophical structure a perennial one. The postulates have made his ethical theory a more humane one even though it maintains its strong rational base.

1. The Postulates: A Practical Necessity

It is beyond doubt that human beings are endowed with rationality. Kant’s Philosophy is basically woven taking into account this rational nature. From a theoretical angle the immense power of rationality can be glorified, modified and crafted to form a strong structure. But the fact that man is not a pure rational being and that he is prone to inclinations is something very serious to be taken care of. Kant turned a blind eye with respect to this aspect in his initial years going behind the mightiness of rationality. The postulates- Freedom, God and Immortality show his awareness of the inability of human beings to bank on rationality alone. These postulates make Kant’s ethics more humane and practical.

According to Kant, a postulate is “a theoretical propositions which is not as such demonstrable but which is an inseparable corollary of an apriori unconditionally valid practical law.”[1] So the postulate becomes part of the Kant’s ethical structure but he makes it clear that the postulates play no theoretical or explanatory role. As we have no intuitions to apply the concepts of freedom, God and immortality; no theoretical knowledge is possible. As Kant makes it clear, “A postulate of practical reason is an object of rational belief, but the reasons for the belief are practical and moral. The person needs the belief as a condition for obedience to the moral law and it is this combined with the categorical nature of that law which justifies the belief. Although the beliefs are theoretical in form- will is free, there is God-their basis and their functions are practical.[2]

The postulates are indemonstrable and are necessary for practical function. It is an attempt by Kant to limit the theoretical and extend the practical and to make them stand together. Though a postulate in general sense means to suggest or accept that something is true so that it can be used the basis of a theory,[3] in this case it does not form basis but only presuppositions of practical import. C.D. Broad writes: A postulate of pure practical reason is a factual proposition which combines the two following characteristics: (i) there is no conclusive factual evidence for or against it. (ii) Unless a person accepts it, he finds himself in the practical dilemma of knowing himself to be under an unconditional obligation to strive to bring about a certain state of affairs is in principle unrealizable.[4] So the postulates are “not theoretical dogmas but presuppositions having a necessary practical reference,” which “do not extend speculative cognition” but “give objective reality to the idea of speculative reason in general.”[5]

1.1 Relation of the Postulates to the Ideas of Reason

The three postulates are closely associated with the three ideas of theoretical reason, namely the idea of the absolute unity of the subject of experience (soul), the idea of the absolute unity of the series of conditions of appearances (the world) and the idea of the absolute unity of the conditions of all things in general (God). When faced with the problem of conviction of the reality of objects corresponding to the three ideas of pure reason, the three postulates comes to the rescue. For they contain the ground of the possibility of realizing the necessary object of practical reason (the highest good), whereas theoretical reason finds in them morally regulative principles, which have their value in furthering the exercise of intelligence in experience, but not in enabling us to gain any certitude as to the existence of any object beyond experience.[6] So Kant aims to show that theoretical and pure practical reason point to the same objects, but, whereas they “fly before it when it follows the path of pure speculation,” they can be definitely grasped on the path of practical.[7]

The postulates do not give us knowledge of their objects instead they enable us to assert their reality. “when these ideas of God, of an intelligible world and of immortality are predicates which are taken from our own nature, we must regard this determination neither as a sensualising of these pure ideas nor as a transcendent knowledge of supersensible objects; for the predicates we use are only understanding and will, and, indeed, these regarded only in that relation to each other in which we are required by the moral law to regard them. [8]

It is solely from the practical point of view that we have the postulates. It will be foolish to go behind the practical postulates in search of theoretical proof. So we are obliged to content ourselves “with the conception of a relation of understanding to will which the practical law determines apriori, and to which the same practical la secures objective reality.[9]

1.2 The Role of Postulates

Kant was of the view that postulates contributed very less to theory. He states, “The practical argument compels knowledge [i.e. Theory] to concede that there are such objects without more exactly defining them.”[10] It is because of the postulates that theory gains accession but this in no way breaks ground for the further extension of its realm by making synthetic a priori judgments about them. The postulates also become the objects of Ideas which were considered objectively empty. Kant moves from postulates must be asserted to postulates have objects through the doctrine of the primacy of pure practical reason.

If we bestow the privilege of establishing truth only to theoretical reason and not practical reason then we are met with twin problems (a) we can’t establish a coherent independent system. (b) If the doctrine of postulates is left in the state of justifying only the process of postulating as a practical act but not the postulates as true and entire area of human experience, completely rational in itself, is likewise unfounded in any theory about the world.[11]

2. The Postulate of God

Kant is highly critical of the attempts to employ reason to theology and giving out theoretical proofs and dogmas of things in the phenomenal world which the reason of human beings is unable to reach. In the first Critique Kant writes, “All attempts to employ reason in theology in any way merely speculative manner are altogether fruitless and by their very nature null and void…the only theology of reason which is possible is that which is based upon moral laws”[12] So the postulate of God is based on the moral proof rather than the theoretical proof. The idea of God should originate in our own reason. The God postulated by Kant is not the God of religion. Here it is not the religious dogmas that call the shots and to which one has to submit oneself but it’s to one’s own reason.

Why do the postulates of God come into picture? Kant says, “This system of self-rewarding morality is only an idea, the realization of which rests on the condition that everyone does what he should.[13] But his is no reason for anyone for not being moral. Kant would say that when we have a good reason to believe that we can get to the goal which we pursue.  But in the natural world the goal imposed by morality is not always realized. The relationship between happiness and moral law is not guaranteed although, “to be happy is necessarily the desire of every rational finite being, and thus it is an unavoidable finite being, and thus it is an unavoidable determinant of its faculty of desire.”[14] If this was guaranteed then we would not have seen people who lack good will enjoy un-interrupted prosperity and morally good people should experience general happiness to the exact proportion to their moral goodness and obviously this would mean the delusion of reason with respect to practical matters. So we must therefore postulate as it were unnatural world, beyond the temporal frame of ordinary existence and ruled by a wise benevolent and powerful God, in which the ideal results of morality will become actual. In particular, God turns out to be the “highest original good.” From whom the “highest derived good,” the happiness of all as a result of morality of all is derived.[15]

The assumption of the existence of God can never be made the basis of our obligation to obey the moral law. It is indeed a moral necessity to assume the existence of God. The postulate of God is a need or requirement of our moral consciousness or a moral necessity which is subjective and not objective which means that it is not itself a duty. The postulate of God is in no way connected to the consciousness of our duty. The divine will is the motive to action, not ground of it.[16] So the hypothesis necessary to explain the possibility of the existence of a certain object; but, in as much as the object in question is one which is set before us by our own rational nature as that which should be attained, we call it appropriately “ a faith and indeed a faith of reason.’[17]

Kant stresses that the properties of Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence can be assigned to God to play his moral role of guaranteeing the possibility of the highest good and that e have no basis for assigning any other properties to God in each of the three critiques Kant would even say that I must not even say ‘it is morally certain that there is God.’ But rather ‘I am morally certain.’[18] God is not a metaphysical concept, original being, first cause not blindly working eternal root of all things. It functions in the thinking of a moral agent and exercise a real influence on his/her actions.

3. Immortality

The postulate of God has a close affinity to the postulate of God in the realization of the moral Ideal. As Kant states in his critique, “the belief in God and another world is so interwoven with my moral sentiment.”[19] The postulate of immortality was taken seriously by Kant even when he was traditionalistic in his rationalism. The premise of immortality was found in the “incomplete harmony between morality and its consequences in the world.”[20] He was of the view that the belief in immortality has to be based on the moral disposition and not one hope of future rewards.

In the preface to the Critique of Practical Reason’s second edition, Kant says that the belief in immortality is based on a ‘notable characteristic of our nature, never to be capable of being satisfied by what is temporal (as insufficient for the capacities of its calling)[21] Basing himself on the principle of purposiveness, Kant bases his first argument for immortality. As ‘nothing is purposeless’ each organ or faculty into eh world has its own specific claim that human life as whole too, must have its own end, although it is an end not in this life but in a future life. [22] As it involves the fallacy of composition to judge that what is true of the parts of a whole is true of the whole, Beck states that the argument is teleological and theoretically and invalid one.

Kant gives the moral arguments and not the theoretical arguments for the immortality of the soul: “1. the highest good is a necessary object of the will. 2. Holiness, or complete fitness of intentions to the moral law, is necessary condition of the highest good. 3. Holiness cannot be found in a sensuous rational being. It can be reached only in an endless progress and since holiness is required, such endless progress toward it is the true object of the will such progress can be endless only if the personality of the rational being endures endlessly. 6. The highest good can be made real, therefore only on “the supposition of the immortality of the soul.[23]

The problem which arises immediately is that it would go against the self rewarding  morality proposed by Kant if we are in look out for unknown happiness in unknown world that too like a sort of compensation for the failure to achieve happiness within the natural lives. So in the second critique Kant would argue that we need immortality not to achieve happiness not at all but rather in order to make “endless progress’ toward “the complete conformity of dispositions with the moral law,’ that is , toward virtue or worthiness to be happy.[24]

Yet another proof given by Kant assumes the postulate of existence of God. The postulates of God and immortality reckon the happiness in proposition to worthiness to be happy ensuring that here is a power and a place for the fulfillment of this. As he says, ‘such a ruler together with life in such a world, which we must regard as a future world, reason finds itself constrained to assume; otherwise it would have to regard the moral laws as empty figments of the brain, since without this postulate the necessary consequence which it itself connects with these laws could not follow.[25]

Kant also makes it clear that the postulate of immortality is that which cannot be known but can only be thought. Kant also claims that his arguments for immortality do not furnish us with any theoretical dogma but only practical and objective truth that can give rise to action-motives, and , above all, sustain a moral agent in the moral disposition involved in making himself/herself worthy of highest good.[26]

4. Freedom

Though freedom is one of the postulates, Kant gives it a special place among them. It is freedom which is considered as logically possible and practically useful in the first Critique. The special statues accorded to freedom can be very well being read from the following verses from the Critique of Practical Reason: Freedom, however among all the ideas of speculative reason is the only possibility we know apriori. We do not understand it, but we know it as the condition of the moral law which we do know. The ideas of God and immortality are, on the contrary, not conditions of the moral law, but only conditions of the necessary object of a will which is determined by this law, this will being morally the practical use of our pure reason.[27] Kant says in the preface to the Critique of Practical Reason that the concept of freedom is “the key stone of the whole architecture of the system of pure reason and even speculative reason.”[28]

Freedom in its positive conception should not be given a theoretical employment. The role of idea of freedoms and the intelligible world is, rather a practical one. It provides a conception of ourselves which motives us to obey the moral law.[29] As freedom of will can’t be theoretically established it is asserted only from the practical standpoint. It is impossible to give empirical or theoretical evidence for freedom. Kant says in the first critique that it is therefore moral law, of which we become immediately conscious can soon as we draw up maxims of the will of ourselves that offers itself to us and…lead directly to the concept of freedom.[30]

In Groundwork Kant’s attempt was to give a theoretical proof of the reality of our freedom but he was not successful and coming to Critique of Pure Reason he held that we could infer the reality of our freedom from the consciousness by means of the principle that ‘ought implies can.’

Kant’s thought on freedom of the will can be seen to be going through five phases. In his first position he takes the stand that free human actions are those that have internal rather than external causes. As the second position, we have Kant stating that we cannot prove the existence of free human actions which are not dictated by deterministic laws of nature. This is explained in the Critique of Pure Reason. The third phase can be seen in Groundwork which was published in 1785, where he states that it is possible to prove the existence of human freedom and thereby also prove that moral law applies to us. In the fourth phase we see Kant stating that we can prove the freedom of our will form the indisputable fact of our religion. This can be seen in the Critique of Practical Reason that came out in 1788. As the final and fifth position in Religion (1793) Kant is no longer concerned with proving the existence of free will but rather showing that its existence simply implies the in escapable possibility of human evil but equally the concomitantly indestructible possibility of human conversions to goodness.[31]

According to Kant the ideas of God and immortality gain objective reality and legitimacy and indeed subjective necessity freedom is given fundamental importance as it gives stability and objective reality to the ideas of God and immortality. As Kant states in Critique of Practical Reason: The concept of freedom, in so far as its reality is proved by an apodictic law of practical reason, is the key stone of the whole architecture of the system of pure reason and even of speculative reason. All other concepts (those of God and Immortality), which are mere ideas, are unsupported by anything in speculative reason now attach themselves to the concept of freedom and gain, with it and through it, stability and objective reality. That is their possibility is proved by the fact that there really is freedom, for this idea is revealed by moral law.[32] Though freedom is given a special status, it does not mean that it is totally different from other postulates. As we are neither in a position to prove their reality by speculative reason nor to disprove them, pre supposing all three postulates is a need of pure practical reason, which is based on duty to make the highest good the object of the will.[33]

Conclusion

The postulates of God, Immortality and freedom are an attempt by Kant to limit the theoretical and extend the practical so as to make them stand together. Though Kant’s structure has strong foundation in rationality, this rationality alone could not be, used to give fullness and perfection to his theory and towards the end; he had to incorporate postulates to have relevance in the practical realm.

But analyzing the postulates from yet another perspective we become skeptical of the entire philosophic structure built on rationality and the postulates gives food for our thought us to whether it is a last minute attempt by Kant to save the entire structure. Kant has drawn flak from many for the introduction of postulates. Following Hegel, Neiman holds that, “Kant’s postulates of reason [are] pitiful substitutes for the truth that it failed to establish.”[34] Yet another problem arising from incorporating postulates is that postulates become meaningful only to a person who is moral and for a person who turns a blind eye towards it becomes impossible to objectively identify the reality of God, freedom and immortality. As Walsh writes, “If there were to be someone who was genuinely deaf to the call of moral obligation or totally indifferent to the question whether the world could be made better or not, he could not even understand what the proof was about.[35] And Walsh would again say that when the postulates are taken of their practical context then they become little more than empty sounds. Many questions are raised with Kant attempt to ‘deny knowledge’ in order to make room for faith. Kant’s denial of theoretical knowledge to bring in the practical postulates does not satisfactorily formulate the intrinsic connection which Kant is trying to establish between morality and metaphysics.

The postulates, brought in to the critical philosophy not by virtue of their metaphysical existence and epistemological knowledge but by their transcendental (practical) reality are crucial for human life as it give a moral certitude by which we can respond to the demands of moral law.

Bibliography

Beck, Lewis White. A Commentary of Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1960.

Cairel Edward. The Critical Philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1969.

Chackalackal, Saju. Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant: A Paradigmatic Integration of the Theoretical and Practical. Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 2002.

Guyer, Paul. Kant. New York: Routledge Publishers, 2006.

Holffman, W. Mitchael. Kant’s Theory of Freedom: A Metaphysical Enquiry. Washington: University Press of America, 1979.

Korsgaard, Christine M. “Morality as Freedom.” Kant’s Practical Philosophy Reconsidered, ed. Yirimiyahu Youvel, 23-47. Netherland: Klower Academic Publishers, 1986.

Oxford Advanced Dictionary, 2006 edition, S.V. “Postulate.”

[2] Korsgaard, “Morality as Freedom,” 37.

[3] Oxford Advanced Dictionary, 2006 edition, S.V. “Postulate.”

[4] Chackalackal, Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant, 309.

[5] Guyer, Kant, 212

[6] Cairel, The Critical Philosophy of Immanuel Kant, 298

[7] Beck, A Commentary of Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, 265

[8] Beck, A Commentary of Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, 299

[9] Beck, A Commentary of Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, 300

[10] Beck, A Commentary of Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, 263

[11] Beck, A Commentary of Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, 264

[12] Chackalackal, Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant, 311.

[13] Guyer, Kant, 232.

[14] Chackalackal, Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant, 314.

[15] Guyer, Kant, 232.

[16] Chackalackal, Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant, 324.

[17] Cairel, The Critical Philosophy of Immanuel Kant, 296.

[18] Guyer, Kant, 233.

[19] Chackalackal, Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant, 325.

[20] Beck, A Commentary of Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, 265.

[21] Beck, A Commentary of Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, 267.

[22] Chackalackal, Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant, 326.

[23] Beck, A Commentary of Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, 267.

[24] Guyer, Kant, 235.

[25] Chackalackal, Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant, 330.

[26] Chackalackal, Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant, 332.

[27] Chackalackal, Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant, 333.

[28] Holffman, Kant’s Theory of Freedom, 1.

[29] Beck, A Commentary of Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, 39.

[30] Guyer, Kant, 223.

[31] Guyer, Kant, 213

[32] Chackalackal, Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant,334

[33] Chackalackal, Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant, 335

[34] Chackalackal, Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant, 336.

[35] Chackalackal, Unity of Knowing and Acting in Kant, 336.

IMAGINING INDIA: IDEAS FOR THE NEW CENTURY

Written by Nandan Nilekani

Introduction

India is on the move. Carrying forward the fresh lease of life infused by the reforms in the 90’s and banking on the Information and Technology sector, India has become a hot spot for the entrepreneurs worldwide and has also carved a space for itself among the ‘big boys’ of the world. The IT sector has played a pivotal role in making a technologically flat India. But this IT has got a great role to play in the concrete Indian context by being down to earth and to level the uneven social, cultural and bureaucratic terrains so as to create a socially and technologically flat India where Bharat of the rural villages and India of the cities will merge.

There is a new found sense of possibility and rising of aspirations of India, thanks to the IT wave. As Nandan Nilekani[1] rightly points out, “I agree with Jaideep Sahni that a majority of Indians now believe they can leave their village behind and there will be something better waiting for them, round the corner, in the next town, in the big city, perhaps even in their villages, should they return.”[2] There has been a lot of leveling taking place with the help of the IT industries in India. The World has started to write books on India that too with a positive outlook. Nirmalya Kumar, professor marketing of London Business School wrote in her book titled India’s Global power houses: How they are taking on the World? , says, “ Earlier there wasn’t much to write about, It’ sonly transformed from leading domestic players to global giants and their unique approach to globalization is also a very recent evolution.” [3] This IT unique approach should not be confined only to Industries alone but to the un-even rural and social terrains which are posing a lot of challenges. As Nandan Nilekani says, “ the opportunity of the global economy has highlighted our internal differences-between the educated and the illiterate, the public and private sectors, between well and poorly governed, and between those who have access and those who have not.”[4]

Books by the entrepreneurs like Nandan Nilekani titled Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century has the potential to level the uneven social terrains in a technologically flat India, provided the suggestions do not crash themselves to the bureaucratic red tapes. The appointment of Nandan Nilekani as the chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India is a welcome move in this regard.

1. 1. Significance of IT Industries

The Information Technology Industry has become a force to reckon with in the world. It’s mainly because of the fact that compared to any other industry; it has an increased productivity, particularly in the developed world, making it a key driver of economic growth. The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) explains the ‘Information Technology’ as encompassing all possible aspects of information systems based on computers.[5] As a source of both growth and employment, IT sector has emerged a s a major global payer. The reason behind this is the easy accessibility and the wide range of IT products available and the increase in demand for IT services over the years.

1.1 Reforms and the IT Outlook

From somnolent and sluggish to resurgent and self confident powerful new images of India have emerged and everyone from CEO’s to bureaucratic and foreign correspondents is turning author to tell the story of a country in the midst of a sweeping transformation.[6] From a country looked down with contempt and criticism, within a short span of time, India has become provocative and innovative with ideas, making it an indispensible global player. This is something incredible as India came out of a situation where no options were left and had to abandon the socialist ideas and go for reforms. P. V. Naramsimha Rao, the then prime minister who introduced reforms said, “Decisions are easy when no options are left.”[7]

By the reforms of the 1990’s the flood gates of globalization was opened. But the impact it made on brand India was immense. The age old outlook of India as a sleeping giant gave way to a complete makeover. As Shobha De rightly points out, “The single biggest change in the India story has been in the area of self perception. We have finally stopped seeing ourselves as perennial losers, waiting for handouts from the first world. The elephant has stirred out of the sanctuary and has decided to play the size does matter game on its own terms.[8]

The obvious question that arises in this context is ‘What made India to break its shackles to stand up and deliver? Nandan Nilekani has the answer, “The early trigger for this change has been the growth of India’s IT Sector. This was among the first industries to see rapid growth following reforms – in this sense, the industry has been the flagship of India’s new economy, instrumental in deriving the growth of the 1990s and bringing India to the attention of the world.[9]

1.2 IT and the Change in Mindset of the Nation

The growth in IT sector has given Indians with a sense of possibility and rising aspirations. This aspirations has not been confined to affluent classes alone, it has trickled down to the lower level that is why we have slum schools that call themselves ‘Cambridge’ and ‘Oxford.’ The IT wave has created not only aspirations but also a strong belief that a better life is possible, regardless of one’s social and economic status. Nandan Nilekani is right when he wrote, Information Technology Services served as the Trojan horse through which globalization entered the Indian economy and gained acceptance.[10] Above all, IT services flattened the terrains of misconceptions about India which was in the minds of both Indians and foreigners. Dinakar Singh, one of the most respected young fund managers in Wall Street, whose parents are graduated from an IIT and then immigrated to America says, “India produced people with quality and quantity. But many of them rotten on the docks of India like vegetables. Only a few could get ships and get out. Not any more… Now you can plug into the world from India. You don’t have to go to Yale and go to work for Goldman Sachs [as I did].”[11]

1.3 Y2K and IT Boom in India

The IT boom can be said to have began with the outsourcing spree of the foreign multi nationals. It all started with the Y2K[12] problem. A great global crisis was in the offing and the question was who will do the remediation work which was huge and tedious, and who in the world had enough software engineers to do it all. With techies from IIT and private technical colleges, India grabbed the opportunity with both hand. Friedman says, “August 15 commemorates freedom at midnight, Y2K made possible employment at midnight, but not any employment, employment for India’s best knowledge workers. August 15 gave independence to India but Y2K gave independence to Indians.[13]

With a large pool of people with potential to speak English well and the availability of large amounts of reliable and affordable communication infrastructure, India has seen a double digit wage growth. It Companies like HP, IBM, Intel, AMD, Microsoft, Oracle Corporation, Cisco, Accenture have made India their off shoring destination. By 2010, the IT and BPO sector alone are expected to employ over 2 million people.[14] Information Technology in India accounts for a substantial part of the country’s GDP and export earnings while providing employment to a significant number of its tertiary sector work force. The economic effect of the technologically inclined services sector in India accounts for 40% of the country’s GDP and 30% of export of its work force. [15] The share of IT (mainly software) in total exports increased from 1% in 1990 to 18% in 2001. IT Enabled services such as back office operations, remote maintenance and accounting,  public call centers, medical transcription, insurance claims, and other bulk processing are rapidly expanding. Setting up of software technology parks, Special Economic Zones for IT Industries has boosted the presence and operations of IT Industries in India.

India’s own IT firms- Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy services (TCS) propelled Indian Industry and economy into global view. The growth was rapid-from $150 million in 1991 to $5.7 billion in 2000.[16] IT and operational infrastructure that Indian companies made in jus few years, had taken decades for US companies to put in place.

IT, has worked wonders, and there will be no turning back for IT Industries, despite the recession or any of such casualties. Information Technology has been very well intertwined with the systems of the world and it is not easy think of something sans IT. The emergence of IT industries has increased job opportunities, higher wages, better purchasing power and economic as well as social satisfaction among Indian youngsters.

This IT revolution if not guided properly will ensure the formation of steeper terrains in the social structure of the society and of the individual and it will be impossible to flatten it. But if molded in the proper way, it can make a paradigm shift in the Indian rural and urban society by flattening the uneven social, economic, cultural, religious and political terrains.

1.4 The IT terrains

Though IT presents itself with a glimmer of hope, all these come along with a rider. It is nothing other than the problems faced by the individulas working in the IT sector. These problems are the add-ons that India has to face along with its own age old cultural and social problems. The IT techies may be getting fat pay packets but it is taking a toll on their personal, social and cultural life. Working in odd hours of the day, that too for another country with fixed target, with foreign accent and false persona, the intelligent and smart techies are often degraded to third class cyber coolies with limited labor laws to protect them.

1.4.1  The Western Life style

The shift in trend and life style among the affluent young IT generation of India is visible in the cities. Pubs, late night partying, night clubs and the like have become inseparable part of the life of urban youth. The emerging sub-culture of call center workers reveals that the United States of America has successfully exported more than jobs and products to India; it has exported values as well. Call centers have bought new wealth to India, but they are also fostering a cultural backlash, as country’s young BPO[17] workers run up against the traditions of the older generations.

1.4.2  Accent and False Persona

The Call Centers, which constitute a large chunk of IT Industries in India, gives accent neutralization classes before they begin the job. But it’s not accent neutralization alone. Accent Neutralization classes incorporate a whole tool box of geography lessons, regional dialects and short hand introductions to American Culture, including holidays and based ball scores. Some Indians are asked to act out western fairy tales, perform Shakespeare and examine popular caricature of India’s like Apu from the Simpsons.[18] The end result is a loss of identity of a call center agent. This is indeed a trap which transforms the individual’s native Indian cultural attitude to the alien American and Western Culture.

1.4.3  Lack of Indian Nationalism

One of the worrying factors which were discussed prominently during the last general elections was the lack of interest in urban youth to go out and vote and take part in nation building. The IT techies who form a considerable number of urban population and the lack of interest can be basically due to the outsourced jobs they do.  The Call Center workers stay awake at midnight owing to the ten and a half hour time difference between the western hemisphere, particularly United States of America, which sends more service jobs abroad than any one else. So the IT techies are cut off from their social life and even from what is happening around in their families. Along with this his job demands that he be updated with political situation of the western countries and not of India.  Thus he is not aware of what is happening in the country and obviously not interested in exercising his franchise in the elections.

1.4.4  The Way Out

The flat IT sector too has got these kinds of social terrains. A quick change can’t be dreamt of but the report of the Associate Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has revealed that the craze of call centre jobs are dying down[19] is a positive signal. Though the cultural and social problems arising out of the IT sector is grave, it can only be considered as temporary phenomenon where the techies went blindly behind the western attitudes and crushed themselves. But what is important is that it has given Indians with a sense of possibility and rising aspirations. As Shoba De points out, “There is unmistakable buoyancy in the air. It’s a decade of hope and expectancy. Overseas Indians are coming back in droves, attracted by their mother land they many never have known, but feel a part of. The gilt edged dream they chased by relocating in ‘phoren’ is no longer attractive.”[20]

From being ‘cyber koolies in the call centers in the beginning, Indians are becoming enter penuries and are calling shots. India’s unique combination of IT skills, its labour advantages, capital flows and pool of ambitious, outward-looking companies is giving it a second, massive triple play advantage across sectors in manufacturing and agriculture.[21] India is on the move and there is no turning back. Tom Friedman has rightly called India as the luckiest country of the twentieth century.

1. 2. IT for Levelling Social Terrains

As the IT sector in India has leveled its playing field in technological realm there is an urgent need to level the social terrains across India.  We can see this aspiration across class and caste-in the slum schools that call themselves, “Cambridge,” and “Oxford.”[22] Any move which tries to show case India with it’s leveled IT face alone has faced with harsh criticisms and response from the people. The India Shining Campaign of the BJP government in 2004 is a perfect example for this. Friedman quotes Lalita Law, who runs a school for 160 children whose parents are untouchables in Tamil Nadu, “This India Shining thing irritates people like us. You have to come to the rural villages and see whether India is shining and you look into a child’s face and say whether India is shining. India is shining, okay for glossy magazines, but if you just go outside Bangalore, you will see that everything about India shining is refuted.”[23] Being faced with a situation like this, it is up for Information and Technology sector to apply themselves to the social concerns of India as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.

People like Nandan Nilekani are doing a credible work in this regard. His book, “Imagining India” is indeed an eye opener. ‘Project Drishti’ by Reliance Industries limited to restore eye sight of visually challenged Indians from the economically weaker sections of the society is commendable. The works of TATA, Aditya Birla group, Wipro, Infosys etc. are also exemplary. It is a positive sight that Corporate Social Responsibility has gone beyond mere charity and donation and is approached in a more organized fashion. Companies have CSR teams that devise specific policies, strategies and goals for their CSR programmes and set aside budgets to support them.[24] If the IT industry’s can play a lead role then the age old social, bureaucratic and cultural terrains in India can be flattened within no time. Here are a few suggestions.

2.1 Unique Identification Number

The Unique Identification Number project is a project in which every Indian citizen would have one unique identification number that will identify him/her. It would not just help the government to track down individuals as is highlighted by the media, but would make life far easier for citizens as they would not have to submit so many documents each time they want to avail a new service in private sector or in the government.[25]

A brain child of Nandan Nilekani, the former co-chairman of Infosys Technology’s Limited, the Unique id is sure to roll out soon as government of India against convention has appointed Nandan as the chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India. Nandan says, “An IT enabled accessible national ID system would be nothing less than revolutionary in how we distribute state benefits and welfare  hand outs; I believe  it will transform our politics.[26] It will help to bring transparency and efficiency as the state could transfer benefits directly in the form of cash to the bank accounts of eligible citizens, based on their income, returns and assets. The problem of facing official with bribes, long ques can all be avoided now. Nandan again states that the national ID when integrated with the Self Help Groups, micro finance and micro insurance institutions would link financing options for the poor more closely with bank accounts, creating large scale organized systems that are at the same time accessible and tailored to the local level.

2.2 IT Kiosks in Villages

The demand for IT has grown dramatically across rural India and rural IT based services led by private sectors have soared in recent years. Government also should be able to provide free IT based services in the villages. The works done by private IT firms should be an eye opener in this regard. Sriram Raghav’s Internet Community Centers and kiosk, for instance offer low cost computing and networking servives across villages, and ITC’s 7000 e-Choupal[27] centers allow farmers to check the commodity prices and sell crops online. Sriram says that, “People often think that the internet and computers are ‘High technology’ for villages but this is not true, it is their passport to all kinds of opportunity and they embrace it completely.[28] Ravi Kumar, head of National Commodity Index says, “The villages are taking to technology like fish to water.”[29] It’s for the government to introduce well planned IT based projects for the upliftment of Indian villages.

2.3 IT for Land Reforms

Nandan Nilekani says, “ A somewhat un expected place where IT in India ahs a massive potential is in land.”[30] Land has never been an easy issue in India. With 90% of land titles in a country of a billion people in dispute and over 30% of pending court cases concerned with land, it is no surprise that this issue has become emotionally fraught[31] Land laws in India are always in bureaucratic trap. Like registering the sale deed of property in India certifies only the transfer of Land and not change in ownership. It allows land sharks to make quick bucks through back door. Reforms in land titling and property rights and linking such titles into the national ID system would be a big step for our land markets.

There have been remarkable efforts to address the challenges of land reforms through IT such as Rajeev Chawla’s Bhoomi project to computerize land revenue records in rural Karnataka. [32] This initiative has been taken up nationwide by the central government. The initiatives like this with IT support will change the face of India.

2.4 National Information Utilities

In India we see multiple state and central departments trying to accomplish similar goals across Indian states in health care, education and welfare. If we bring about National Information Utilities then all the information of the individuals from –health, education loans, vehicle registration and the funds form governments can be transferred directly. Yet another welcome move by the government is the Right to Information Act. As Nandan says, “Once the opaque veils on our state are raised then the citizens will be truly in charge.”[33] All these are possible with IT provided we grab the opportunity and make use of it.

Conclusion

All the hype about technologically leveled India will be futile if it does not do enough to flatten the uneven terrains of the rural India where 60% of Indian population resides. This will include flattening of social and bureaucratic hurdles with the help of technology. This would range from basic facilities, Education, Culture, Social Values and the like. As long as this flattening does not take place, the technological flatness can any time face the threats of fundamentalism, regionalism and other kind of uprisings with the widening gap between haves and the have not’s.

Nandan Nilekani’s book Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century has focused on the real facts of India. He being a key player in the India’s growth saga as the co-chairman of Infosys’s technologies limited, points out that the country’s future rests on more than economic growth; it also depends on reform and innovation in all sectors of public life. He also bring to light the ideas and attitudes that evolved with time and contributed to the country’s progress as well as those that kept it shackled to old unproductive and fundamentally undemocratic ways. He also brings in lot of ideas like unique identification number, National Information Utilities, in Education, health care, Social security and the like. As Nilekani rightly pointed out, IT can bring Equity, Efficiency and Effectiveness in the public Sector.[34] By bypassing the inefficient public systems and incorporating IT infrastructure, and by bringing in improved measurements of government objectives and outcomes, it can also enable greater effectiveness. By improving the allocation of resources, the goal of equity too is achievable. So Information Technology has a great role to play in leveling the uneven social terrains in India by addressing the knowledge symmetry between the government and governed, myths and reality.

IT has leveled the playing field of Indian corporate in the globalized world. If it can trickle down  to the ‘aam aadmi’ with its technologies, then India can boast off as nation which is flat both socially and technologically and a nation with all dreams in action and not martyrs in waiting.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Call Centre Jolikalkku Priyam Kurayunnu” Mathrubhumi, 8 October 2007, 5.

“Information technology in India.” 18 August 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology_in_India

“Information technology Industry.” 18 August 2009. http://www.economywatch.com/business-and-economy/information-technology-industry.html

Das, Shyamanuja. “What exactly is the Unique ID project?.” 18 August 2009. http://www.ciol.com/News/News-Reports/What-exactly-is-the-Unique-ID-project/26609121548/0/

De, Shobha. “The Great Indian Creed.” India Today, July 2007, 26-28.

Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2006

Menon Caroll, Arati, “ Re Discovery of India,” The Economic Times (Coroporate Dossier), 17 July 2009,1.

Nilekani, Nandan. Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2008

Sathish, Ramya. “Corporate Social Responsibility in India – Putting Social-Economic Development on a Fast Track.” 18 August 2009. http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles_various/CSR-in-India.asp

[2] Nilekani, Imagining India, 484.

[3] Caroll Menon, “ Rediscovery of India,” The Economic Times (Corporate Dossier),17 July 2009, 1.

[4] Nilekani, Imagining India, 149.

[5] “Information and Technology Industry” [Online]

[6] Caroll Menon, “ Rediscovery of India,” The Economic Times (Corporate Dossier),17 July 2009, 1.

[7] Nilekani, Imagining India, 29.

[8] De, “The Great Indian Creed,” 26.

[9] Nilekani, Imagining India, 13.

[10] Nilekani, Imagining India, 13.

[11] Friedman, The World is Flat, 128.

[12] Computers are built with internal clocks; to save memory space, these clocks rendered dates with just six digits ie two each for month, day and year. It could go only till 12\31\99. When it reaches 1\1\2000, computer will think that its again 1900.

[13] Friedman, The World is Flat, 136.

[14] Rai and Pankaj, “Here’s How to Chart a Great Careen in BPO.” [Online]

[15] “Information Technology in India” [Online]

[16] Nilekani, Imagining India, 180.

[17] The full form is Business Process Outsourcing

[18] “Indian Call Centres” [Online]

[19] “Call Center Jolikalkku Priyam Kurayunnu,” Mathrubhumi, 8 October 2007, 5.

[20] De, “The Great Indian Creed,” 27.

[21] Nilekani, Imagining India, 136.

[22] Nilekani, Imagining India, 28.

[23] Friedman, The World is Flat, 539.

[24] Sathish, “Corporate Social Responsibility in India” [Online]

[25] Das, “What exactly is Unique ID project” [Online]

[26] Nilekani, Imagining India, 372.

[27] Choupal means the meeting place of villagers.

[28] Nilekani, Imagining India, 374.

[29] Nilekani, Imagining India, 119.

[30] Nilekani, Imagining India, 376.

[31] Nilekani, Imagining India, 378.

[32] Nilekani, Imagining India, 379.

[33] Nilekani, Imagining India, 379.

[34] Nilekani, Imagining India, 26.

Introduction

Warped Passages: Unraveling the mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden dimensions is a masterpiece by Lisa Randall, opening up new avenues to the extra dimensions beyond the three dimensional world. A century ago, the British physicist, Lord Kelvin had proclaimed in a gathering, “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now.” If Lord Kelvin would have read Randall’s book, he would have had a diametrically opposite view.  Dealing with the higher dimensions, the author lucidly explains the possibility of the extra dimensions and the impact it can make to the present theories and the way it can rewrite the way we understand the universe.

Being a leading theoretical physicist and expert on particle physics, string theory and cosmology, Lisa Randall combines all her expertise in this book. Randall was the first tenured woman in the Princeton physics department, and the first tenured women theoretical physicist at MIT and Harvard. By introducing the topic in the beginning for the readers in the simplest way possible and with the history of physics well explained, we are taken into the world of extra dimensions. There are no ‘branes’ while we read the boo and it adds fuel to our thoughts that what men imagine and what comes out as scientific fictions will one day be true. Randall holds on to the view that ‘Model Building’ will be the savior for string theorist as experimental feed back in string theory experiments is nearly impossible. What she has done is to develop model mini theories that target specific problem and which together might make sense in the end. The model that is being made by Randall and Raman Sundrum may also explain why the gravity is weak as compared to other forces of universe.

The book set the scientific community on fire with its innovative ideas. The discussion supported by convincing explanations will make more sense once we get the results from L.H.C. The effect of this book would not be confined to scientific area alone but to the philosophical, social and religious realms as well.

1. Three Dimensions and Beyond

Human beings live in a situation in which only a three dimensional world can be perceived. A baby in its initial states of moving along the floor thinks of only the two dimensions whereas when it starts walking it gets identified with the third dimension and that is it, there is no further scope to go beyond for more nor was there an idea of a three plus dimension. Lisa Randall tries to do the unthinkable by leading into the existence of higher dimensions with convincing facts.

In the beginning, Randall brings forth the ideas with the help of a novel named, Flatland: A Romance of many Dimensions written by English mathematician, Edwin A. Abbot, to explain the notion of extra dimension. Flatlanders live in a two dimensional world and three D world for them is a mystifying experience as four dimension and beyond is for us. For example if a sphere is introduced into the 2 D world it will be looking lie a disc. In the same way, If a sphere with four spatial dimensions were to pass through our universe, it would appear to us as a time sequence of three dimensional spheres that increases, then decrease in size Though we can’t go through the extra dimension, as the author says, we can confidently deduce our perception of a sphere passing through 3 dimensions would look like a series of three dimensional spheres.

1. 1 Scaling down dimensions

In our daily life, though we live in a three dimensional world, we come across two dimensional representation of this three dimensional world. When we look at pictures, movies, computers screens or figures, they are all two dimensional representations. But looking at that we deduce the three dimensional reality that is portrayed.

There are different methods used o reduce higher dimensional objects to lower dimension. They are slicing, projection, and holography. Slicing: though the book is three dimensional the pages re two dimensional. When these two dimensional pages are joined together we get the three dimensional book. Slicing is the only way to replace higher dimensions with lower ones.[1] Projection gives a definite prescription for creating lower dimensional representation of the object. Shadow on a wall is an example of two dimensional projections of three dimensional objects. But when this happens lot of information is lost. Holography: Though a holographic image is recorded on a lower two dimensional surface, it actually carries all information of the original higher dimensional space. A holographic image records relationship between light in different places so that full higher dimensional image can be recovered.[2]

When extra dimensions are minuscule and higher dimensional details are too tiny to matter a higher dimensional universe is drawn in a lower dimensional terms. The lower dimensional quantities are not providing fundamental description but they are a convenient way of organizing observations and predictions.

1.2 Hidden Extra Dimension

Extra dimension, though not yet experienced and not yet entirely understood, might resolve some to the most basic mysteries of our universe. Relationship between particle properties and forces that seemed in explicable when space was shackled to there dimensions seem to fit together elegantly in a world with more dimension of space.[3]

We don’t need to go far beyond to find the traces of extra dimension. Even the non stick frying pan in the kitchen cabinet has hidden dimension in it.  The non stick frying pan is coated with quasi crystals. Quasi crystals are fascinating structures whose underlying order is revealed only with extra dimensions. Though a crystal is highly symmetric with lattice work of atoms and molecules with one basic element repeated many times, in three dimensions we see an irregular arrangement in quasi crystals. We get the regular arrangement only with a projection –a three dimensional shadow of a higher dimensional crystalline pattern. Just as extra dimensions help us understand the confusing arrangement of molecules in a quasi crystal, physicists today speculate that theories of extra dimension also will illuminate connections in particle physics and cosmology.[4]

1.3 The Rolled up Dimension

The idea of extra dimension is not anew concept. In 1919 the Polish Mathematician, Theodor Kaluza proposed a fourth spatial dimension, a new unseen dimension of space. Kaluza’s goal with this extra dimension was to unify the force of gravity and electromagnetism, though he failed in his attempt, windows were wide open for a new research area with the introduction of the extra dimension. Kaluza wrote a paper and Einstein delayed the publication of that in the scientific journal, wavering about the merits of the idea. Einstein raised many questions such as. What this extra dimension was? Where was it and why was it different? How far did it extend?

In 1926, Swedish Mathematician Oskar Klein addressed this question. Klein proposed that the extra dimension would be curled up in the form of a circle, and that it would be extremely small, just 10 -33 cm. on e thousandth of a trillionth of a centimeter.[5] This small quantity represents the Planck length. This Plank length is extremely small. Far smaller that anything we would never have a chance of detecting. It is about 24 orders (I trillion trillion ) magnitude smaller than a proton.

If this extra dimension is considered as rolled up dimension, and if we consider a bug in that, it will be able to find that the two dimensions inside will be very different. One will be the circumference which it can easily cover in a stretch, where the infinite dimension is that when it travels along the length.

So if we take the case of Klein’s universe, we creatures unlike the bugs are not small enough to detect or to travel in a dimension of such tiny size.

But if something bigger than a bug notices this curled up universe which is in the form of a pipe, it is likely that would omit the width dimension and come across only the light dimension as a big line. Rolled up, or compactified extra dimension will never be detected if they are sufficiently tiny.

1.4 From tiny to Infinite Extra dimension

Being faced with the problem of detection when the dimension that are extremely small and curled up, we move ahead with the alternate possibility that the extra dimensions are not rolled up but simply terminate within a finite distance. Hew we are faced with a problem what will happen to particles and energy when we reach the boundary? Will it fall off? Here the concept of branes comes to our rescue.

1.5 Brane

Banes are lower dimensional surfaces that can house forces and particles, and they can be the boundaries of higher dimensional space. [6] When particles and energies reach the boundaries they encounter a brane, and this brane forms the boundaries of the full higher-dimensional space known as bulk.

It was in 1995 that the physicist Joe Polichinski of the Kavli Institiute for Theoretical physics in Santa Barbara established that Branes were essential to string theory.[7] many ideas of branes like p-brane and the mechanism for confining particles in a brane like surface suggested by scientists of particle physics. Btu string theory branes were the first known types of brane that would trap forces as well as particles.

Branes have introduced mathematical notions into physics. The three dimensional space that we encountered could be a slice of higher dimensional world. A brane is a distinct region of space time that extend through only a (possibly multi dimensional) slice of space. The word ‘membrane’ motivated the choice of the word ‘brane’ because membranes like brane are layers that either surround or run through a substance. Some branes are ‘”slices’ inside the space, but others are ‘slices that bound space, like slices of bread in a sandwich.[8] Branes can have any number of dimensions. We use 3-branes to refer to branes with three dimensions, 4 branes to refer to those with four dimensions and so on.

1.6 Reflective Boundary Condition

What happens to the particle and energy when brane is encountered? Physicists would say that when things et to a boundary brane they bounce back, just as billiard balls bounce back from the edges of the table or light bounce back from a mirror. This is an example for what physicists call a reflective boundary condition. If things bounce back form a brane, energy is not lost, it doesn’t get absorbed in brane or leak away,. The boundary branes act as the ends of the world.[9]

1.7 Trapped in Brane and Beyond

Particles confined to branes are truly trapped on branes by physical laws. Brane bound objects never venture into extra dimensions that extend off the brane.[10] But not all particles are blocked by branes. They move through the brane to higher dimensions. The distinguishing facto that separates brane theory form other multi dimensional theories Is the particle on branes that doesn’t move into other dimensions.

Gravity is never confined to the brane. As general relativity, gravity is woven into the frame work of space time. This would mean that gravity must be exerted through out the space time in every dimension.

If we are in a three dimensional brane, we will be able to travel freely only along its dimension. Even though other dimension would exist adjacent to the brane. What exists beyond the brane is the bulk. Gravity will be felt everywhere on and off the brane. Brane can interact with bulk with the help of gravity. There could also geo the particles and forces in bulk which would interact with brane.

1.8 Multiverse

The term universe may not stand the test of time; the new concept is that of ‘multi’ verse. Multiverse is a name that is some times attached to theories with more than one brane.[11] People often use the word to describe a cosmos with non-interacting or only weakly interacting pieces.

This Multiverse is full of possibilities. Even if we know the basic ingredients, in a Multiverse populated by more than one brane, exotic new scenarios for the geometry of space are conceivable as well as myriad possibilities for how the particles we know and don’t know are distributed among them.

There is also a possibility that those branes parallel to us may house parallel worlds. Brane world introduce newly physical scenarios that might describe both the world we think we know and to other worlds we don’t know on other branes we don’t know, separated form our world in unseen dimension.

Gravity is the only interaction that we know for sure is shared between the stuff on our brane and this tuff on any other brane, and gravity is extremely weak force. Without direct evidence, other branes will remain cloistered in the realm of theory and conjecture.

2. Physics down the Ages

The era of classical mechanics started with Galileo. He is the father of experimental sciences and its in him that classical mechanic culminates. He confined all the known physical phenomena in three laws. They are

1. Every body continues to be in a state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled by external force to act otherwise.
2. The second law says that the acceleration of a body is directly proportional to the force acting on it and proportional to the mass of the object.
3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Newton’s gravitational force laws say how gravitational force depends on the distance between two objects. With inverse square law, he says that, the force between two objects is proportional to the inverse square of their separation. The tiny size of Newton’s gravitational constant shows that gravity is very weak.

The advent of the theory of relativity has revolutionized the domain of science and questioned some age old concepts such as absolute motion; absolute time etc and these were replaced by new concepts. He proposed tow theories – Special and General Theories of relativity in 1905 and 1915 respectively. In the special theory of relativity the first postulate is that the velocity of light is a constant absolute quantity. The second is that there is no absolute motion. In the General theory he incorporates all three – matter, space and time. Curved path ways in space and time determines gravitational motion.  But in Newton it was matter that produced the gravitational field

The special theory of relativity relates the value of energy, momentum and speed of light. In E=mc² e is energy m is mass and c is the speed of the light.

Then the next to come was quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics fundamentally altered the way scientist view of the world. Much of the modern science evolved from the quantum mechanics like statistical mechanics, particle physics, chemistry, cosmology, molecular biology, evolutionary biology and geology were all either invented or revised as a result of its development.[12]

The quantum theory began in 1900 when Max Planck suggested that light could be delivered only in quantized units. According to Planck’s hypothesis, the amount of energy contained in light of any specific frequency could only be multiple of the fundamental energy unit of that particular frequency. Quantum mechanics also tell us that every particle has an associated wave known as wave function. The square of this wave is the probability that the particle will be found in a particular location. Probability wave is the square of the most commonly used wave function.

The uncertainty principle says that certain pairs of quantities can never be measured accurately at the same time. A major departure from classical physics which assumes that at least in principle you can measure all characteristic of a physical system.

2.1 Standard Model

Standard Model is the theory that describes the known elementary constituents of matter and the forces that act upon them. In addition to the well know force of electromagnetism, there are two strong forces that act within the nucleus: the strong force and weak force. The particles that experience forces are quarks, which experience strong force and leptons which do not.

2.2 Symmetry

Symmetry in physics includes all features of a physical system that exhibit the property of symmetry- that is, under certain transformations, aspects of theses systems are unchanged according to particular observations.[13] Symmetric are important to the theory of forces because the simplest workable theory of forces includes a symmetry associated with each force.

2.3 Super symmetry

Super symmetry is based on the idea that there is another physical symmetry beyond those already developed in standard model, specifically a symmetry between bosons and fermions. It asserts that each type of bosons has, as a super symmetric partner, a fermion, called a super partner and vice versa. Super symmetry has not been experimentally verified.

2.4 String theory

According to string theory, the most basic indivisible objects underlying all matters are strings-vibrating one dimensional loop or segments of energy. These are fundamental strings, which means that everything, including electrons and quarks, consist of their oscillations. There are two types of strings: open strings which has two end points and closed strings with no ends.

The strings theories can be either of a open string or closed string containing bosons (particles that transit forces) and also both bosons and fermions. For bosonic, the space time dimensions is 26. Where for super string it is 10. From here we are into the unchartered waters of higher dimensions.

2.5 Brane and String Theory

Branes can extend to any number of dimensions up to the supers ting theory contains, and are just as much part of superstring theory as string themselves. Branes helped physicists to understand the origin of mysterious particles in string theory that couldn’t possible arise from strings and when physicists included Branes, they discovered dual theories i.e. Pairs of these theories that are seen very different from each other but have the same physical consequences. In 1992, Indian Physicist Ashok Sen, recognized duality in string theory, he showed that a particular theory remained exactly the same if the particles and strings of the theory were interchanged.

2.6 Brane world

Brane worlds are possible within the frame work of string theory. Particles and forces in string theory can be trapped in branes. Gravity apart from other forces should travel to other dimensions unlike other particles. Brane world though trap most particles and forces on brane, will never confine gravity.

3. Sequestering

It is the physical separation of different elementary particle types in extra dimension. By confining different particles to different environments, sequestering might explain the distinctive properties that distinguish one particle from another. Sequestering might also explain why particles have different masses from one another, and why proton decay does not occur in extra dimensional models.

Randall with Raman concluded that Bulk particles that interact with particles on both the super symmetry breaking brane and the standard model brane would determine precisely which intersections are possible and they wouldn’t necessarily include forbidden ones and it is gravitons that carry the news of super symmetry breaking  to  standard model particles  and give the super partners the masses needed to have and do not  generate the interaction that could cause quarks or leptons to confuse identities.

3.1 K.K. –Kaluza Klein Particles

KK particles are manifestation of higher dimensional particles in four dimensions. KK particles are particles like the ones we know, but with masses that reflect their extra dimensional momentum. If w e could find and measure the properties of all KK particles, we would know the size and shape of higher dimension.

3.2 Warped Geometry

Here, two branes that bound a fifth dimension of space is taken into account. The probability function for a graviton in flat space-time would be constant. But for curved space time the gravitons probability function is different at different locations in space-time. The first brane is called gravity brane and second is called the weak brane.  It is because the first carries positive and the next carries negative energy.

If we consider our brane, gravity on our brane would be weakened by warped geometry. So the hierarchy problem is solved.

Yet another feature once we move from gravity brane to weak brane is that its size increases and masses and energies decrease.

3.3 Locally Localized Gravity and the Universe Beyond

Randall and Andreas Karch developed a theory in 2000 in which space looks four dimensional on or near the brane, but most of the space far from the brane appears higher dimensional or we could be living in a four dimensional sink hole in a higher dimensional space. This scenario was named as locally localized gravity because localization produces a graviton that communicates four dimensional gravitational interaction only in a local region. The rest of space doesn’t look four dimensional.

3.4 Cosmological observation

Scientists working on black holes are now developing detailed theories of black holes in extra dimensional world, and have found that although they are similar to their properties in four dimension, there are subtle differences.  Studies are going on to find whether we lived in a higher dimensional world millions of years before.

3.5 Conclusion

The extra dimensions have the potential to answer a number of confusing and mysterious questions related to the universe and beyond. Randall’s book is going to be guiding light and a catalyst in this search. But this research is sure to make an impact in the lives of the people.

Philosophy and science have always shared a very strong relationship. The changes brought about by the scientific experiments had a clear impact on the people. The Newtonian mechanics had a great impact on theology and philosophy. The Newtonian mechanics considered the universe to be a machine which could be understood very clearly and could be dominated the same message went out in the social realm and large scale exploitation of world started, the women who were identified with nature were also exploited.  With the arrival of Einstein’s theory of relativity, the relative approach gained ground. This relativistic approach has had its impact on social, cultural and religious life and still we experience that. The monopolies, institutions, and closed structures were challenged and were replaced with more liberal, free ideas with a wide range of choices to suit ones need. Now with new avenues opened by Randall with the revelation of extra dimensions, in the philosophical and social sphere too it will open up extra dimensions of pragmatic approach towards life. The new path which ahs been cut out by Lisa Randall very precisely shows that there is lot in store to be revealed and the present theories are not sure to stand the test of time. This would mean that relative and pragmatic approach will gain ground. The eth8ica,m oral, religious norms will all be questioned ant there will surely be a search for alternatives which can also be very destructive like same sex marriage, abortion, euthanasia and the like.

Its not the universe but the ‘multiverse’ that will be the talk of the town in future. With new theories like extra dimensions coming up, it is sure to trigger a sea change in the scientific, philosophical, social, religious and cultural sphere.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Randall, Lisa. Warped Passages: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions. NewYork: Harper Collins Publishers, 2005.

“Symmetry in Physics. ”21 September 2009.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetry_in_physics

[2] Randall, Warped Passages,28.

[3] Randall, Warped Passages,3.

[4] Randall, Warped Passages,5.

[5] Randall, Warped Passages,35.

[6] Randall, Warped Passages,59.

[7] Discussed Later.

[8] Randall, Warped Passages,52.

[9] Randall, Warped Passages,52.

[10] Randall, Warped Passages,54.

[11] Randall, Warped Passages,60.

[12] Randall, Warped Passages,112.

[13] “Symmetry in Physics.” [Online]

The Philosophy as revealed by Socrates, Nachiketas and Siddhartha enhances the conception of human life with a sense of purpose, sense of end and sense of present respectively and the philosophy of river is used the medium of expression this path which leads to truth. These three philosophers break the ground to delve deeper and higher in the search for truth. Scanning through the real life character of Socrates, mythical character of Nachiketas and fictional character of Siddhartha, the hidden but vital insights regarding the human search for the truth is reveled in idealistic, religious and pragmatic manner respectively.

The philosophy of a river is the medium by which this study on Socrates, Nachiketas and Siddhartha is discussed. The river has a beginning, an end, it always lives in the present, it has a variety of characteristics and indeed a sense or purpose too. From looking at the river from the perspective of its characteristics we find it has a particular chemical composition, it has an origin, it houses lot of aquatic composition, and plants, the water is used for a wide variety of purpose and the like. If the river is unaware of its variety of characteristics, it becomes ignorant and simply flows off. But if 8it has the sense of purpose, it creates a huge difference. This was what Socrates was doing in his meiotic method. He was awakening people from their ignorant sleep and giving them sense of purpose in their life. As the water flows through the river, it may reach a point where it gets branched out into two with one path leading to waterfall. If thought in a literary perspective, passing through the waterfall is a painful phenomenon. The water in the river can avoid the waterfall provided it has a sense of end. In real life too this sense offend is vital in leading amoral life. Nachiketas reveals the secret of life after death in his conversation with Yama, thus giving a sense of end. A rive may be flowing along the banks of great and holy cities but if it is not aware of it then it moves along the current. But the sense of present will make its life more meaningful. Siddhartha’s reflection by looking at the river reveals this much sought sense of present and his life reveals how it can change the overall outlook of a human being.

Armed with a sense of purpose, sense of end and sense of present, a perfect ambience is made for an individual to get to the truth with the lives of three great men as we move along the philosophy of a river.

1. Philosophy of Plato as Revealing the Sense of Purpose in River of Life

Socrates (470-399 BCE) is one of the philosophers who has had the greatest influence on European thought. Saying that, “the trees in the countryside can teach me nothing”, he interacted with the people and with a series of questions and conversations, he made them understood how ignorant they were and forced them to use their common sense. He did not act as a teacher of knowledge but was a true mid-wife, encouraging the people to conceive wisdom. He did not write a single line. All the writings were done after his death by his disciples, Plato, Xenophon and Aristophanes.

A Human being’s life in this world can be considered as a journey through the river. A river flowing without the true knowledge of its own identity will surely reach the sea but will be basically ignorant of the richness it has and the principles which are constituted in it. Socrates an Plato are two men who gave a  clear idealistic understanding  of the river of life with regard to truth, cosmology, law, governance, love, knowledge, virtue, friendship and the like with a perfect philosophical ambience.

Being witness to the tragic end of his beloved teacher in the age of 29, Plato (428-347 BCE) was faced with a world that is and the true or ideal society. He published the Socrates’ Apology and Dialogues. The first University-Academy –was his brainchild. Plato was concerned with the relationship between the eternal and immutable, the world of forms and the flowing world which he called the world of ideas.

Socrates and Plato give the basic understanding of the basic constituents of the river of life in this world of ideas with reference to the eternal an immutable river of life.

1.1 The Ideal State in the River of Life

In the river of life state, politics and laws play an important role. Plato spells out these in the Republic. The Republic is the longest work of Plato consisting of forty books.

To begin with, Plato envisioned the rule by a Philosopher king which will obviously lead to a ‘enlightened society. “ In the Republic he says, “ Unless the philosophers rule as kings or those now called kings and chiefs genuinely and adequately philosophize, and political and philosophy coincide in the same place…there is no rest from ills for the cities….nor will the regime we have now described in speech ever come forth in nature….” (Republic 473 D)

The life of the ‘ruling classes’ were to be lived in strict communism. No one will posses any private property and everyone is to live in common housing and is to share common meals.[1] (112, Plato comic)

The citizens were to be divided into two classes, and higher of these subdivided again into two making three in all. They correspond to the three parts which a man’s mind is divided; reason, spirit and appetite…Plato makes a point of saying that, if there are any misfits, promotions or demotion is to take place.[2]

Man and women were to be seen as equals. Plato very clearly said that women are to share both education and the responsibility of the government on equal terms with men. Marriages were arranged in such a way that it would be advantageous to bringing out an offspring who will have superior mental and physical characteristics. All children were to bred and raised for the common good of all.

There was also the censorship of art and literature. The opposition to the poetry is based on  the fact that art is the imitation of life, which is itself an imitation of ultimate reality. He says in The Republic, “And so in regard to the emotions of sex and anger, and all the appetites and pains and pleasures of the soul which we say accompanies all our action the effect of poetic imitation is the same. For it water and fosters these feelings when what we ought to do is to dry them up, and it establishes them as our rulers when they ought to be ruled, to the end that we may be better and happier men, instead of worse and more miserable. (606 D)

The Republic also explores what is justice. When Thrasymachus argues that “justice” is used to justify the actions of the strong to take advantage of others, Socrates holds that the just are happy and the unjust are miserable.

Thus Plato convincingly describes the dynamics of an ideal state which forms an important part in the river of life.

1.2 Virtues in the River of Life

For the river of life to be meaningful, purposeful and non chaotic, a virtuous life has to be a necessary condition. Protagoras and Meno are all about the questions on Virtue.

In the Protagoras, Socrates gets into a fierce verbal duel with Protagoras, a chief sophist on the question whether virtue can be taught. In the book Meno, Meno asks the question in the beginning, “Can you tell me, Socrates, whether goodness (virtue, excellence) is a thing that is taught; or is it neither taught nor learned by practice but comes to men by nature, or in some other way? The same question is raised in Protagoras too.

The question arises mainly because the sophists claimed to be the teachers who taught virtue to people. Socrates reaches the conclusion that virtue is a kind of knowledge and only knowledge can be taught. “If virtue is knowledge then it can be taught; if it is not then virtue cannot be taught.’ (Meno 87 C)

Socrates then proves that virtue is knowledge and it is teachable and then Protagoras reverse his position .In Meno, Socrates raises the objection and says that if a thing is teachable there has to be teachers, but there are not teachers of virtue and Socrates ends up saying that virtue can’t be teachable at all.(Meno 96 C)

But in the end, Socrates brings out the essence and says that virtue is not imparted by teaching but comes out by divine inspiration. (Meno 96 E -108 A)

1.3 Cosmology of the River of Life

There is always an innate craving in humans to know and understand the roots so as to give more meaning to the river of life. Plato exposes his view of the nature of the beginning of Universe in The Timaeus.

At first everything was utterly unformed and was in a chaotic state but the divine craftsmen with his master touch gave and order and purpose. The elements of the visible cosmos were earth, fire, air and water. The mathematical forms-regular tetrahedral for fire, regular octahedral for air, regular icosahedra for water, regular cubes for earth. These organized elements in combination with themselves and with each other made the body of the world. Being set into motion by the Divine Craftsmen, all partakes in reason and harmony. So the cosmos, by its very nature is rational and good.  The divine craftsmen decided to create four species when it came to the creation of living creatures. The Gods and the children of Gods were created in the beginning.  To these divine creatures were given the power to form the other living beings. The gods first made man, the most divine like of the animals. From men, women were formed and the mingling of the sexes. The light mined and the innocent men and women were remodeled and turned into birds. From the dull witted men and women wild animals were formed. Those who had no philosophy in their thought became animals that dragged themselves on earth like lizards and snakes. The most ignorant lots became fishes and oysters.

1.4 Laws on the River of Life

In The Laws, Plato draws out his realistic views on the laws which govern the city state in the river of life. It is the last work of Plato.

In the Ideal city state, the people were to work together for the common good resulting in an unbreakable bond of unity. Plato says, “If women are common and children are common and every sort of property is common; if every device has been employed to expel all of what is called ‘private’ form all aspects of life… If everyone praises and blames in unison as much delighting in the same things and feeling pain at same things, if with all their might they delight in laws that aim at making the city state come as close as possible to unity, then no one will ever set down a more correct or better definition that this of what constitutes the extreme as regards virtue.[3]Plato believed that it is the concern for ones own wealth and power that leads people and cities into conflict. So the accumulation of wealth was to be strictly regulated.

Plato outlines the formation of four classes of citizens. This in turn will result in different honours and duties for the members of the different classes. The order and justice which Plato is trying to achieve will result in the formation of a totalitarian regime. As Plato says, “True political art must care not for the private but the common,  for the common binds the cities together, while the private tears them apart.”[4] Thus permitting the only loyalty to the city state for the common good and thereby a totalitarian regime is created.

1.5 Nature of Knowledge in the River of Life

Learning is a key aspect in the river of life and in the Meno, Socrates rolls out what is the nature of learning and the various dimensions associated with it.

Socrates states clearly that the soul is immortal and having been born many times and sen all things both in this temporal world and in the permanent world of forms, it has learned everything that is and there is no need for learning anything additional in this world. /In this world what it has to do is to recollect what it has acquired in the previous births. In order to explain his position Socrates calls an un educated slave boy of Meno and through the use of geometrical figures, demonstrates that knowledge is nothing but re-collection; it’s not anything taught or learnt.

Socrates says that a person has a true opinion on a subject without having knowledge. The knowledge will not come from teaching but from questioning. He will recover it for himself and the spontaneous recovery of knowledge that is in him is the re-collection.

1.6 Soul in the River of Life

The knowledge of the nature of the soul in once river of life is pivotal in leading a good life.Soul is immortal; it has no beginning and end. Its nature is to be in a state of self movement. This self movement has the form of “a winged chariot and a charioteer.” The charioteer represents the rational part of the soul. Of the two horses, one is a white horse that represents spiritedness and the other is a dark horse that represents desire.  The wings indicate that it is proper for the self movement of the soul to have natural tendency upward. This upward tendency is to enable to soul to gaze upon the eternal forms. A truly ‘un encumbered soul’ is best seen by looking at the souls of the gods-more specifically by seeing what the souls of the gods do when they are feasting upon the forms.[5]

In Phaedrus, Socrates states that the soul is immortal and is like a chariot drawn by two differing horses namely black and white, the former is noble and good, while the latter has opposite character, namely the white and black horse respectively. The successful souls that takes flight along the wishes of white horse that is the reason ascend to the ‘summit of the arch that supports the heavens, were true being dwell, without colour or shape that cannot be touched. The soul which goes along the whims and fancies of the dark horse falls away from the truth and becomes forgetful, shed its wings and falls back to earth.

What is the way out when one gets ‘entombed’ in the body due to the destruction of wings? Socrates makes it clear that the activity of Eros can come to the soul’s help that is in true love, the souls of the lover and the beloved are excited in the presence of each other. His body gets a lot of sweat and unusual heat and becomes unusually warm. All these moisten the germ of the feathers and it becomes soft and alive and the quills of the feather swell and begin to grow again. So if the love –Eros is correctly cultivated then it will help men to move beyond particular instance of beauty and to gaze upon the beautiful itself.

1.7 Love in the River of Life

The knowledge of love and the kinds of friendship can make a person fruitful in the river of life.

The views regarding love is discussed in the Symposium. There are three speeches starting with Phaedrus followed by Aristophanes and then Socrates. Phaedrus in his speech says that love is a great God who can provoke us to perform great and noble deeds. He gives the story of Achilles ad Patrocles to affirm this fact.

Aristophanes talks about the origin of love. There were at first three sexes, born of the sun (male), earth (female) and the moon (hermaphrodites). Each of these sexes were doubled over and united as a whole. Each had two faces, four arms, four legs, four ears and two sets of genitals.

As these entire race mounted on the Olympic Gods, Zeus decided to make them weaker and more in number by slicing them into two.  From hermaphrodites came the hetro sexual, from the other two sexes came homo sexual.

Socrates in his speech speaks or Eros and says that it inherited the characteristics of its parents namely poverty and resourcefulness. From poverty eros inherited a need and sense of lacking something. From resource it inherited cunning and intelligence.

2.  Nachiketas Revealing the Sense of End of the River of life

The flow of the river in its natural course will be unaware of the kind of confluence it is going to be met with. If the human river of life is lived without the knowledge of the end then all the expositions made by Plato regarding the various aspects of human life won’t be taken seriously by men, which can lead to a hedonistic way of life. Nachiketas’ conversations with Yama reveal the much sought secret of immortality so that the flow of the river of human life will have a purpose.

2.1 Kathopanishad and the Story of Nachiketas

The story of Nachiketas is described in Kathopanishad. The Kathopanishad is divided into six vallis (chapters). This is one of the most beautiful Upanishads in which the eternal truth are given in the form of a narrative.

The Kathopanishad brings out the communication of truth from Yama and Nachiketas. Nachiketas is the embodiment of inner discipline and one pointed love of truth. He is a child pure, fresh and fearless, pulsating with life and vigour. Yama, the god of death, is the master of self-knowledge, he has pierced the mystery hidden in life and death and achieved wisdom and serenity. His very name suggests self control and moral elevation.[6]

The theme in the Upanishad is the highest theme of Brahmavidya, the science of God and the soul; it is approached through the ever present mystery of death. No philosophy can achieve depth without comprehending the meaning and significance of death.

2.2 Exposing the Truth of Life after Death

Vajasravasa, during the visvajit sacrifice gave away all his possessions. Seeing all these, his son Nachiketas asked his father, “To whom will you give me.” He repeated the question many times and his father out of anger told that, “I give you to death.” Nachiketas took it seriously and went out to meet Yama. While he reached Yama’s place, Yama was not there and they had to wait for three days. When Yama returned, he told Nachiketas to ask for three boons as he had to wait for three days. The first one Nachiketas asked was that his father be cheerful and free from anxiety and anger and that he may recognize and welcome him when he would be sent back home. As the second boon he wanted Yama  to tell him how his good works may never perish, Yama explained to him that with the fire sacrifice his good works won’t perish. Yama named this sacrifice as Nachiketas sacrifice.

The third boon he asked was ‘when a man dies, there is this doubt: some says that he exists; some others say that he does not exist. This I should like to know being taught by you.’ Yama gives lots of material benefits to make him ask another boon instead of this but Nachiketas did not heed to this request and didn’t fall into the trap of material benefits which were offered to him.

Nachiketas never wavered even once. He illustrated in its highest and pure form what the Gita calls vyavasayatmika buddhi, one pointed determination. This discloses a mind that seeks truth and nothing but the truth; and is prepared to face suffering, privation and even death itself in the bargain.[7] Yama being pleased with Nachiketas reveals the secret of immortality.

2.3 Sreya and Pada

Yama begins his expositions with a pointed reference to the good life as the ethical pre condition to spiritual striving and realization. Preya is the pleasant and immediately attractive Sreya means that which conduces to true welfare; which is ultimately beneficial. Preya is happiness arising from organic satisfactions arising from the titillation of the senses.  Getting stuck in a round of pleasures, men fall away from his evolutionary direction. Referring to the condition of man under the influence of the Preya, Plato says in Republic, “Those then who know not wisdom and virtue and are always busy with gluttony and sensuality are carried down and up again as far as the mean and in this region they move at random throughout life; but they never pass beyond into the upper world.

Sreya has two levels namely dharma. The good life and Amrtha the divine immortal life. The good life is not an ultimate, not an end in itself, it must lead to the realization of the Atman, the true self of man, the birth less spiritual reality in him and the universe.

2.4 Vidya and Avidya

Yama identifies Sreya with Vidya, knowledge and Preya with Avidya, ignorance. By  Avidya it is meant spiritual blindness and not the ordinary ignorance of facts and formulae.  It is unintelligence because it fails to take not of the most primary of all expereinces, namely the self. The path of materialism subdues, man to sensate realities and values which is the world of darkness or unawareness, the world of finitude, change and death. The path of Sreya, Vidya is the true path that leads one to light of life, to the infinite and the eternal.

2.5 OM – the symbol of unqualified soul

OM- is the syllable for Brahman-the supreme, the strongest support, the highest symbol. “He who knows it obtains his desire.” The self is the omniscient Lord, the unborn, the immortal, the uncaused, imperishable and eternal. Even if the body is destroyed the one is not killed, this is the eternal indestructible soul. When man is free from desire, his mind and senses are purified, he beholds the glory of the self and is without sorrow. To know the self is to desist from the evil, to control the sense is to quiet the mind and to practice meditation. Through these one comes to the knowledge of individual self and universal self. This is the absolutely unqualified soul-beyond right and wrong, beyond cause and effect, beyond past, present and future. [8] The person who has an uncontrollable mind is unable to manage the senses and he will never reach the goal and he is born again and again.

2.6 Individual soul in a Chariot

Kathopanishad mentions the parable of the individual soul in a chariot. In this parable soul Atman is the one which is riding the chariot, Body is the chariot and the driver is the intellect, the mind is the reins, senses the horses and roads are the mazes of desire.

To make oneself escape from the cycle of incarnation, the soul has to be intelligently controlled. Uncontrolled mind will lead to unmanageability of the senses and will result in an impure heart. If the mind is properly controlled, then only one can reach the supreme abode of Vishnu, the all pervading one. Brahman is the end of the journey, the supreme goal.

2.7 A teacher to Guide

Ignorance or non knowledge can result in the endless cycle of re incarnation. One needs  a competent teacher of the soul for the “ the truth of the self cannot be fully understood when taught by an ignorant man.” The truth that the self and Brahman are one can come only from the lips of the wise. Thus there is a need for a good and competent teacher.

3. Siddhartha as Revealing the Sense of Present in the River of Life

Siddhartha brings to light the need to live the present in order to understand the meaning of line in the river of life. From leading a life in a normal house hold setting, Siddhartha sets out in search for truth in ascetic life with the Samanas. Not happy with the life with the Samanas he embraced the life of desires with Kamala. He leaves her and comes to the banks of the river, where he finds Vasudeva the ferry man. Siddhartha listens to the rive and river teaches him what he sought for years and in the end he meets Govinda, who had left him during his search for truth.

The novel is structured on the three stages of life of traditional Indian Philosophy. Student-brahmacharin, house holder –Grihastha and the renunciation –Vanaprastha as well as Buddha’s four noble truths and eight fold path which form twelve chapters of the novel.[9]

3.1 Listening to the River

Vasudeva says to Siddhartha, “The rich and distinguished Siddhartha will become a rower; Siddhartha the learned Brahmin will become a rower.”[10] For all these years he lived away from the river of life either in the deep ascetic life or pleasure life with Kamala. But the middle path is that matters which is living the life in its full form. Siddhartha  thought after becoming ferry man reflects this fact, …he felt as if these ordinary people were his brothers, their vanities, desires and trivialities no longer seemed absurd to him, they had become understandable, lovable and even worthy of respect.[11]

3.2 As a Stone in Water

When we throw a stone in into the water, it falls quickly by the fastest route to the bottom of the pond. This is the way it is when Siddhartha has an aim and an intension. Siddhartha does nothing-he waits, he thinks he fasts-but he passes through the things of the world like the stone through the water without stirring himself.[12] All philosophies, thought patterns or worldly desires become meaningless once what is happening around is forgotten. The definition of truth, virtues, laws serves no purpose without connection with human beings with flesh and blood.

3.3 Living the Present

To a question to Vasudeva whether he learned the secret from the river that there is no such thing as time, Vasudeva replies, “The river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere, and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.[13]

Siddhartha agreed with him and says, “Siddhartha’s previous life was also not in the past and his death and his return to Brahma are not in future. Nothing was , nothing will be, everything has reality and presence. Truth and life is not lamenting about the past nor is about being worried of the future but it’s all about living the present to the fullest.”

Vasudeva says that the voices of all living creatures are in its voices. And Siddhartha asks, “what word it pronounces when one is successful in hearing all its then thousand voices at the same time? Vasudeva laughed joyously; he bent towards Siddhartha and whispered the holy Om in his ear. And this was just what Siddhartha had heard.[14] By living in the presence the God’s voice has to be heard in the midst of thousands of interactions we make.

Conclusion

The philosophy of river as revealed through the philosophical revelations of Socrates, Nachiketas and Siddhartha indeed changes ones outlook towards life and helps him/her to get to the truth. These three philosophers are still relevant today but they all exist in three different ambiences which don’t have a common medium to get along.

Plato’s philosophy was modified to the likes of Osho and following what Plato had told in mainly the Republic and other texts, and with added emphasis on sexuality, he could make a popular philosophy out of Plato, but in a perverted form. Though Osho is dead and gone, his philosophy still attracts thousands of people all around the globe. The sense of purpose of human life is adapted and stitched in such a way that it suits the natural inclination of the people rather than upholding the moral principles and these popular philosophies undermine the sense of purpose. People are made to purposefully forget the sense of end and are asked to focus on the enjoyment of the world. Gospel of Prosperity and the numerous religious‘ gurus ’are all banking on to create a ‘feel good’ factor for individuals This comes out from the dangerous philosophical tend which is the utilitarianism that would say that the means does not matter but the end does. The life of Siddhartha indeed emphasis on sense of present but with pragmatist philosophy gaining ground a lot more emphasis is given on the present that all other factors including God, morality, ethical principles are all forgotten .Siddhartha, though lived the present to the fullest, he could sense the presence of God – OM, in the numerous sounds he heard. With the advent of pragmatist philosophy, people live the present and future together with the sole of intention of enjoying the maximum material pleasure. The fruit is that matters and not the root and truth becomes relative to the individuals owns whims and fancies.

Time is changing and philosophies are fast undergoing changes to suit the needs of the tweeting generation in the flat world. But if the core philosophy of life, the sense of purpose, sense of end, and sense of present is forgotten then future won’t seem to be too bright.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cavalier, Robert. Plato for Beginners. New York:  Writers and Readers Publishing Inc.,1990.

Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha. Madras: Macmillan India Press, 1973.

R.M. Hare. Plato. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Ranganathananda. The Message of the Upanishads. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1987.

Estafia A. Conrado, Jose. “ Katha Upanishad on the Secret of Immortality.”15 September 2009. http://www.resourcesforlife.com/docs/item1266

[2] Hare, Plato, 59.

[3] Cavalier, Plato for Beginners, 131.

[4] Cavalier, Plato for Beginners, 139.

[5] Cavalier, Plato for Beginners, 79.

[6] Ranganathananda, The Message of the Upanishads, 207.

[7] Ranganathananda, The Message of the Upanishads, 291.

[8] Estafia, “Kathopanishad on the Secret of Immortality” [Online]

[9] “Siddhartha” [Online]

[10] Hesse, Siddhartha, 84.

[11] Hesse, Siddhartha, 102.

[12] Hesse, Siddhartha, 66.

[13] Hesse, Siddhartha, 85.

[14] Hesse, Siddhartha, 87.

The degeneration and decadence of Hinduism with over emphasis on Brahmanic ritualism, the chaotic state in the political arena with no emperor but regional kings gaining ground, the propagation and spread of the heterodox systems like Buddhism and Jainism and also the newly arrived religions in India especially Islam, eating up the Hindu faithful and an absence of a strong philosophical back ground [1]in Hinduism  and losing popular appeal for Hindu religion demanded Sankara to go for a philosophy which would be perennial; and the Visistadvaita and Dvaita philosophies of Ramanuja and Madhava though  brings cloud over the perennial claims can be considered as that which stems from the Advaitic philosophy which was systematically blended by Sankara.

The Advaita philosophy can be called a revolutionary philosophy which had the perennial claims strong enough to give a renewed philosophical base to Hinduism. The perennial claim of Sankara’s Advaita was challenged by Ramanuja and Madhava, with Advaita and Visistadvaita respectively. So rather than staying as unchangeable and static status, the Advaita of Sankara acted as a starting point or a initiate to other philosophies, which in a way continues to strengthen Hinduism. The fact that there are about five hundred Advaitic philosophers from seventh century to present shows the profoundness of this philosophy.  Sankara constructed the Advaitic system in such a way that it could cut across the challenging systems. To a great extent he was successful in making his philosophy fool-proof.

Yet another advantage of Sankara was that he was fully aware of the ground situation of that time as he traveled all along India debating arguing and convincing people about the message of Vedas. Sankara gave a new outlook to Hinduism though he was the object of wrath of both orthodox and heterodox systems. He stands between the classical and post classical, Brahmanic and Sramanic, Orthodox and Heterodox systems. He initiated the golden age of philosophy after years of slump.

1. THE NEED FOR A PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY

The Advaitic philosophy of Sankara was a result of the need of the age. Living in an age which witnessed the losing sheen of Hinduism with heterodox systems like Buddhism and Jainism making deep inroads and also forced with the threat of new religion like Islam which had a totally new appealing outlook, witnessing a change in political equations in which the empires gave way to regional rulers and increasing sects, that interpreted Vedas as they wished, Sankara in a way had to present a philosophy that could cut across all these problems and help Hinduism regain its lost glory or in other words the need of the hour was a perennial philosophy.

Sankara knew the ground realties of India very well during that time.  Born in Kalady, in the present state of Kerala in the year 788 AD, he left home at the age of eight and wandered around India as a pilgrim for fourteen years. Sankara’s own work Digvijaya spells out the names of the towns of south where he travelled, like Gokarna, Sriparvata, Sanger, Kanchi and Rameshwaram. There is also a mention of his sojourn in Maharashtra. He could have availed a route passing through the Palghat or Coimbatore pass in Karnataka and moved up across the Godavari and Narmada.[2] All his way through the towns and villages of India, the ground realities opened up before him.  It is believed that Sankara met his guru Gaudapada on the bank of Narmada  in a narrow cave near Onkaresvara, though there are version which locate Sankara’s meeting with this preceptor in Kasi or in the fare north at Badari.[3] The Philosophic initiation of Sankara got a shot in the arm with this meeting and it is believed that Gaudapada asked him to proceed to Kasi and write a commentary on the Brahma sutras. The seeds of Advaitic philosophy were sown into his mind by Gaudapada whom Sankara venerates as his Parama Guru – Supreme Teacher.

Sankara had to deliver, he was in a do or die situation, given the realities that surrounded him. He had to take in socio-political-religious factors into account and chalk out strategies that would strengthen Hinduism and bring back its old glory, would bring the people of India together and also could check the progress of Heterodox systems and Islam. And the solution came out as the Advaitic philosophy of Sankara, which is a gem born out of Sankara’s philosophical acumen and perception of ground realities.

The conditions that were prevailing during that time did influence Sankara to a great extent like the degeneration of Hinduism, phenomenal rise of Buddhism and Jainism, arrival of Islam and the political situation of that time with regional kings and regional sects gaining ground. The expositions which Sankara would make in his Advaitic philosophy begins keeping in mind the insights he received after his travel all around India. Like a modern marketing manager and devised strategies like establishing monasteries to carry forward his vision and debating and defeating other thinkers of that time who erred with the Vedic ideologies.

1.1 Degeneration of Hinduism

At the time of Sankara, Hinduism was in a state of degeneration. The priestly class mercilessly dominated the scene with profound philosophy of Upanishad being brought down to the level of conducting  innumerable sacrifices and keeping aloof from the lower class and even imposing strict punishment to those who even hear Upanishads. The death bells were ringing for Hinduism. But how did it reach a situation like this? History has the answers.

The invading Aryans and the Dravidians of India, though had initial resistance between each other, ironed out their differences and settled down giving rise to a new stream of thought. The Aryans and Dravidians worked together and these emerged from this conjoint endeavor, a distinct cultural patter of life and thought- Hinduism.[4] The Upanishadic philosophy which formed the corner stone of Hindu philosophy had profound ideas. Encouraging a free spirit of enquiry, it encouraged people to delve into the deep waters of understanding the mysteries and unknown. The attitude of Upanishad, which was neither exclusively other worldly nor solely worldly developed a tolerant, synthetic and pervasive outlook and integrated Indian life into a unity, which recognizes all the differences and diverse aspects of one reality.[5] But as the time passed by the underlying philosophy of Upanishads which was aimed at liberating the individual from the shackles of external authority and bonds of excessive convention were forgotten and the priestly class dominated the Sudras, the lower class and the sacrifices were given the primary focus. The growing mass of rituals and sacrifices involving slaughter of innocent animals and the hegemony of the Brahmin priests with a false sense of superiority had embittered the relations between different social groups.[6] The situation grew alarmingly severe with superstitious religions raising head as the Brahmins who were to explain the essence of Upanishads shied away from their responsibility and that gave rise to the irrational polytheism, dry ceremonialism and empty formalism. The heterodox systems were training guns to the vulnerable Hindu religion of that age. As Govind Chandra Pandey rightly says, “The religious culture of the age was marked by eclecticism, syncretism, broadminded tolerance and tantricism.”[7]

Sankara had to start from the scratch; he needed to bring out a perennial philosophy to keep the flock together. And this is one of the primary influences that played an important role in the formation of Adavaita of Sankara. The next influence is with regard to the political situation of that time.

1.2. Political situation

The political situation of Sankara’s age was a cause of concern. The strong empires of Hindu kings were things of the pat and power was concentrated on the regional rulers. This meant that Sankara will have to keep in mind the numerous problems arising out of a lack of central authority and he would have to design a powerful perennial philosophy in order to command the respect particularly in the absence of the lack of political power for support.

The threat from the conquerors were on the rise as the once powerful India empires became a loose federation of smaller states under subordinate rulers titled Samantha, Mahasamantha, Maharajah etc.[8] All these happened after the fall of the Guptas and the Vakatakas. The age of great and stable empires seemed to pass and the period from c. A.D. 650 onwards witnessed a ceaseless struggle for power and the rise and fall of numerous relatively short lived empires having a distant regional basis.[9] The traditional social system took a back seat with the absence of a central power. Sankara thus notes the decay of Varnasramadharma in his times. Commenting on BS.1.3.33 in Brahmatatra, he writes, “Idanim va Kalathare pyavyavashtiaparayan varansaramadharma paraytijanita.” Meaning “one might suppose that Varasmaradharma was in disorder earlier also just as it is now.’ [10] The sacred texts were interpreted to suit the theories of a particular sect or the other and the social system of the ancient sutras had become increasingly unreal between the times of Patanjali and Sankara. So to sum up the age of Sankara can be characterized as an age which witnessed the emergence of parochialism, regionalism, feudalism and new ruling class.

Along with the political worrying factor Sankara had to take not of the rise in influence of Buddhism, Jainism and Islam in India which could make Hinduism as a religion a thing of the past.

1.3 Reform Movements

Annoyed and disheartened by the meaningless ritual, unjust exercise of power by the priestly class and the neglect of other classes created a perfect situation for a religious revolution. The Buddhist and Jains were born out of this revolt. The Buddhism and Jainism totally rejected and repudiated the Vedas, Vedic religion and Vedic authority. Mahavira and Gautama Buddha are the founder of Jainism and Buddhism respectively. So Sankara had to lead the fight against the Orthodox Hindus and also the Buddhist. But in the process he was subject to the wrath of both the groups.  If Buddhism dominated eastern India, Jainism was finding firm foothold in the west. In the south both Buddhism and Jainism especially the latter contended with the new vaisnava and Saiva Bhakti movement.[11] Sankara has been described by Sogen Yamakami in his Systems of Buddhistic thought as the “declared enemy of Buddhist”…he has been described by the orthodox Mimasakas as a “crypto Buddhist.”[12] Of the two main heterodox religions namely Buddhism and Hinduism, Buddhism was making deep inroads into Hindu religion.

The travelers who came to India during that time Fa-Hien who came in the fifth century, Hieun Tsan of seventh century AD, give a clear description of the rise in Buddhist influence. Hiewun Tsang found thirty to hundred monasteries with two thousand to ten thousand monks respectively… the total number of Buddhist monks in India as at least one lakh eighty two thousand five hundred- too big a number, in view of the population of India in those days.[13] This was mainly because Buddhism banked on the weak spots of degenerating Hinduism and initiated a popular philosophy, like the language Pali, the ordinary language was introduced at a time when the ordinary Hindus were forbidden to use Sanskrit. One such language was Pali, which was carried to Ceylon, Burma etc. and became the canonical language of Buddhism. [14] Against the pantheon of Gods in Hindus, Buddhism didn’t ask their believers to go behind any God, but themselves, a kind of Copernican revolution. It believed in the impermanence of reality and consciousness. It had its focus on liberation from suffering of this life. Buddha would say that, “the world is rolling from creation to decay” like “sparkling and bursting bubbles” on a river… “It is not the time to discuss about fire for those who are actually burning in fire.”[15] Sankara when formulated Advaita strikes in this point when he talks of Maya. Sankara too strikes the same note with Buddhism when he talks of uselessness of rituals, which was shrewdly incorporated to bring in the perennial status of his philosophy.

The arrival of Islam in India was an added worry to the existing problems. Sankara had to address these problems too. Scholars like Prof. Humayun Kabir suspect that the importance given to Sruti, one book (Quran to Muslims) Reality is one, the zealous journey which he undertook all over India unlike others. All these might had a share in forcing Sankara to make a philosophy which is perennial. In Prof. Humayun Kabir’s thought, “There are reasons to suppose that he was influenced by the impact of Islam in prevalent modes of thought. [16]

The rise in different sects in Hinduism like Saiva, Vaishanva, Surya and Sakta were brought under one umbrella of Hinduism, due to the perennial philosophical attempt of Sankara. If today the Iyengar, Iyer and Sastri and Acharya , the Kassmirian Saiva and Bengali Sakta-look upon themselves as the adherents of the same religion,, in spite of their antagonistic metaphysical beliefs and incompatible daily ritual, it’s because of the genius of Sankara.[17]

2. THE ADVAITIC PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY

Sankara who stands between the classical and the post classical ages also presents the meeting point of two streams, orthodox and heterodox, Brahmanic and Sramanic.[18] It is the philosophy of Advaita that made this happen. Rightly overthrowing the primacy of karma as the ritual action and emphasizing on jnana and keeping in mind the ground realties of the day, the Advaitic philosophy, the brain child of Sankara but arising of  the Vedas had all the ingredients to claim perenniality. The focus of the discussions is on the reality. As Advaita can be righty translated as reality is one without a second or a non dualistic vision of reality. In short the essence of the philosophy can be summarized as consciousness is the only one reality and the unity with it is liberation. The knowledge of the unity of self with Brahman is needed for liberation. Apart from the role of awakening the desire to know Brahman, rituals, rites and other external rituals have no external value. It was with the Advaitic philosophy with its perennial nature cut across the various challenging systems of that time and thus Mudgal writes, “Sankara was the first man to give a final death blow to un orthodox system like Buddhism, Jainism, kapaliaks, kalpa bhaivravas etc. which were menacing Hinduism and threatening to replace it.”[19]

2.1 Advaitic view of Reality

The Advaitic view of reality of Sankara, which was in a dormant form in the Upanishad, was made to awaken by Sankara by bringing together  and systemizing it in a more scientific way with logical coherence and argumentative compactness.

2.1.1. Focus on Knowledge

For Sankara, the focus is on jnana or knowledge to achieve liberation. It’s the knowledge that helps one to become aware of the real of nature of self and break the bondage caused by ignorance in the embodied existence of ignorance. Sankara here is cleverly taking the focus away from the ritual and action as means of getting liberation that had come under severe criticism from the heterodox systems of the primary reason for the Hinduism turning to grey scale.

Sankara brings out two kinds of knowledge originally form Mudka Upanishad. Namely Para vidya (higher knowledge) and Apara Vidya (lower knowledge.) Apara vidya discussed in the Rig-Veda, Yajurveda and rest and consisting of merely mandatory and prohibitory injunction cannot destroy Avidya which is the cause of Samara.[20] So this knowledge of scriptures, of worldly things revealing and tradition belong to the arena of worldly things and even though they may point to ultimate truth, it is ultimately fast. The Supreme Being cannot be attained through Apara vidya but by Para vidya or higher knowledge. It is the same as the ultimate, transcendental knowledge which cannot be distinguished from reality, eternal and absolute (Brahman)[21] It’s the Para vidya which is capable of reveling the infinity of non dual truth. Higher knowledge (Para vidya ) is that by which the Aksara is realized.[22] Sankara gives four means for attaining this knowledge which is collectively called Sadhana –catostaya.[23]

2.1.2 Reality is one

Reality is one without a second or Advaita was the punch line of Sankara’s philosophy. He states that reality is pure consciousness without attributes which is Brahman and the knowledge of the experiential and intuitive awareness of the identity of individual self with Brahman will liberate the person.  Matter and the plurality of the world are mere illusion and it is the world of ignorance. In characterizing the real as eternal, Sankara condemns the empirical world of time and change as unreal.[24] With regard to momentariness of reality and even consciousness as proposed by Buddhism, Sankara brings in causality into play.[25] With all these arguments he asks the Buddhists to identify the Brahman and consciousness using simple logic as these entities lie above the material constructs. By the clever tactic of incorporating Advaita, he single handedly deals with not only Buddhism but also Jainism, Islam and other sects. These arguments clearly take a dig at the heterodox Buddhist system that broke away for the Hindu fold and renounced the Vedas. Buddha conceived world as an unending flux of becoming. The teaching of impermanent nature of everything is one of the main pivots of Buddhism. Nothing on earth partakes of the character of absolute reality. Sankara takes up these things from the Vedas and says that the same thing you find in the Vedas. So why not come back? Sankara here adds weight to his perennial claims.

2.1.3 The Three Levels of Reality

The real (Paramarthika), the phenomenal (Vyavaharika) and the illusory (Pratibhasika) existences.  The Pratibhasika is the illusory existence which is non existence. It is false knowledge and self contradictory like identifying rope to snake.Vyavaharika or the phenomenal existence is said with regard to the universe and the material objects. Both Pratibhasika and Vyavaharika are alike transcendental, contradicted alike and ultimately have no reality of their own.[26]Paramarthika is the only real existence . It belongs to the realm of non-dual where there is no known, nor any knower. It is not contradicted, infinite, beyond time, space and cause and it is Brahman.

Focusing on the world of matter, Sankara would say that it is merely illusion. The illusion happens because of Ignorance. The self, though is Brahman wrongly identifies with the body, mind and senses and this identification lead to the thinking that the self is the does enjoyed and knower. When the knowledge of Brahman dawns the Maya or illusion disappears, there won’t be subject-object, knower-known you and I, cause-effect, pleaser –pain, and happiness- sorrow duality.

2.2. Advaita with a Purpose to Reach out

The Nirvana of Buddha also has this aim of transcending life of pain. He also regarded everything as momentary. Sankara thus make the statement that the philosophy we both follow is same logically the existence of ultimate reality can be incorporated.

The Jiva (individual self) according to Sankara in real nature is identical with Brahman. The cosmic pluralities including the plural empirical individuals (jivas) do not have any separate identity of their own. Brahman being the self of all.[27] The phenomenon of Jive is explained in two ways namely, Bimba-Prtibimba vada and Avacceda vada. The former explains Jiva as the reflection of Brahman in the mirror Avidya and the latter explains Jiva as limitation of the supreme reality.

Jiva’s bondage is due to avidya and once this avidya is removed by right knowledge, it identifies itself with Brahman. It is the realization as Sankara put it in his Atmasaktakaram.

“I am not the enjoyable nor the enjoyed nor the enjoyer. I am cidanandarupa. Bliss I am, Bliss I am,”I am indeterminate, I have no distinction of cases, I am all pervading and all present in all the senses. I am always Saktva; I am neither Mukta nor I am Bound. cidanandarupa I am. Bliss I am; Bliss I am. “I am unborn, hence whence my birth and death? I am not prana hence whence my hunger and thirst? I am not citta, hence whence my soka and moha? I am not Kara. Hence my Moksa and Bandha? This is the state of Mukta.[28]

Sankara here tries to send a word to Jainism too. Jainism which goes by the duality of Jiva and Ajiva consider it as two opposing realties and hence dualism. When Sankara incorporates the opposing principles but the doesn’t grant reality to the opposing principle but considers it as Maya and with regard to libertion it’s the intuitive knowledge of the real nature of Jiva revealed by practice of rigorous  asceticism will relieve Jiva form the karmic substance induced Ajiva. And it reveals a world with infinite knowledge, infinite bliss, infinite faith and infinite energy. Even though Jainism don’t believe in god and Sankara do believe in Brahman, with his perennial principles that has a Vedic core but different outlook, he doesn’t invite the Jains and Buddhist to come back to a situation which made them leave but he preset a totally different bus Advaitic philosophy that could solve all the problem or conflicts which amide them leave Hinduism.

As Sankara had to give a perennial outlook to his philosophy, he need to incorporate the ordinary people who worshipped the idols and prayed for graces from them Sankara introduces the concept of Saguna Brahman-Brahman with qualities, a personal deity, who helps respond to the prayers of the deity and bestows graces. But it’s a product of Avidya and once the real knowledge of Brahman comes in the Saguna Brahman will have no existence. What is real is the Nirguna Brahman. The undifferentiated self shining consciousness.

Though a number of deities were worshipped, Sankara didn’t go glorifying a particular deity. Even though he was an ardent devotee of Vishnu and Siva in his personal life. [29] He wanted to make his philosophy fool- proof and that is the obvious reason why he didn’t align to any particular deity. It is because of that Mahamapadhaya K. Satchidananda Murthy would state, “The various systems of worship- Saiva, Vaisnava, Surya and Sakta, no more looked upon themselves as conflicting sects. If today the Iyengar, and Iyer the Shastri and Acharya, the Kasmiran Saiva and Bengali Sakta look upon themselves as adherent of same religion, it is because of Sankara.[30] By zeroing in on Brahman, he showed his preparedness to deal with the rising threat of the new religion Islam which was basically a monotheistic religion.

Thus standing in the time when Sankara lived his Advaitic philosophy had the entire ingredient to be qualified as a perennial philosophy. Even today the influence and power of Sankara’s philosophy has not gone in oblivion; but is still shining. As Ricard Garbe states, “nearly all educated Hindus in modern India except in so far as they have embraced European Ideas, are adherent of the Vedanta; and three fourth of they accept Sankara’s interpretation of the Brahma sutras.[31] Still philosophy of Sankara claims respect after thousands of years. The shining star to India, to whom we owe Advaita Vedanta at least in the form in which it has stood for the past thousand years, and in which, it prevails today as the best known philosophy of India was not only a supreme religious scholastic thinker but a remarkable religious poet as well.[32]

The perennial claim of Sankara, the basis of which is Advaita, that reality is one without a second can’t claim infallibility. As Kant argues while bringing in postulates that man is not purely rational being, the same logic would apply in case of Advaita of Sankara too.  The popularity of Sankara today reveals the depth of his perennial claims. But his philosophy was met with stiff resistance from Madhava and Ramanuja who also based on Vedas but brought in Dvaita, the qualified non dualism and dualism respectively. They challenged the perennial claims of Sankara and goes forward from Sankara’s base. So Advaita instead of becoming a perennial philosophy and an obvious ‘full stop’ became a starting point.

3.  Advaita vs Ramanuja and Madhava

Advaita was the beginning of a brand new trend basing on Vedas and standing between orthodoxy and heterodoxy. Ramanuja and Madhava had a different view of reality in comparison to Sankara. Ramanuja brought in qualified non dualism or Visistadvaita, which states that there are two attributes for the one reality which are: Individual selves and matter. Madhava’s philosophy is absolute dualism (Dvaita) that brings forth five-fold dualities or differences.

3.1 Ramanuja’s Visistadvaita

Ramanuja was of the view that Sankara’s interpretation of Vedas were against the real sprit and authentic meaning of the Vedas and human reason. He went outright against the non-dualistic view of Sankara. Like all other monistic systems had to face, Ramanuja also had in front of him the fact of explaining the plurality of the universe when the only reality is attributed to Brahman. Sankara had escaped from this troublesome situation by bringing in the concept of Maya. Ramanuja was very much critical of the Maya concept of Sankara. So it is in the topic of explaining the reality that Ramanuja differs from Sankara to a great extend.

Ramanuja vehemently opposed the Advaitic claim of Sankara. Ramanuja even ridiculed Sankara’s philosophy as Maya Vada. Ramanuja also agrees with Sankara that there is only one reality but he strongly disagrees when it comes to the point regarding attributes of this single ultimate reality which is Brahman. For  Sankara, the Brahman or the ultimate reality is attribute less, though keeping in mind the faithful he had introduced the concept of ‘Saguna Brahman’ it didn’t have a real existence as with the dawn of knowledge it would disappear. But Ramanuja was very adamant and convinced of the fact that one reality Brahman was with attributes. ‘Asesha chit- achit Prakaram Brahm akaman tatvam’ – Brahman as qualified by the sentient as insentient modes (aspects or attributes) is the only reality. Ramanuja contends that the Prasthana traya that is the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and Brahma sutras are to be interpreted in way that shows this unity in diversity, for any other way would violate their consistency.

Sribhasya of Ramanuja is the most important and most basic work of Visistadvaita philosophy. Ramanuja gives a very elaborate and exhaustive commentary on the first sutra of the Vedanta sutra, expelling all the principles of his school and refuting the arguments of Advaita Vedanta. The attributes that Ramanuja adds to the one ultimate reality are individual selves and matter. There two attributes are the modes of Brahman. Sankara would say that this individual self and matter are not real as they are relevant only in the sphere of Avidya. But criticizing Sankara, Ramanuja would say that the individual self and matter are totally dependent on Brahman for their existence and functions. But they are not unreal, but real and have their own individuality. [33] Sankara very cleverly did not say that Brahman is any particular deity, even though he had special devotion to Vishnu and Siva, which shows his pristine philosophical position. But Ramanuja identifies the Brahman with Vishnu.

The perennial claims of Sankara were challenged very severely by Ramanuja that gave rise to Visistadvaita. Though Ramanuja criticized Sankara and brought in Visistadvaita, Ramanuja was more or less a follower of Sankara’s commentary. The basic orientation of the philosophical thinking of Ramanuja had the base in Sankara. For Sankara, the means to achieve liberation was with the right knowledge but for Ramanuja it was total self surrender of god that would give liberation. By incorporating this, he was bringing into the Hindu fold the sudras, outcaste, who could not read and write. So the emphasis on right knowledge by Sankara gives way to total self surrender to God.

3.2 Madhava’s Dvaita

The perennial claims of Sankara’s Advaita received yet another challenge with Madhava’s dualism. This too was based on Vedas. Madhava’s dualism cannot be taken in the real philosophical sense but he basically spells out the difference between god, individual selves and matter, while maintain that God alone is the supreme ultimate and absolute principle. It is a philosophy of difference. The five fold difference that Madhava speaks of are: (1) Difference between soul and god (2) Difference between soul and soul. (3) Difference between soul and matter (4) Difference between god and matter. (5) Difference between matter and matter. So rather than a dualistic philosophy we can consider it as a philosophy of difference.

Taking on Sankara’s view that the reality is one, Brahman and call the other things are Maya, Madhava with his duality, outlines the difference and takes the stand that the  reality that we see in the world is not phantasmal projection of the divine but it is related to it. Madhava’s philosophy conceives two types of substances namely independent and dependent out of which god is the only independent substance wears everything else including the individual selves depend on him for existence.

In Advaita, the individual self is Brahman when it sheds off the avidya. But in Madhava’s philosophy, individual self is not Brahman, but a part of Brahman whose nature as consciousness and bliss is similar to that of Brahman. The cause of bondage for the individual self is the ignorance about its real nature and the nature of paramatman who is full of infinite and virtuous qualities.

The means of attaining liberation is not knowledge for Madhava. Madhava says that bondage being real cannot be destroyed merely through knowledge; it is possible to do so only when paramatman so wishes and it is his benediction or grace that is the ultimate instrument in man’s emancipation. [34] The real means of liberating oneself from the bondage of earthly existence is to surrender oneself completely of god and acquire knowledge about him so that he may shower his blessing and liberate the devotee from the sorrows and suffering of this earth. Though the importance of divine grace and surrender was realized by Ramanuja and his predecessors, yet the full fledged appeal of these concepts is possible only in the context of a perfect theism which Madhava and his followers offered.[35]

Conclusion

As man is rational and not purely rational being no philosophy can be ever called a purely perennial philosophy.  But this does not mean that perennial claims need not exist. The element of perenniality can be deciphered from many philosophies. One of them is Advaita of Sankara. Advaita was successful in solving the problems faced by Hindus during that age. But this does not mean that it has to remain as such without undergoing change. An important thing to be noted about Advaita philosophy is that it has this claim of perenniality which can be seen undergoing constant changes or in a sense transcending undergoing constant changes strengthening Hinduism more and more  with the philosophers coming after him or in a sense the claim for perenniality has been transcending with other philosophers.

It was the genius of Sankara to gather together the essence from the Vedas and create a philosophy like Advaita.  Though we can see major criticisms arising from Ramanuja and Madhava, this does not mean the end of the road for Sankara. The perenniality of Sankara’s claims can be seen trickling down to these philosophers. This is because they stand on the base created by Sankara. It would not have been possible for Ramanuja and Madhva to discuss about qualified non dualism and dualism if Sankara had not brought in the concept of Advaita. Sankara had started this major shift, from a thousand worshipped Hinduism to a monotheistic religion.  Again it was Sankara’s bold step that changed the previously conceived understanding of liberation. He said that it was right knowledge which was crucial for liberation at a time when priestly class dominated and there was nothing doing sans ritualism. It is from this change in concept that Ramanuja and Madhva would bring about more changes by saying that, it is the complete self surrender before god and receiving his graces that are the essential for liberation.

Sans Sankara Hinduism would have suffered the same plight that heterodox systems are facing today. No heterodox systems arising after Sankara’s shows the strength of his perennial claims. The perennial claims of Sankara have stood the test of time and has been transcending with other philosophers down the ages. Thus we have a transcending perennial claim of Sankara.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Campbell, Joseph and Heinrich Zimmer. Philosophies of India. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2005.

Chari, S.M. Srinivasa. Advaita and Visistadvaita: A study based on Vedanta Desika’s Satadusani. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1976.

Chattopadhyaya, S.K. The Philosophy of Sankara’s Advaita Vedanta. Delhi: Sarup Sons, 2000.

Gard, Richard A. Buddhism. New York: George Braziller Inc. 1961.

Klostermaier, Klaus K. Hinduism: A Short History. England: One World Publishers, 2006.

Mugdal, S.G. Advaita of Sankara: A Reappraisal. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975.

Murty, K. Satchidananda. Hinduism and it’s Development. New Delhi: D.K. Print World, 2007.

Narain, K. An Outline of Madhava Philosophy. Allahabad: Udayana Publication, 1962.

Pande, Govind Chandra. Life and Thought of Sankaracarya. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1994.

Puri, B.N. A Study of Indian History. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1971.

Sharma, B.N.K. Madhva’s Teachings in his own Words. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1970.

[1] By lack of philosophy, I do not mean the Vedas doesn’t have a philosophy, but the philosophy was dormant and un able to thwart the threat posed by the heterodox systems. The priestly class who were supposed to do that was engaged in dominating the other classed with unnecessary and rituals blown out of proportion.

[2] Pande, Life and Thought of Sankaracarya, 83.

[3] Pande, Life and Thought of Sankaracarya, 83.

[4] Murty, Hinduism and it’s Development, 62.

[5] Murty, Hinduism and it’s Development, 67.

[6] Puri, A Study of Indian History, 31.

[7] Pande, Life and Thought of Sankaracarya,59.

[8] Pande, Life and Thought of Sankaracarya, 55.

[9] Pande, Life and Thought of Sankaracarya, 55.

[10] Pande, Life and Thought of Sankaracarya, 56.

[11] Pande, Life and Thought of Sankaracarya, 63.

[12] Mudgal, Advaita of Sankara, 185.

[13] Mudgal, Advaita of Sankara, 169.

[14] Gard, Buddhism, 46.

[15] Murty, Hinduism and it’s Development, 72.

[16] Murty, Hinduism and it’s Development, 96.

[17] Murty, Hinduism and it’s Development, 97.

[18] Pande, Life and Thought of Sankaracarya, 68.

[19]Mudgal, Advaita of Sankara, 43.

[20] Mudgal, Advaita of Sankara, 3.

[21] Mudgal, Advaita of Sankara, 3.

[22] Chattopadhyaya, The Philosophy of Sankara’s Advaita Vedanta, 3.

[23] They are: 1. Discernment between eternal and non eternal entities, 2. The non –attachment to the results of action. 3. Employment of spiritual discipline like self control, control of senses, dispassion, forbearance, concentration of mind and faith. 4. The intense desire for liberation.

[24] Pande, Life and Thought of Sankaracarya, 259.

[25] He says that it is impossible to establish between two things, the relation of cause and effect between two things. The relation of cause and effect, since the former’s momentary existence which ceases or has ceased to be and so has entered into the state of non-existence, and cannot be the cause of momentary existence.

[26] Mudgal, Advaita of Sankara, 3.

[27] Chattopadhyaya, The Philosophy of Sankara’s Advaita Vedanta, 102.

[28]Mudgal, Advaita of Sankara, 15.

[29] From the class note of Dr. Augustine Thottakara

[30] Murty, Hinduism and it’s Development, 97.

[31] Klostermaier, Hinduism: A Short History,258.

[32] Joseph and Zimmer, Philosophies of India, 460.

[33] From the class note of Dr. Augustine Thottakara

[34] Narain, K. An Outline of Madhava Philosophy, 9

[35] Narain, K. An Outline of Madhava Philosophy, 10.

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