Showing posts with label Book Summary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Summary. Show all posts

Thursday 14 July 2022

Logicomix

This article is a summary of the book Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, written by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou.

1. Pembroke Lodge: Russel's struggle in comprehending the illogical world (forbidden fruit of knowledge, religious studies, stern grandmother, faith) and finding solace in the logical mathematics (axioms, proofs, theorems, ...)

2. The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Russel breaks loose from the shackles of his strict religious upbringing and becomes an atheist. Russel embarks on a quest for rationality, reasoning, truth and knowledge about the world. However, Russel finds himself in turmoil over the state of mathematics (unproved axioms, circular definitions) and philosophy (disagreement among philosophers). Russel is introduced to logic and works of Boole (Boolean laws). Russel's mission is now to put the house of Mathematics "Queen of the Sciences" in order.

3. Wanderjahr:  Russel goes to the Continent and meets with Gottlob Frege who dreamed of a new logical language to serve as the foundation of mathematics, and (the insane) George Cantor who developed set theory. Russel attends the 1900 ICM Paris in which there are two schools of thought led by Henri Poincaré (proponent of human intuition) and David Hilbert (proponent of mathematical proofs, reasoning and logic).

4. Paradox: Russel discovers the paradox related to definition of sets (the supposed foundation of logic and mathematics), and publishes it in the `Principles of Mathematics.' Russel and Whitehead collaborate on Principia Mathematica, a planned set of three books to create a new foundation of mathematics. The authors struggled a lot while working on the manuscript, and ultimately self-publish the first volume.

5. Entr'acte: Logicians tend to confuse the abstract (Map) with the concrete (Reality).

6. Logico-Philosophical Wars: Wittgenstein begins to study under Russel. At the same time, Europe is reeling under the tension caused by the Great War. Reality confronts Russel. Wittgenstein, due to his trust in natural language, formulates the `Picture Theory,' according to which statements are meaningful only if they can be pictured in the real world. Thus, the statement "There are at least three things in the universe" is meaningless because we can't picture the universe.

7. Incompleteness: Gödel formulates his incompleteness theorem according to which some questions are unanswerable. Russel and Wittgenstein experiment with reforms in the field of education (authoritarian and anti-authoritarian respectively), but ended up as failures in practice. Russel's life (Nazism, Frege's logically-sound anti-semitic rant, WWII) teaches him that there is no royal path to truth. Instead of renouncing the old Trinity composed of Intuition, Emotion and Habit, Russel proposes the new Trinity composed of Responsibility, Justice and knowledge of Good and Evil.  

8. Finale: John von Neumann and later Alan Turing build upon the hitherto works to come up with the Turing machine and the stored-program architecture, and together they pioneer the field of computer science.

"The meaning of the world does not reside in the world." - Wittgenstein thinks to himself.

"All the facts of science aren't enough to understand the world's meaning. For this, you must step outside the world." - says Wittgenstein to Russel.

"Applying formulas is not good enough when you are faced with really hard problems." - Bertrand Russel.

Monday 8 November 2021

Every Good Endeavour - Tim Keller, Katherine Leary Alsdorf

Introduction

obstacles - expressive individualism; job vs. vocation; work to live vs. live to work

hope - Leaf by Niggle by J.R.R. Tolkien (the author of The Lord of the Rings, writer's block, question his vision to produce a fantasy, in the league of The Iliad, The Mahabharata); our work will bear fruit in heaven; Is this idea backed by the scripture?

how to make the right choice - ability (Can you do it?), affinity (Do you like it?), opportunity (Is there any open position?);

Part One: God's Plan for Work

1. The Design of Work - God-ordained; God did work and God saw that the creation was good; God took rest; Jesus was a carpenter (The Chosen); Paul was a tent-maker;
2. The Dignity of Work - basic human need; The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (depicts the dignity of labour, the protagonist is a butler); Mike, the doorman;
3. Work as Cultivation - culture mandate (culture building); job description (Genesis 1)
4. Work as Service - the Divine providence; spiritual work vs. secular work (Martin Luther, we have many needs including food, clothing, shelter, WiFi);

Part Two: Our Problems with Work

1. Work becomes fruitless - sin (paradise lost, things fall apart); two extremes: idealism (optimistic about good end-result) vs. cynicism (pessimistic about good end-result); choice (post-war years vs. current years, my parents' generation vs. my generation); wrong job probably;

2. Work becomes pointless - Ecclesiastes (meaningless, chasing after the wind;); alienated labour, Karl Marx (unable to see the end-result, agrarian economy vs. industrialized economy vs. service economy);

3. Work becomes selfish - Tower of Babel (establish one's identity, pride in one's own labour, tribalism to ensure security); Esther "in the Palace"; the Ovarian lottery (privilege, grace of God); IIT-JEE top rankers (identity through CS IITB); competitive pride (C.S. Lewis, publish or perish, by hook or by crook);

Idols of `Workship': Idol is something that is prominent, takes away too much of your energy and is considered sacrosanct. (1) traditional: collectivism (racism, religious fundamentalism, casteism, nationalism); (2) modern: individualism, emphasis on science, facts and figures, power of reasoning; and (3) post-modern: rise of cynicism (e.g. Terminator, Jurassic Park), liberalism (e.g. gender fluidity), means-without-an-end. 
Christians ought to discern the idols functioning in their professions and industries. Some examples are shown below:
  • Idols in UESI Ministry: organize camps vs. personal evangelism, share gospel vs. build relationships, study WoG vs. practise WoG;
  • Idols in NLP research: publication quantity vs. value of output; SOTA vs. elegance;

Part Three: The Gospel and Work

a new worldview: three questions (origin, purpose, destiny); the gospel worldview (everything was good, the world is fallen, Jesus as the embodiment of God's grace); think of the gospel as a pair of glasses through which you look at everything else in the world;

impact of gospel view on society: culture of Europe and the West in general; high regard for human rights; development of democracy; civil society (waste management, punctuality, product quality, efficiency at work);

dualism vs. integration at work: wrong notion that Christian work means taking part in overtly Christian activities; the danger of excessively spiritualizing things in life;

the doctrine of common grace (everybody is created in the image of God; Psalm 19); appreciate the work done by non-Christians; the Divine providence; avoid disengagement with popular culture (James Cameron, Hans Zimmer, Blessy, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, MN Karassery, Sunil P Ilayidom, Santhosh George Kulangara);

ethics and morality at workplace: personal dishonesty (e.g. exaggerate current salary), corruption (e.g. lobbying), lack of transparency (e.g. complex financial instruments);

How to incorporate faith into work? 

  • in general: respect coworkers and colleagues; exercise wisdom (know God, know oneself, learn from experience, the book of Proverbs, the Holy Spirit); be generous with time and investment; display resilience under distress or failure;
  • gospel worldview and business: serve the common good; profits are not inherently evil;
  • gospel worldview and higher education: improve quality; make it accessible to everyone regardless of background, sex or race; avoid pride (IIT/IITM, Ivy League)

Do the right thing not because of the incentives it brings but because it is the right thing to do.

"Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 2: 11)

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness..." (2 Timothy 4: 7, 8a)

vocational discipleship

How can we have any freedom from the temptations of work and still keep our job?

motivation: passion (passion of the Christ), living sacrifice (Romans 12: 1); serve the work;
rest: rest in the finished work of God (Leaf by Nibble);

people matter < institutions matter

References

  1. Book URL
  2. Study guide, Nancy Erisman
  3. Keller/Alsdorf, Redeemer Church
  4. Alsdorf, ToW

 

Tuesday 8 June 2021

The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer

https://bible.org/series/pursuit-god

1. Following Hard after God

  • Do you want to pursue God and only God?
  • God has put the desire in us to pursue Him.
  • I, the seeker, is already in God's hands.
  • Seeker sought (Zacchaeus)
  • conscious, personal awareness
  • too much focus on "accepting" Christ (not seen in the Scripture; the Pentecostal faith, baptism, religious externals)
  • religious simplicity (personal experience, read a book, talk a walk in the woods) vs. religious complexity (programs, organizations, movements)
  • pursue only God (instead of God-and)

2. Blessedness of Possessing Nothing

  • What is the first barrier that keeps you away from God?
  • Abraham was rich and owned servants, cattle but possessed nothing
  • "tyranny of things"
  • poor in spirit (soul poverty, beatitude)
  • intangible assets (talents, gifts)

3. Breaking the Veil

  • What is the second barrier that keeps you away from God?
  • Two kinds of prison: remember Brooks in Shawshank Redemption; the physical prison and the mental prison
  • Let go of ego.
  • Self is the veil.
  • Mother Teresa, Father Damien, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi

"Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. It can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction. We may as well try to instruct leprosy out of our system. There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free. We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us."

4. Apprehending ("Understanding") God

  • God and the spiritual world are real.
  • It is possible for us to experience God with all the five senses (sight, hear, smell, taste, touch). I believe this nature of God manifests itself in Jesus, the second person in the Trinity.
  • intimate relationship ("bhakti tradition")
  • A Christian's beliefs are practical (healing, miracles of prophets, Jesus).
  • The object of a Christian's faith is unseen reality. Remember Hebrews 11: 1 ("Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and being certain of what we do not see."). It is not mere ideas or abstract, but tangible and concrete.

5. The Universal Presence

  • God is here.

6. The Speaking God

  • God is still speaking.
  • The Word of God -> The Voice of God ("the donkey that talks, the book that speaks")
  • The heavens *declare* the glory of God; the skies *proclaim* the works of His hands.
  • The Word of God is quick and powerful. In the beginning, He spoke to nothing and it became something.
  • The Voice of God is a friendly Voice.
  • Voice vs. Noise
  • The Deaf Maestro

7. The Gaze of the Soul

  • What is faith? Do I have faith?
  • Believing is Seeing (vs. Seeing is Believing).
  • Directing our attention to God is the physical manifestation of our faith.
  • remember The Serpent on the Pole
  • the act of seeing (simple act, can be done anywhere and anytime, no religious paraphernalia)
  • The Twin Sisters (and their Twin Husbands)

"അവങ്കലേക്ക് നോക്കിയവർ പ്രകാശിതരായി, അവരുടെ മുഖം ലജ്ജിച്ചു പോയതുമില്ല." (സങ്കി 34:5)

8. Restoring the Creator-Creature Relationship

  • Be Thou exalted!
  • over my possessions, friendships, comforts, reputation
  • consequences: Eli and two sons, Samson
  • OTOH, God does not mind our weaknesses: fishermen as disciples, Moses
  • The choices that we make reflect our faith (God vs. money, God vs. human love, God vs. personal ambition, God vs. self, God vs. men, ...)
  • Christian life ought to be simplistic, easy yoke, light burden, not complicated

9. Meekness and Rest

  • burden of pride
  • burden of pretence
  • become as little children (no pride or pretence)
  • no pride --> meek --> rest
  • meekness != punching bag; meekness boldness
  • not people-pleaser, but God-pleaser --> rest

"Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest"

10. The Sacrament of Living

  • sacred (praying, Bible reading, singing hymns, attending church) vs. secular (eating, working, playing) dichotomy
  • in everything, honour, glorify God

Tuesday 1 June 2021

Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans, Melanie Mitchell

Prologue; Part I:  BACKGROUND

The goal of AI is, supposedly, to solve intelligence and use it to solve everything else.

The main hypothesis behind the creation of AI is that any aspect of learning or intelligence can be simulated by a machine. Brain is composed of cells, neurons, and matter that obey laws of physics.

Two problems associated with the development of AI are: (1) people are rushing blindly and deliriously to create AI without giving a thought on its implications, and (2) the trivialization of humanity (emotions, society, music, art, games, movies, literature).

Technological singularity is the point at which machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence, which leads to an intelligence explosion. This happens because an intelligent being is capable of creating an even more-intelligent being. Ray Kurzweil is a proponent of technological singularity and forecasts that singularity is imminent in a few decades. Ray Kurzweil attributes his prediction to exponential growth, Moore's law, neuroscience, virtual reality. He also predicts that a computer will pass the Turing Test by 2029. The two main arguments of his sceptics are: (1) intelligence does not reside solely in the brain; that all the senses associated with the human body are necessary for intelligence to operate (social intelligence, emotional intelligence), and (2) software has not shown any exponential progress.

PART II: COMPUTER VISION

ImageNet (~WordNet) is a dataset of images built with the help of annotators recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk. AlexNet solved the task of object identification in ImageNet using convolutional neural-networks (ConvNet) and GPUs.

Some technical challenges to AI are (1) the long tail, (2) easy to fool (adversarial examples), (3) bias, (4) supervised learning is not how humans learn; unsupervised learning is the dark matter of AI, (5) data-hungry systems "big data", need a lot of labelled data, (6) inability to interpret the results "show your work", (7) spurious correlation "clever Hans", (8) rely on human understanding of the task in model design, hyperparameter tuning.

We already use AI systems in our day-to-day lives: recommender systems (Amazon, YouTube), web search engines (Google Search, Microsoft Bing), translators (Google Translate, DeepL), personal digital assistants (Alexa, Cortana, Siri). However there are some issues of dispute and concern. How to enforce ethics in AI? How to regulate development and deployment of AI especially in domains such as mass surveillance, face recognition, and arms race? Do we need to teach morality to machines "moral machines"?

Part III: LEARNING TO PLAY

Reinforcement Learning (RL)

Reinforcement learning is a type of machine learning in which the agent learns by itself through reinforcement (rewards) from the environment. Humans learn to ride the bicycle through a similar process. 

The primary approach in RL is to learn the Q-table through multiple episodes (one episode corresponds to a complete game of Breakthrough) and multiple iterations (one iteration corresponds to a single action such as one move). An evaluation function evaluates the current states and predicts the next move by exploiting and exploring the set of values for each possible action. These value of an action indicates the agent's estimate of the reward at the end of the episode if that action is chosen at a given state.

For domains with simple state description, computing the Q-table is easier.  The objective then is to compute values of each action at every possible state. However for complex domains such as self-driving cars which can have inputs from thousands of sensors, neural networks can be used to process the input and generate the state description. These neural networks can then group similar states together through its state representation.

Game Engines

Traditionally, game engines such as IBM Deep Blue (vs. Garry Kasparov, 1997) relied on game trees and pruning algorithms such as minimax. However generating the game tree in real-time for games such as Go proved to be difficult even with sophisticated computing power.

With the advent of deep learning, it has been shown that it is possible to learn the Q-table through the use of neural networks. These Deep Q-Networks (DQN) employed a technique called temporal difference learning, which is based on the hypothesis that the evaluation function becomes more accurate as the games proceeds. 

DeepMind developed AI game engines that relied on deep Q-learning on Atari games and Go (AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol, 2016) Specifically, AlphaGo employed a combination of techniques: convolutional neural networks, deep Q-learning, Monte Carlo tree search and powerful hardware.

Simulation to Reality

However it is difficult to transfer the knowledge gained by the agent to other domains (due to lack of understanding or capabilities of abstraction or transfer learning) or into the real-world (due to ambiguity, noise, unpredictability). These models are also vulnerable to adversarial examples.

While board games or Atari games are easy to solve by current AI systems, these domains are not so challenging. The simple game of dumb charades will be much more harder because the game requires visual, linguistic and social understanding.

Moreover, though it is claimed that the RL agents are capable of learning by themselves without any specialized domain knowledge, the agent receive some amount of guidance through the choice of model architecture and hyperparameters.

PART IV: NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING (NLP)

AI has been very successful in speech recognition.

The use of language is a major hallmark of human intelligence. Reading and writing are specific to humans. Humans all over the world talk. The main component of the Turing Test is language.

The recent advances in NLP can be attributed to  word embeddings (which are based on distributional semantics), recurrent neural networks and pre-trained language model (GPT-2, BERT).

Machine translation is an active research area. Though machines perform well, the evaluation method (BLUE score) is flawed. They make mistakes. They are vulnerable to adversarial examples or in the presence of noise (e.g. grammatical errors, SMS text). They do not work well on low-resource languages (e.g. Indian languages).

Question answering is another active research area. IBM Watson beat the world champion in the quiz show Jeopardy! Though digital personal assistants such as Siri, Cortana, Alexa perform question-answering, typically they perform mere answer retrieval. 

PART V: MEANING AND UNDERSTANDING 

The primary traits of human intelligence are the following: 

  • intuitive physics (e.g. world is composed of objects, objects have weight), intuitive biology (e.g. that there are animate and inanimate objects), intuitive psychology (social intelligence), 
  • knowledge of abstract and concrete concepts (metaphor), abstraction (ability to generalize between concepts) and analogy making (identify common essence between two concepts), 
  • cause and effect (e.g. if we push an object, the objects moves unless it is heavy or pulled by somebody else), predict possible futures,  simulate counterfactual events (e.g. tsunami in Heidelberg), ability to reason (use knowledge), 
  • self-awareness (consciousness)

Bongard problems are designed to test the abstraction and analogy-making skills of AI. Copycat was an approach that tested these skills in a microworld --- the letter-string domain.

Cyc is an ongoing project to teach machines common-sense.

Humans have the power of metacognition, in addition of cognition. We can think about, and reason on, what we think and what others think.

Q1: How soon are self-driving cars going to a reality? Ans: We're still far, far away from developing fully  autonomous vehicles.

Q2: Will AI replace all jobs? Ans: AI will likely create a new set of jobs. AI will replace low--pay, boring, degrading, dangerous jobs.

Q3: Should we be scared of AI? Ans: Humans need not be scared of super-intelligence; at least for the next couple of decades. However we should be worried about the reckless rush to deploy AI in all spheres of life without understanding intelligence, and capabilities and vulnerabilities of AI.

Q4: Can machines be creative? Ans: Most AI systems need a human in the loop. Seemingly creative systems such as AI relied on Cope's knowledge about music, algorithm design, and selection of music. More importantly, EMI was not capable enough to judge or appreciate its own music. EMI did not "understand" music, time signatures, rhythm, tune and many other concepts related to music and composition.

What makes us proud is not only the ability to produce music, but also the ability to appreciate it, the ability to comprehend what it communicates.

Thursday 20 May 2021

Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker

These are the key points I found in the book "Why We Sleep" by Dr. Matthew Walker.

PART 1: WHAT IS SLEEP

7-9 hours of sleep per day
sleep vs. evolution (unintuitive)

circadian rhythm (>24 hours), biological clock, suprachiasmatic nucleus, melatonin
adenosine (sleep drug)

jet lag: eastward (harder) vs. westward travel (easier); falling asleep ahead of usual time is harder
caffeine, vs. adenosine, processed by liver, half life of 7-8 hours
morning larks vs. night owls

How to identify sleep? (1) lack of external awareness; (2) easy to reverse (vs. anaesthesia, coma, hibernation, death); (3) posture; (4) time; (5) relaxed muscles; and () time distortion.

Sleep stages:
 - 90 minutes cycles
 - REM (dream sleep, paradoxical sleep) and NREM stages
 - AM (low frequency, coordinated pulses, deep sleep, during NREM) vs. FM (high frequency, REM)
 - REM atonia: muscle paralysis during REM sleep; to avoid acting out the dreams
 - wakefulness (reception), NREM sleep (reflection), REM sleep (integration)

Differences in sleep across species: (1) duration (4--22 hours); (2) pattern (monophasic, biphasic); (3) composition of NREM/REM stages); and (4) extreme situation (e.g. migratory birds undergo sleep fast, one half or both halves of the brain inactive).

Sleep rebound (catchup lost sleep)

Human sleep: (1) includes higher proportion of REM stages; (2) exclusive terrestrial sleepers.

PART 2: WHY SHOULD YOU SLEEP

Memory (NREM stage):  (1) free-up temporary storage (hippocampus); (2) consolidate memory to permanent storage (cortex); and (3) muscle memory, motor skills.

Creativity (REM stage): dream sleep

power nap: not a substitute for full-night sleep
microsleep - e.g falling asleep at the wheel
sleep inertia
sleepless elite

Consequences of sleep deprivation: (1) lack of concentration; (2) emotional irrationality; (3) psychiatric, mental illnesses (e.g. schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder); (4) higher risk of heart attack, diabetes, weight gain

PART 3: DREAM

 - psychotic: hallucination, delusional, disoriented , labile (mood swing), amnesia
 - not a replay of daytime events
 - strong activation in visual, motor, emotional and memory (hippocampus) regions of the brain, yet a relative deactivation of rational thought (prefrontal cortex)
 - repair emotional wounds, social skills, PTSD
 - creativity, problem-solving skills (e.g. Mendeleev), "sleep on it"

PART 4: FROM SLEEPING PILLS TO SOCIETY TRANSFORMED

Sleep disorders (Chapter 12): (1) somnambulism (sleep walking; trouble with REM sleep); (2) insomnia (inability to sleep; emotional distress); (3) narcolepsy (excessive sleeping; trouble with release of orexin); (4) fatal familial insomnia (hereditary); and (5) sleep apnoea.

Sleep indicators (for the brain): (1) reduction of heart rate; (2) reduction of blood pressure; (3) reduction of metabolism (no late night dinner); and (4)
 lowering of core body temperature.

sleep opportunity
beauty sleep
short sleep
sleep deprivation = food deprivation

Improve sleep quality (Chapter 13):
 - melatonin release increases with sunset (drop in sunlight, temperature)
 - humans are predominantly visual creatures
 - lighting (yellow incandescent vs. blue LED; lowered, dim light in the evening)
temperature (wash face, feet and hands with cold water; hot bath;)
 - 18.3 degree Celsius is the optimum temperature for sleep.
 - alcohol (sedation and not sleep)
 - avoid alarm clock, avoid snooze button

"Modern society has taken nature's perfect solution (sleep) and divided it into two problems: (1) lack of sleep at night, (2) inability to remain fully awake during the day."

Sleeping pills (Chapter 14): (1) do not induce natural sleep; (2) not the perfect cure for insomnia; (3) belong to the class of drugs called sedatives; (4) rebound insomnia; and (5) withdrawal symptoms.

CBT-I (cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia)

Health Trinity: balanced diet, proper exercise, sound sleep

do not go to bed too hungry or too full
avoid excess carbs, sugar
get workout a few hours before bedtime

Sleep and Society (Chapter 15): (1) sleep loss declared as global health epidemic (WHO); (2) sleep deprivation vs. ADHD; (3) relaxed approach to work schedules; (4) sleep deprivation among employees, students, doctors; and (5) 22 hours without sleep = legally drunk.

 Useful Links: 

  1. Blog post 
  2. www.sleepfoundation.org

Friday 14 May 2021

Chapter 2: Chernobyl Prayer, Svetlana Alexievich

Please find below a few of the mind-numbing, heart-wrenching statements I found in Chapter 2 of  "Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster" by Svetlana Alexievich.

Mother:
"She's disabled from Chernobyl."
 
Lecturer:
"In the days straight after the accident, all the books on radiation - on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even on X-rays - vanished from the library."
 
"There was even a joke that, if Chernobyl had exploded on Papua New Guinea, everyone but Papuans would be shaking with fear."
 
Hunter:
"They were excited to see us, came running to a human voice. They welcomed us."
 
Pripyat resident:
"But the words rang in my ears: `My dear, for some people procreation would be a sin.'"
 
Photographer:
"It wasn't obvious what to film. Nothing was blowing up anywhere." [silent killer; in stealth-mode]
 
Teachers:
"There is nothing that can surprise them, and nothing that can cheer them up."
 
Journalist:
"For the third month they are telling us on the radio, `The situation is stablilizing...The situation is stabilizing...The situation is stabilizing...'"
 
Academic:
"Because they will always go together in history: the downfall of Socialism and the Chernobyl disaster."
 
"From the viewpoint of our culture, thinking about yourself was selfish. It showed a lack of spirit. There was always something more important than you and your life."
 
Agricultural Scientist:
"Everybody is shouting that it's not possible to live on that land, but I say it is. We need to learn how to live on it."
 
The Folk Choir:
"If I had known what was going to happen, I would have shut the door, stood blocking the front entrance and locked them all ten times over..."

Thursday 1 April 2021

Chapter 1: Chernobyl Prayer, Svetlana Alexievich

Please find below a few of the mind-numbing, heart-wrenching statements I found in Chapter 1 of  "Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster" by Svetlana Alexievich.
 
The scientist:
"I thought the worst was behind me, the war years, and that now I was safe."
 
The father:
"I want to testify: my daughter died from Chernobyl. But they want us to keep quiet."
 
The returnees:
"My good husband liked to say man pulls the trigger, but God carries the bullet."
 
"You just need to live. That's all."
 
"Two Chernobyl women are chatting. One says, `Have you heard, everyone's got the white blood cancer now?' The other says, `Rubbish! Yesterday I cut my finger and the blood was red.'"
 
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. There's a Ukrainian woman selling big red apples at the market. She was touting her wares: `Come and get them! Apples from Chernobyl!' Someone told her, `Don't advertise the fact that they're from Chernobyl, love. No one will buy them.' `Don't you believe it! They're selling well! People buy them for their mother-in-law or their boss!"
 
"As they say, the place where you were born is where you belong."
 
"...this is an act of betrayal."
 
"Your children only bring you joy while they are little."
 
"Why did that Chernobyl blow up? Some say it's the scientists to blame. Trying to catch God by the beard, and He has the last laugh. And it's us that suffer!"
 
"It has been two years since we stopped drifting about those strange places and came back home."
 
"Find Anna Sushko for us...She's got a hump, been mute since childhood...The whole village cared about her."
 
The refugees:
"And the bandits asked us: `Is it Kulobi or Pamiri?'"
 
"Who would I give birth to, with my soul dead?"
 
"One life is over, and I don't have the strength for another one."
 
"The Ukranian word for `wormwood' is Chernobyl."
 
"Man is crafty only in evil, but he's so simple and open in his plain words of love."
 
The Soldier's Choir:
"We got home. I took everything off, all the stuff I'd been wearing...I gave the cap to my little son, as a present. He kept asking for it. He wore it non-stop. Two years later, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour." [the ignorance among the liquidators on the danger of radiation]
 
"When I got back from Afghanistan, I knew I'd live. After Chernobyl, the opposite was true."
 
"The doctor wouldn't touch a thing." [lack of transparency]
 
"You're a Chernobyl guy now. Who'd want to marry you?"
 
"As we said, battling the atom with spades! In the twentieth century."
 
"Then, of course, they got us to sign some form. A non-disclosure agreement."
 
"Out there, death was an everyday reality. It was no mystery." [Chernobyl vs. Afghanistan]
 
"After my nine operations and two hearts attacks, I don't judge anyone any more."
 
"A job for real men!" [heroic urge, sense of adventure]
 
"But it was clear their [robots'] insides has been fried by the high doses of radiation."

Monday 29 March 2021

The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis

These are the titles I came up with for each chapter in the book:


Chapter 1: The omnibus
Chapter 2: The dark, damp, dreary Hell
Chapter 3: The bright Heaven (Real World)
Chapter 4: The mean, unforgiving man - Who are we to judge others? Are we even worthy to do so?
Chapter 5: The intellectual man - Be careful of sins of the intellect such as ego, pride or prejudice.
Chapter 6: The materialist
Chapter 7: The cynical man (the conspiracy theorist) - Is it wise to distrust everything? That's too much negative energy.
Chapter 8: The embarrassed lady - Turn your shame into something that's nourishing.
Chapter 9: The Teacher
Chapter 10: The dominating wife
Chapter 11: The possessive mother, and the man with the lizard - How to deal with addiction?
Chapter 12: The ordinary woman (Sarah Smith) and her self-centred husband - Fame on earth vs. Fame on Heaven;
Chapter 13: The tiny, insignificant, useless Hell (unreal World)
Chapter 14: The dream

Favourite Quotes:
1) "No one had a right to come between me and my son. Not even God."
2) "Don't you know that you can't hurt anyone in this country."
3) "I cannot kill it against your will. It is impossible. Have I your permission?"
4) "All Hell is smaller than one pebble of your earthly world."

References:
1) Exploring C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce

Wednesday 17 March 2021

Walsalam and Upadeshi

This article summarizes the book "Songs as Locus for a Lay Theology: Moshe Walsalam Sastriyar and Sadhu Kochukunju Upadeshi" written by Philip K Mathai.

Chapter 1: Sangam Age (Tamilakam, socialism, Buddhism, Jainism, Dravidian traditions); Aryan Influence (Hinduism, caste hierarchy, Sanskrit, Malayalam); St Thomas (1st century); Thomas of Cana (3rd century); Adi Sankara (8th century); Venad (12th century); Vasco da Gama (1498 CE); the Portuguese (~150 years); Synod of Diamper; Coonan Cross Oath (Catholic Church vs. Malankara Orthodox Church); the Dutch; Travancore (padmanabhadasan); the British; Revolt (Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja, Velu Thambi Dalawa); Social Reformation (Chattambi Swamikal, Sri Narayana Guru, Ayyankali, Upper Cloth Revolt, Temple Entry Proclamation); Church Missionary Society (Kottayam, Benjamin Bailey); London Missionary Society (Nagercoil); Mar Thoma Church (~1880 CE); Church of South India (1948 CE);  

Chapter 2: Doxology (praise, worship, songs, music, actions) vs. Theology (doctrines, liturgy); how various Christian traditions (Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Eastern) differ; history of Doxology in Latin, German (Luther) and English (Isaac Watts, John Wesley, Charles Wesley); the Bhakti tradition (worship, complete submission to a personal God through word, mind and body) in India and Hinduism; locus theologicus (source of theology); 

Chapter 3: Moshe Walsalam (surname, beloved) Sastriyar (honorific, scholar); 1847-1916; born into a nadar Christian family in Trivandrum; associated with the CSI Church and the London Mission Society; trained poet, musician and composer; translated English and Tamil songs into Malayalam; Kathakalakshepam; Trust (ninte hitam...), Liberation (sneha virunnanubhavippan...);  

Chapter 4: Sadhu (honorific, sage) Kochukunju Upadeshi (honorific, preacher); 1883-1945; belonged to the Mar Thoma Church; General Secretary of the Mar Thoma Voluntary Evangelists' Association; born in Edayaranmula; no formal training in music; the Valley of Baca; Worldly life (sojourner, ascetic way of life, transitory life); Love (sensual love); Trust (dukhathinte paanapathram...);

Conclusion: The songs written by Walsalam and Upadeshi are still in circulation in the churches of Kerala, and thus have stood the test of time. These songs are also ecumenical in nature. The songs represent the theology, faith and doctrinal stance of the laity (both Walsalam and Upadeshi were evangelists), as opposed to the theology taught by the clergy (remember Martin Luther). Finally,  the songs were products of amalgamation of the Western theology and the Indian religious culture (bhakti), resulting in a new form of doxology based on new vocabulary (e.g. devan, avataram, pey) and literary expression (e.g. love feast, end of casteism).

Friday 4 December 2020

How to be a Good Teacher: Lessons from Totto-chan

Totto-chan (Tetsuko Kuroyanagi): charming, adorable, naughty in a cute way

Headmaster Kobayashi: creative, liberal, pragmatic, trust-worthy, averse to publicity and marketing, love for children, passion for teaching

 - unconventional method of teaching; no specific time-table; just a list of problems and questions in the subjects to be studied on a day; classes only till noon and walks around the school and to the Temple in the afternoon

 - balanced nutritious meal; something from the ocean and something from the hills; rice, fish, meat; chew, chew, chew it well; Itadakimasu (I gratefully partake); eat slowly and take time over meal to enjoy pleasant conversation

 - swim naked; all bodies are beautiful; to avoid morbid curiosity or shame about their bodies; 

 - eurhythmics; music; rhythm of nature (pounding of rain drops on window panes); live in harmony with the nature

 - social gatherings; trip to Toi Spa; camping in the Assembly Hall; field kitchen; school walks;

 - ordinary clothes instead of uniform; no need to worry about clothes getting dirty; the children can play to their heart's content

 - public speaking during lunch hours; 

 - the students at Tomoe were trained to focus on their task and do not get distracted by what others were doing; 

 - the students knew that mean behaviour was something to be ashamed of; the students were raised with discipline; everyone got into the habit of understanding one another and trying to help

 - learning by doing; farmer teacher; farming was included in the curriculum

"And these were the things that Totto-chan imagined: not too much study; lots of Sports days, field kitchens, camping and walks."

Tuesday 22 September 2020

The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters is a book written by C S Lewis. The book talks about the various ways in which the Devil tempts humans. As a framework, the letters are written by a senior tempter Screwtape to his nephew and junior tempter Wormwood. Through these letters, Screwtape trains Wormwood in the art of tempting. Wormwood is assigned a human, who is only referred to as the Patient in the book. The book touches various aspects of the life of a Christian such as church, family, marriage and love.

The Screwtape Letters presents the Biblical truths and fine-tunes them for the modern age (restaurants, industrial age, jobs, various schools of thought such as communism and socialism). The book provides a Christian with many thoughts of wisdom and practical means to deal with trials and temptations. After reading this book, certain aspects become more apparent or pronounced in daily life. We begin to actively pursue certain goals (e.g. reading a book).

Trials vs. Temptations

James 1: 2, 3

Consider it pure joy, my brother, wherever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

James 1: 12 

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised for those who love him.

e.g. covid-19 is a trial; Abraham faced trial; 

James 1:13

When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted nor does he tempt anyone but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death

e.g desire for absolute novelty leads to temptation;

The Devil exploits trials to tempt humans.

Summary

  1. Screwtape rejects Wormwood's plan to use the power of reason as a weapon to turn the Patient away from the Enemy. I remember Ravi Zacharias signing off one of his books with the words “a world a reasonable faith.” Instead of overwhelming the Patient with doctrines and arguments, Screwtape recommends distracting the Patient with simple, ordinary matters of life because the pressure of the ordinary is too powerful a force to be reckoned with.

  1. Screwtape is shocked to hear from Wormwood that the Patient has committed himself to Christian and has begun attending a church nearby. Screwtape now recommends to distract the Patient with the idiosyncrasies of the fellow church-goers. The underlying idea here is the challenges associated with achieving dreaming aspirations with laborious doing. I remember the advice I received as a Master’s student that research is dirty work but the final product is a significant and original contribution to science.

  1. Screwtape recommends Wormwood to exploit the domestic tension between the Patient and his mother. The Patient should get irritated by her annoying behavior and his newfound spiritual experience should not help him deal with this crisis. The Patient should pray for her spiritual well-being and forget to pray for her physical and mental needs.

  1. Screwtape touches upon the painful subject of prayer in this letter.

  1. War has broken out in Europe. Screwtape recommends Wormwood to exploit the situation and ensure the Patient spends a lot of time worrying about his future. Wars, pandemics and recession offer uncertainty, pain, sorrow and suffering. According to Buddhism, human desire, which is the root cause of all pain and suffering, should be dampened through asceticism, meditation and good works.

  1. Screwtape admits that the Patient will have a certain amount of benevolence due to this newfound fath in the Enemy. However Wordwood should direct the benevolence towards unfamiliar, faraway people and thus rendering it an imaginary feeling. At the same time, Wormwood can direct his malice towards his friends, family and neighbours rendering it a real experience.

  1. Screwtape suggests Wormwood to exploit the European war and push the Patient to have extreme worldviews---either patriotism (so that he’s ready to take part in the ongoing war) or pacifism (so that he’s constantly disturbed by the ongoing war).

  1. The Patient is experiencing a period of dryness in his spiritual life. Screwtape reminds Wormwood not to get too excited due to the law of undulation. According to this law, the Patient goes through highs and lows in this life and the Enemy works the most in times of distress. Some people of the Enemy (e.g. Sadhu Kochu Kunju Upadeshi) have experienced long spells of distress and have come out successfully.

  1. Screwtape suggests way to exploit the period of dryness through various temptations. According to empirical evidence, sensual temptations such as scantily-clad women and pornography are the most effective. Drinking and smoking also make sure the Enemy stays subdued with constant guild and shame.

  1. Screwtape is glad to know that the Patient has made some worldly friends. Screwtape now suggests Wormwood to make the Patient lives a double life---a pious life inside the church and a carefree life outside the church. This technique makes the Patient a hypocrite and further aggravates the wound of guild and shame in the spiritual front of this life.

  1. Screwtape teaches Wormwood on various forms of laughter. Laughter can be aroused in four ways---joy, fun, jokes or humour and flippancy. The Patient should be tempted to crack lewd jokes or engage in flippancy with his friends.

  1. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one---the gentle slope, soft underfoot (on the ground), without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,

  1. Screwtape reminds Wormwood to prevent the Patient from indulging in real pleasures of life such as enjoying movies, following cricket, enjoying music, reading books, walking, collecting stamps or meeting with friends. These are innocent pleasures and are not harmful in itself. “If something as pedestrian as reading a book saves one from evil, devil’s task is very difficult.” “An idle mind is the Devil’s workshop.”

  1. Humility

  1. Screwtape recommends Wordwood to make the Patient be too keen and anxious about the Future. Let the Patient spend all his time and energy chasing after the future (remember: chasing after the wind, Ecclesiastes). We do not know the what the future holds and so we strive for a better future by engaging in nobly pursuits such as social progress, evolution, communism, technological advances.

  1. Screwtape chides Wormwood for allowing the Patient to attend only one church. Wormwood ought to ensure the Patient becomes a connoisseur of churches and keeps looking for churches that suit him. Let the Patient be concerned with the unessential matters such as mass vs. holy communion, candles, clothes, jewellery, food, saints, speaking in tongues and baptism. “Mere Christianity

  1. Screwtape talks about the temptation of gluttony which can operate in two ways: gluttony of excess and gluttony of delicacy.

  1. Screwtape talks about sexual temptations. Family is a single unit composed of distinct members but united though Love. The purpose of marriage is fidelity (preservation of chastity), fertility (transmission of life) and good will (mutual help). Hell promotes competition (as opposed to co-operation), distrust and zero-sum game of life.

  1. Screwtape discusses why God created humans? The answer, even Screwtape knows, is disinterested love (“unconditional love”).

  1. Screwtape reveals the limitations of the Devil i.e. the Devil can’t tempt humans for ever. The best approach is to admit one’s weakness and have faith in God (e.g. Ecclesiastes, Job).

  1. Screwtape suggests to develop a sense of ownership in the Patient---my time, my money, my body, my God. According to the Bible, we are ought to take care of everything on earth (Genesis 1:28). We don’t own anything. We are called to be stewards on earth.

  1. Screwtape again admits the limitations of the Devil. There are many good things human can do---sleeping, washing, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working. The Devil has to twist them for its own benefit. Nothing is naturally on its side.

  1. --TODO--

  1. Screwtape talks about developing a sense of spiritual pride in the Patient. Encourage him to distinguish Christians from the rest (unbelievers).

  1. Screwtape talks about the horror of the same old thing. Humans tend to get fed up with monotony and tediousness associated with routine activities in life. Human like change (seasons, months, weekend/weekday, fashion). Wormwood should attempt to twist this need and make the Patient crave for absolute novelty. This is dangerous for humans because of the law of diminishing returns.

  1. Unselfishness vs. Selflessness

  1. Prayers

  1. Screwtape reminds Wormwood that death of the Patient is something they should try to avoid as much as possible. Wormwood has the opportunity to tempt the Patient throughout his life. In this way, Wormwood can exhaust the Patient with his temptations (e.g. mid-life crisis, quarter-life crisis). Perseverance is key. “Experience is the mother of illusion (remember Roman German class)” “You don’t have to be hopeful to fight for a better future.---Fridays for Future” Humans believe that earth can be turned into heaven by politics, eugenics, science, psychology, communism. So humans work hard for a better world and create a better future.

  1. Hatred vs. Fear vs. Cowardice vs. Courage

  1. Reality

  1. Screwtape chides Wormwood for letting him die. As the Patient was dying, he saw Wormwood, the angels and God.

Conclusion

The only goal of the devil is to win the human soul to its side. The Devil is not interested in what events happens on earth. For instance, Screwtape does not care about the European War (WW2).

Devil has many limitations. Everything is naturally good---eating, drinking, sleeping. The Devil has to corrupt them to be of use.

The temptations will keep increasing in life. Perseverance and courage are two keys virtues. Develop nice hobbies and interests---reading book, watching movies. It’s very easy to resist the devil.

He doesn’t always tempt us with material possessions, food or love. Instead the Devil attempts to:

  • confuse the Patient (e.g. worldly friends, fellow church goers),

  • to exaggerate his minor wicked characteristics (e.g. pride, sense of ownership) and 

  • to twist naturally good aspects of life (e.g. eating->gluttony, novelty--> absolute novelty).

Friday 18 August 2017

The Purity Principle, Randy Alcorn

“Confessing your sins is great, confessing your temptations is even greater" - Randy Alcorn

This article is a summary of the book The Purity Principle by Randy Alcorn. The book discusses sexual purity, why is important to maintain sexual purity and how we can achieve the same. Randy quotes the scripture as and when required in order to authenticate the message he wants to convey to the reader through this book. Nobody is free from temptations. Even pastors are prone to temptations. Throughout the book, Randy shares his own experiences and thus the reader is able to connect with the author.

The book begins with a brief account of the lives of various people such as Eric and Tiffany (fictitious names, probably) who have pursued immoral, impure paths of life and ended up with disastrous results. Although God forgave their mistakes, they had reached a point of no return in their lives. This was because, as Randy asserts, punishment is built into sins we commit. Randy views purity as wise and impurity as stupidity.

Sin can be of various types. However sexual sin is different from other kinds of sin. Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities destroyed by God, had fallen deeply into sexual sin. Paul reiterates this in his letters to the Corinthians (1 Cor 6:18) and the Thessalonians (1 Thess 4: 3-8). An interesting point to note is that sex is more of what you are, rather than what you do. Sex defines us. Thus it is important to purify ourselves by keeping away from sexual sin. Also, by accepting Jesus as the Christ, we were bought at a price and hence, our body belongs to God (1 Cor 6:19-20). As a result, we cannot do anything that we please with our body.

When it comes to temptations, Christians are the most vulnerable because of the constant threat from the devil. It is important to be careful about the mind to maintain purity. Sometimes, it is better to avoid temptation rather than resist temptation. Notice how avoid is different from resist. If we keep resisting, we are subjecting ourselves to the temptation. On the other hand, when we avoid temptations, we are staying away from them altogether.

Randy lists down various aspects of life where it is necessary to maintain a pure mind and body and thereby follow the purity principle. In spite of the wickedness of larger sins such as infidelity, it is important to focus on the lesser ones that feed our minds on a daily basis in the form of media, peers, novels, movies and arts. For example, if we regularly watch a TV programme that shows immoral content then avoid it. We live in an era where media and technology (e.g. Whatsapp, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram) can control our lives immensely. We have to have a prudent approach towards the manner in which we use these resources. Randy contrasts his words with what Jesus instructed in Mathew 5:29. Randy claims that whatever he instructed is nothing radical compared to Jesus’ command.

Randy makes it a point to handle the cases of singles, and married couples differently. Single, unmarried men and women should prepare themselves for their marriage. Randy explores various issues related to dating, masturbation, and peer pressure. Now for married couples and parents, Randy observes that umpteen marriages have suffered due to dishonesty by either of the partners. Even after entering into marriage, we are not free from sexual temptations. It is necessary for couples to be open with each other about everything, especially sexual temptations, and request prayers from one another.

The book concludes with a discussion on maintaining accountability with others. Randy recalls how on one occasion he underwent temptation and how the temptation vanished after a phone call with his friend. Thus, we are in a constant battle with the devil. However, this is a battle that we can win. It is indeed possible to avoid temptations and thereby maintain sexual purity and holiness.

And that's what The Purity Principle is all about!

Tuesday 6 December 2016

English Grammar Punctuation

Notes from Eats, Shoots& Leaves (Lynne Truss)
 
Traditionally punctuation made it easier to read text aloud or to signal a pause. This was especially useful for actors on stage. In modern usage, punctuation serves additional functions such as indicate emphasis, for syntactic reasons or to avoid ambiguity.

Every publication house follows different style guides for punctuation. Additionally, the British usage differ from the American one (e.g. usage of punctuation within quotation marks).

Apostrophe: possessive marker (e.g. Jack's, boy's, boys'), to indicate omission (e.g. summer of '69), indicate time or quantity (e.g. two month's notice), plurals of letters and words (e.g. f's, do's and don't's); no need to use for plurals or abbreviations (e.g. MPs and MLAs) or dates (e.g. 1980s)

Comma: for lists (e.g. Tom, Dick and Harry), for joining complete sentences, bracketing commas (instead of em-dash or parenthesis);

Semicolon and Colon: to indicate pause and emphasis

Exclamation mark, italics, quotation marks (single and double), brackets (round, square, curly, angle)

How to choose between single and double quotation mark?
How to choose among round bracket, em-dash and comma?

Hyphen: to combine words (e.g. pre-train), when a noun phrase acts as an adjective (e.g. state-of-the-art model), to split unfinished words at the end of a line, to avoid ambiguity (e.g. re-formed vs. reformed)
 
Punctuation Marks
  • Full stop 
    Alice met Bob.
  • Comma
    Alice gave Bob a pen, paper, and a pencil. 
    Alice, a student, met Bob.
  • Semicolon
    Alice gave Bob a paper; Bob took it reluctantly.
  • Colon
    Alice gave Bob a few items: a pen, a paper, and a pencil.
  • Question mark
    Did Alice meet Bob?
  • Exclamation mark
    Hurray, we won! Yipee!
  • Quotes
    ``Come,’' Alice told Bob.
  • Apostrophe denotes contraction and possession.
    it’s, Alice's, p’s, 7’s, 1990s, MPs
  • Hyphen
    Does your organization have a by-law?
  • Dash denotes comment
    Alice will not come - I hope so.
  • Parentheses denotes supplementary information.
    Alice (a student) met Bob.
 
Character
Code Point
Name
Purpose
u2010
Hyphen
To represent compound terms
u2014
Em dash
In place of commas, parentheses
(use em dash sparingly and instead use the alternatives)
u2013
En dash
To denote ranges
u2212
Minus
To represent subtraction
-
u002D
Hyphen-minus
ASCII hyphen

Tuesday 24 May 2016

A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking

The Uncertainty Principle
Laplace argued that universe was deterministic i.e. we can predict the changes in the state of the universe provided we know the current state of the universe. However, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle showed that the more accurate we try to measure the location of an object the less accurate the result would be. As a result, it is difficult to measure the state of the universe at any given point of time.

Plank's quantum hypothesis and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle led to the theory of quantum mechanism where position of an object is defined in terms of probabilities i.e. an object would be at position A in time B with some probability C.

The dual nature of light is an implication of quantum mechanics. Quantum hypothesis said that light energy, which was thought to be composed of waves, was dissipated in terms of particles called quanta. The uncertainty principle said that particles may seem to be occurring at multiple positions based on the measurement. Interference of waves as well as particles (double-slit experiment) was observed.

The interference of particles helped physicists in understanding the nature of orbits of electrons in an atom. There are only a finite number of valid orbits in an atom because of the positive interference of electrons around the nucleus. The negative interference of electrons leads to the unavailability of certain orbits around the nucleus.

Einstein's general theory of relativity (classical theory) does not take the theory of quantum mechanism into consideration. It is necessary to combine both the theories in order to have a general, unified, consistent theory.

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Plato and Platypus

This article is a summary of the book "Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar" by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein. The authors argue that philosophy and jokes are two sides of the same coin. Both of them amuse us, tickle our minds and makes us think. The book is an attempt to explain philosophy through jokes. The authors call this approach philogagging.

Metaphysics - Does the universe have a purpose? What are the characteristics that define an object? Do human beings have free will?
  1. Teleology - What is purpose of our lives?
  2. Essentialism - What are the essential qualities that define an object?
  3. Rationalism - We acquire knowledge through reasoning.
  4. Infinity and Eternity - Is the universe going to last till eternity?
  5. Determinism versus Free Will - Do we have free will or are all our actions predetermined?
  6. Process Philosophy - Evolving God!
  7. The Principle of Parsimony
Logic - How to perform reasoning?
  1. Aristotle's Law of Non-contradiction - A statement cannot be true and not true simultaneously.
  2. Illogical Reasoning - Wrong reasoning!
  3. Inductive Logic - Reasoning is performed based on observation and generalization.
  4. Falsifiability - In order for a statement to be valid there should be some possible circumstance when the statement can be proved to be false.
  5. Deductive Logic - Reasoning is performed based on rules.
  6. Argument from Analogy- Conclusions are drawn from analogous entities or situations.
  7. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc Fallacy - An event X succeeded by another event Y does not necessarily mean X is the cause of Y.
  8. Monte Carlo Fallacy - Each trial is independent of the other.
  9. Circular Argument - One of the premises of an argument is the conclusion itself.
  10. Respect for Authority Fallacy - False dependence on the veracity of a higher authority than verifying the accuracy of a statement.
  11. Zeno's Paradox - Achilles and the Tortoise
  12. Logical and Semantic Paradoxes - This following statement is false. The preceding statement in true.
Epistemology - What does it mean to say I know something? How do we gain knowledge?
  1. Reason versus Revelation - Is knowledge attained through human reasoning or through revelation from God?
  2. Empiricism - Knowledge is attained through sense data
  3. German Idealism (Immanuel Kant)
  4. Philosophy of Mathematics - Analytic versus Synthetic statement, A priori versus A posteriori statement
  5. Pragmatism - Truth of a statement lies in its practical consequences.
  6. Phenomenology
Ethics - What is good? What is right? Is there any absolute standard to distinguish between right and wrong?
  1. Divine Revelation - Ethics is decided by God.
  2. Platonic Virtue - Ethics is decided by human wisdom.
  3. Utilitarianism - The end justifies the means.
  4. Golden Rule - Do unto others what you want others to do unto you (as long it can be considered a universal law).
  5. Will to Power
  6. Emotivism - Ethics is decided by our emotional state.
  7. Applied Ethics - Professional ethics
  8. Psychoanalysis - Ethics is decided by our unconscious being.
  9. Situation Ethics - Ethics is decided by the situation under consideration.
Philosophy of Religion - Is there a God?
  1. Deism and Historical Religions - "The Force" versus Creator/Clockmaker
  2. Belief in God - Theism (God exists), Atheism (God does not exist), Agnosticism (Current evidences cannot prove existence of God)
  3. Theological Distinctions - Jewish; Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Methodist, Jehovah's Witness; Buddhism, Zen
  4. Airhead Philosophy

Philosophy of Language - How do we communicate?
  1. Ordinary Language Philosophy - "I promise" versus "I paint", "nothing" seems to be a thing, "I love you" and "I love ya" occur in different contexts, "I believe in God" can have different connotations,
  2. The Linguistic Nature of Proper Names - Bertrand Russel (short descriptions),  Saul Kripke (rigid demonstrators)
  3. The Philosophy of Vagueness

Social and Political Philosophy - Do we need laws? Is it possible to have an ideal state?
  1. The State of Nature
  2. Might equals Right
  3. Feminism
  4. Economic Philosophies
  5. Philosophy of Law
Relativity - What are the things that are relative and things that are absolute?
  1. Relativity of Truth
  2. Relativity of Time
  3. Relativity of World-views
  4. Relativity of Views
  5. Absolute Relativity
Existentialism