Monday, December 22, 2025

Heidegger's silence on themes like God

 Determining who's "more prescient" between Heidegger and Whitehead depends on the area: Whitehead seems more prescient regarding science, technology's role, and broader cosmic process (process philosophy), while Heidegger offers profound, albeit controversial, insights into technology's essence (enframing) and critique of Western metaphysics (onto-theology), influencing critical theory and postmodernism more directly, despite his problematic politics. Whitehead's focus on interconnectedness and experience aligns well with modern ecological/systems thinking, while Heidegger's warnings about technology's dominance speak to contemporary anxieties about AI and control, making both relevant in different, crucial ways. 

Arguments for Whitehead's Prescience:
  • Engagement with Science: Whitehead, a mathematician, actively integrated modern physics (relativity, quantum theory) and logic into his process philosophy, offering a dynamic, relational worldview (process metaphysics) that anticipates ecological thought and systems theory better than Heidegger's often anti-modern stance.
  • God & Compassion: His concept of God as a "fellow-sufferer" and source of tender care, nurturing possibilities, resonates with contemporary process theology and relational ethics, a stark contrast to Heidegger's silence on such themes.
  • Interconnectedness: His emphasis on "prehension" (feeling/grasping) highlights the world as interconnected events, crucial for understanding complex systems, notes this Academia.edu article. 
Arguments for Heidegger's Prescience:
  • Critique of Technology (Gestell): His concept of Gestell (enframing) as technology's essence—reducing everything to a "standing reserve" for exploitation—is incredibly prescient regarding modern tech-driven society, AI, and environmental destruction, argues this ResearchGate article.
  • Critique of Metaphysics (Ontotheology): His analysis of Western philosophy's "forgetting of Being" (onto-theology) underpins much of post-structuralism, deconstruction, and critiques of totalizing systems, influencing fields far beyond philosophy.
  • Finitude & Authenticity: His focus on human finitude (Being-towards-death) and the call for authentic existence remains central to existential and critical thought, notes this Cambridge University Press & Assessment article. 
Conclusion:
  • Whitehead is more prescient for a philosophy with science and a relational, ecological future, providing tools for understanding complexity and interconnection.
  • Heidegger is more prescient for a radical critique of technology's underlying essence and its impact on meaning, offering powerful, though ethically fraught, diagnostic tools for our current predicament. 
Both offer vital, complementary perspectives for navigating the complexities of the 21st century, with Whitehead's vision often seen as more constructive and Heidegger's as more profoundly critical. - GoogleAI

Thematic Concerns and Techniques in the Novels of Upamanyu Chatterjee

A Vishwakarma, N Kaur - AIJFR-Advanced International Journal for Research, 2025
Upamanyu Chatterjee is one of the most well-known and successful Indian writers working in English literature today. This research paper explores the deeper levels of theme and techniques in his books. With a strong socio-cultural and Indian …

[PDF] The Role of Literature in Nation Building and Cultural Consciousness

CM Aigali - ಅಕ್ಷರಸೂರ್ಯ (AKSHARASURYA), 2025
… He noted that writers like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Rabindranath Tagore, and Sri Aurobindo expressed patriotic spirit through art and … Indian writers like Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu, Sir Aurobindo, Subramania Bharati, Muld Raj …

[HTML] 1. Indian Culture 2. Books 3. University of Calcutta 4. Manu-Smrti the Laws of Manu with the Bhasya of Medhatithi

D Puja
… Sri Aurobindo and the Future of Mankind … Sri Aurobindo and the Future of Mankind …

[PDF] INCULCATION OF VALUES THROUGH EDUCATION: RELEVANCE IN TODAY'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM FOR CREATING A BETTER HUMAN SOCIETY

R Babu - … Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (IJMR). https …, 2025
A value stands for ideals men live for. Values are part and parcel of the philosophy of a nation and that of its education system. They are the guiding principles of life which are conducive to all round development. With a well designed system of …


Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra 

Friday, December 05, 2025

Napoleon and Hitler

 Today's critical appraisal of Napoleon is highly polarized and complex, recognizing him as both a visionary reformer and an authoritarian whose ambition caused immense suffering. While often compared to Hitler in terms of megalomania and a desire for European domination, he is generally considered to be in a fundamentally different moral category due to the absence of the explicit, genocidal racial ideology that defined Nazism. 

Contemporary Critical Appraisal of Napoleon
Modern historical consensus views Napoleon through a dual lens, acknowledging the duality of his impact. 
Positive Aspects (The "White Legend"):
  • Legal Reforms: The Napoleonic Code (Civil Code of 1804) is his most enduring legacy, still forming the basis of civil law in over 70 countries today. It established principles like equality before the law and property rights, institutionalizing key aspects of the French Revolution.
  • Modernization: He centralized French administration, established the Bank of France, reformed the tax system, and created a merit-based educational system (lycées), laying the groundwork for the modern nation-state.
  • Meritocracy: He promoted individuals based on talent rather than birth, a radical idea at the time, encapsulated in the motto “La carrière ouverte aux talents” (careers open to talent). 
Negative Aspects (The "Black Legend"):
  • Authoritarian Rule: He was an absolute dictator who suppressed political freedoms, established strict censorship, and had little patience for opposition.
  • War and Casualties: His relentless military campaigns for empire led to nearly 17 years of war, causing an estimated six million deaths across Europe and leaving France financially strained.
  • Reversal of Rights: He reversed some revolutionary gains, notably re-establishing slavery in French colonies in 1802 and reinforcing patriarchal norms that limited women's rights within the Napoleonic Code. 
The Comparison to Hitler
Historians strongly caution against equating Napoleon and Hitler, arguing that the comparison is "odious" and fundamentally flawed. 
  • No Moral Stain of Genocide: The primary distinction is the nature of their ambition. Hitler was driven by a virulent, racist ideology centered on the extermination of entire ethnic groups (the Holocaust), which involved industrialized mass murder on a scale and with an intent utterly unknown in Napoleon's time. Napoleon, conversely, was notably tolerant for his era and even actively worked to emancipate Jews from ghettos across Europe.
  • Legacy of Institutions vs. Destruction: Napoleon left a lasting legacy of modern institutions and legal codes that still function today. Hitler left behind nothing but an "immense moral trauma" and the physical and political ruin of Germany and much of Europe.
  • Aims were Different: Napoleon sought to spread the (flawed) ideals of the French Revolution and create a more rational, unified Europe under French dominance. Hitler sought racial purification and territorial expansion for the "Aryan" race, aiming for a "New Order" based on an ideology of hatred and subhumanity. 
In sum, while both were megalomaniacal dictators and conquerors, Napoleon's legacy is a complex mixture of groundbreaking reforms and the high human cost of war, whereas Hitler's legacy is one of unparalleled, deliberate evil and destruction. - GoogleAI

[HTML] Deconstructing “Abrahamic Myth”: A Critical Analysis of Islam's Place in the Abrahamic Tradition

VAM Ashrof
Vik Khanna’s article, Abrahamic Myth: How Islam Rebranded the God of the Bible, published in Blaze Media on November 16, 2025, advances a sharply polemical thesis that challenges the legitimacy of Islam as an authentic Abrahamic faith. The …

[PDF] Reconstructing Theological Identity in Interreligious Conversion: An Interpretive Study of Lived Faith

RAP Pradana, RAP Prastya - Irfana: Journal of Religious Studies, 2025
Religious conversion represents a profound area of study within comparative theology, exploring how individuals reinterpret faith through spiritual and existential transformation. Within this broader discourse, the phenomenological exploration of …

Rama's Ayodhya: Creating and Contesting Hindu Identity

A Truschke - Journal of the Economic and Social History of the …, 2025
… By independence, Hindu nationalism was clearly articulated as a far-right ideology of Hindu supremacy, and the robust organization of Hindutva groups is a key feature of the post-independence period. Still, Hindu nationalists built on late …

[PDF] The Rise of the Far-Right and the “Politics of Memory” in India Under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

SK Aryal - Politeja, 2025
… The ruling party of India since 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has a deep-rooted ideology of Political Hinduism or Hindutva. The … With over five million members, it is still working to spread Hindutva ideology today.The RSS leads the Sangh Parivar …

Global Right-Wings and Trans Resistance in India: Anti-Trans Politics, and South–South Solidarities

MA Hoque, MS Azim, F Parvin - Australian Feminist Studies, 2025
… Our intervention is to show how Hindutva harnesses these global anti-gender tropes even … gender symbols are reclaimed under neoliberal Hindutva agendas? For example, under India’s … Our analysis shows that Hindutva’s gender narratives …

Secular “Bhavs” Of Remixed Dances: Dance Reality Shows As Soft Resistance

P Chakravorty - 2026
… As the fervor of Hindutva sweeps across various cultural spaces and practices from Bollywood to yoga to classical and folk dance and music, attempting to create a homogenized mono-cultural India, it seems few spaces remain independent of such …
You imbecile - Shiva’s Tandava as Nataraja literally manifests the entire universe - every step, every gesture is a symbol of creation, preservation, destruction, and liberation, and his cosmic dance embodies the dynamic flow of existence itself.
I have no issues with people who read or write books on sexual fantasies, because one is free to do so; however, here the text deals with two revered Hindu deities: Radha and Krishna. I have issues with that!  
Left Liberals have always failed to understand Hinduism, and I can give innumerable instances where they have mindlessly sexualised Hindu deities, including sexualising the trunk of Ganesha. 
Sexualising Radha-Krishna has been a favorite theme of these people, to the extent that they have turned the two revered figures into objects of sexual perversions, orgies, and fantasies. Perhaps the Left-Liberals find it easy to express their own sexual fantasies and perversions by painting them onto Hindu gods, knowing Hindus won’t retaliate or come for their heads. There is another objective that works here - tarnishing the image of Hinduism.

The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms

A McPherson - 2025
Futuristic imaginaries have long been disputed on account of hegemonic Western perspectives and the legacies of colonial complicity of speculative genres such as science fiction and fantasy. A more complex history of these genres and the …

Call for Papers Special Section of the Comparative Education Review Journal (CER)

FD Salajan
This Special Section of the Comparative Education Review journal is an opportunity for school leaders, teachers and teacher educators to contribute to our shared understanding of how the politics of race, ethnicity and nation play out in schools …
Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra