Crossing the divide: A website about Literature, Art & Philosophy by Venkat Ramanan

This was originally posted as a "viewpoint" at  Aeon Conversations There are moments in our lives when this avowed disdain for such “self-centred” prayers unravels and sounds like mere intellectual flimflam. This is when reason either deserts us or enervates us with its passionless logic. Entrance to Naiku, Inner Shrine (Shinto), Ise Jingu, Japan (Credit: Author) t Teresa of Avila once explained the various levels of prayer she undertook on her way to divine union. From the bottom level of prayers of devotion and supplication she moved to the next one where her mind gave “a simple consent to become the prisoner of God.” At a higher level, the saint was “drunk with love” and concerned only with the thoughts of God. At the last stage, the saint achieves mystical union with God. In other words, we may begin with prayers for “selfish” reasons and mundane worldly concerns. As we grow spiritually, we lose this obsession with the self and in the end achieve oneness with th

This was originally posted on   LinkedIn Pulse  on January 17, 2016. The most important lesson we can learn from observing these insects is that we need to know the mosquito better before we can build a better mosquito trap - and this applies perhaps to all our challenges. I am convinced that even if there is only one mosquito left in the world, it is sure to come and get me. Because of this dread, I have always grudgingly admired the single-mindedness and efficiency with which genus anopheles unfailingly zooms in on someone like me. It is perhaps this curiosity which piqued my interest in a recent report  in the The Atlantic magazine about the quest to find a better mosquito repellent. This article not only explained to me why mozzies think of me as their Lord Voldemort. But after reading it I felt also that there may be a few lessons too for the corporate world apparent from the life and times of the humble mosquito. Know your customers, the marketplace Lesli

This was originally posted as a "viewpoint" at  Aeon Conversations A lot of us take a pragmatic stance and are happy to use the fruits of science and technology, to better our understanding of the world, including nature, around us. A scientific understanding of nature, moreover, may even improve our respect or reverence for nature. Image Credit: CCO Public Domain via Pixabay n his excellent essay Gene Tracy mentions how anthropologists would point out that there is no clear line between a story and a testable theory of the world. Another anthropologist, Claude Levi-Strauss distinguished between a “functional” and “statistical” and model of societies. An example of the former is the way human societies operate. Each individual assumes certain responsibilities which, as Ilya Prigogine explains, “translate at each level different aspects of the society as a whole.”  An example of the latter model is a termite colony where there is no “global mastermind” at work. The

This was originally posted as a "viewpoint" at  Aeon Conversations One day science will identify the neural correlates of joy. But, I do hope that the rainbow will not be unwoven so completely. Until then - or even after that - the delicious mystery of how we relate to music will never fade away. Salvador Dali, Dream of Venus (1939), Hiroshima Prefectural Art Gallery. Photo by Author ystery will remain in this world for the simple reason that our understanding of reality is limited - below are some reasons for it - and may forever remain so. And we will continue to be curious about this world around us because that is what made us human in the first place. The nature of reality : Angles in Science, Credit: IGIT (Own work)/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0 Reality is much more than physical objects. We have abstract objects and structures that we cannot touch and feel directly. These include mathematics (which Colin McGinn felt formed a “third

This was originally posted as a "viewpoint" at  Aeon Conversations This awareness of time as cyclical is evident in a number of other cultures and mythologies too. A n excessive preoccupation, in modern societies, with this “manufactured quantity” - along with an acute segmentation of time - can make us too obsessed with the moment. We begin to think in terms of drops and bucketsful of water rather than seeing the river itself.   A cardinal tenet of the mythology of the Australian aboriginals is “The Dreaming” also referred to as the Eternal Dream Time. This dreamtime is the sacred abode of the ancestors who taught humans the skills needed for life. Although the dreamtime has echoes of a past heroic age, it cannot be fixed in time. As anthropologist W.E.H. Skinner pointed out, “It was, and is, everywhen.” This mythology reflects an endless succession of events symbolised by the cycle of the seasons. This awareness of time as cyclical is evident in a number of other cu

This was originally posted as a "viewpoint" at Aeon Conversations Cicero looked upon philosophy as a way to prepare for death as it worked in two ways. Firstly, reason and contemplation distracted us from quotidian cares and drew our souls from our bodies in a semblance of death. Secondly, the purpose of gaining wisdom is to teach ourselves to not be afraid to die. Death and taxes, Benjamin Franklin noted, are the only two inevitable things in House of Excise Collector (built in 1841), Prague (Photo: Wikimedia/Public Domain) our lives. We can hope to influence taxes by changing our politicians every now and then or, in the case of despotism, get rid of our rulers by more violent means. But we have no choice but to accept death. Cicero looked upon philosophy as a way to prepare for death as it worked in two ways. Firstly, reason and contemplation distracted us from quotidian cares and drew our souls from our bodies in a semblance of death. Secondly, the purpose of

This was originally posted as a "viewpoint" at Aeon Conversations The internet has undoubtedly narrowed the spread of our geographic space. But does all this automatically translate to the world becoming better place, us better people? F rench Historian Fernand Braudel divided time into three scales: geographic, social (or sociological) and individual. We could apply such a triune categorisation to space too. We refer to geographic space when we say New York is around 10,000 miles from Sydney. Social space could refer to any space (more metaphoric than physical) that separates groups of humans from each other, be they family units, clans, ethnic groups, nation states or other artificial collections. Individual space is (more or less) what we commonly call personal space (my car, my house, my money). Murrumbidgee Rice Farm (CSIRO, 1991, Creative Commons) The internet has undoubtedly narrowed the girth of our geographic space and has helped us overcome “the tyran