Illustrations: 13 B/w & 1 Colour Illustrations Description: The frontiers of Traditional Knowledge and Science have long attracted the minds of scientists, theologians, intellectuals and students, who have been arguing both their similarities and dissimilarities, apparent contradictions, and the possibility of an ultimate harmony between the two. In ancient and medieval India - as in much of the Non-Western world - there was only one word for tradition and science, namely, vidya. Vidya encompassed what in the modern historically-sensitive inquiries is (...) called 'knowledge-systems.' However, in the modern West, placing Science and Tradition side-by-side has become something of an anathema, for many in the post-Enlightenment era regard Tradition to be a leftover from the Dark Ages. Science, in contrast, with its systematic approach to studying and understanding of all there is, has been considered to be unassailable. But even this impenetrable divide may be showing signs of rupture in the twenty-first century : there is now growing evidence of a line of continuity and creative engagement in a 'third space' between Science and Traditional Knowledge. Individuals and learned organizations are making enormous contributions in this interactive exploration. The Sir John Templeton Foundation, based in Philadelphia, USA, is one such international organization. Professor B.V. Subbarayappa is one such eminent scholar who has relentlessly pursued, and in his quiet way stimulated, the fusion of disparate minds in this area. He is hailed as a pioneer in the History and Philosophy of Science movement in India. His contributions in this field are without match and have earned him a name among scientists, science historians, philosophers and intellectuals all over the world. His monumental work and his sheer humanity have inspired the Editors of this volume to find a way to honour him. Scholars of various persuasions from around the world have contributed exploratory, specialist and dialogic essays toward this conversation of Science and Tradition. A biographical sketch with a comprehensive Bibliography (first-ever) of Prof Subbarayappa is also featured in the Introductory essay. Professor--D.P. Chattopadhyaya and J.N. Mohanty have offered prefatory comments of their own. Given the extensive range of topics discussed, both specialists and lay readers will doubtless gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between Science and Tradition in a cross-cultural context, and hopefully be inspired to develop respect for knowledge across these two frontiers. (shrink)

Any Donquixotism is tragicomic in two respects. First, it worships that which does not at all correspond to its ideals. Second, it struggles against that which does not at all have the traits it hates so much. In both cases what is tragicomic in Donquixotism is the discrepancy between the thought and the fact, the desire and the action. Donquixotism is a life of inner contradiction with reality and with oneself.

Compares India's sacred culture with the culture of the Western world.

Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita was written between 1929 and 1940. Although delayed for a quarter of a century, it quickly found a stable place in our life as soon as it was published [for the first publication of the novel see: Moskva, 1966, no. 11; 1967, no. 1]. It is usually classified as a satirical philosophical novel. The satirical element puts it in the same family as such well-known works of the end of the '20s as the (...) novels of I. Il'f and E. Petrov, Twelve Chairs [Dvenadtsat' stul'ev] and The Golden Calf [Zolotoi telenok], but its emphatically philosophical orientation makes it all but a unique phenomenon in the history of Soviet literature. The novel's philosophical aspects have already been examined in a number of essays. Thus, for example, N. P. Utekhin analyzes the reflection of certain general philosophical categories in the novel. G. Chernikova and I. L. Galinskaia have endeavored to determine the concrete literary sources of the novel's philosophy [Chernikova 1971, pp. 213-219; Galinskaia 1986]. (shrink)

This volume is in the nature of a perspective on these and related Indian thoughts. Wherever necessary and possible, a brief overview of the concerned ideas in the other culture-areas has been given to facilitate a comparative understanding, besides a chapter on Modern Perspective on the Physical World. Relevant original passages in Sanskrit under References, an extensive bibliography of both primary and secondary sources, and a glossary of technical words have been included in this volume. It is hoped that these (...) will stimulate interested readers towards further intensive studies. Contents include: Preface, General Introduction, An Overview, Unitary Conceptions, Five Elements, Substance, Qualities and Motion, Atomism, Epistemology: Its Ultimate Aim, Space and Time, Heat, Light and Sound, Weights and Measures, Modern Perspective on the Physical World, Appendices, Abbreviations, Glossary, General Bibliography. (shrink)

kn. 1. Ot vozniknovenii︠a︡ marksistskoĭ filosofii do ee razvitii︠a︡ v 50-kh-60 godakh XIX veka.--kn. 2. Razvitie marksistskoĭ filosofii vo vtoroĭ polovine XIX veka.

An error in Gruber's paper, “Quantization in Generalised Coordinates,” and the reason for this kind of error are pointed out. A partial answer to the problem posed by the paper is stated.

Insightful commentary, the original Sanscrit lettering, and word-for-word analyses by a noted Hindu teacher and translator accompanies a discussion between the ...

The Wigner distribution and its equation of motion in the scalar potential case are arrived at in an unusual way. This in turn suggests (a) a departure from the standard Wigner distribution treatment for a charged particle in a magnetic field and (b) a new approach to quantization of nonconservative systems. Suggestion (a) is found to be, like the standard treatment, in agreement with Schrödinger's equation but, unlike it, also satisfies local classical-type conservation laws and employs a distribution which is (...) gauge-invariant rather than merely gauge-covariant. Suggestion (b) gives a clear result only in the case of resistance proportional to velocity, when it agrees with the Schrödinger-Langevin equation; for other dissipative systems a fresh assumption is required, and a proposal in that direction is put forward. (shrink)