None of the here listed publications claim to be a kind of a disciplinary enquiry into any singular field of human knowledge and still less pledged to any one school of thought. Nonetheless they do brush or occasionally divulge a bit deeper into some more relevant aspects of many of the far and wide striven fields of human knowledge. Knowledge perceived in an all encompassing sense, that is phylogenetically and ecologically inherited, culturally transmitted, orally, through Scripts and in our own times through mass media, google and other search engines and Wikipedia digitally traded and through inherited epistemologies and vagaries of our times explained. No doubt this is done from an elsewhere explicitly declared amusingly biased perspective and wherein the great achievements and follies of western civilizations are amalgamated with a specifically non-western perspective. I was born in Kashmir. My grandmother would deridingly call anyone an “Aflatoon” if the person had a very pertinent argument that ran counter to her wishes! She had not read Aflatoon ( the Greek philosopher Pluto) but she had a folksy knowledge of that one-man-institution of western civilization. Herein we claim to possess a particularly advantages perspective in having a first hand knowledge of the reception of western thought in other societies and more important we may arguably vouchsafe to have gained an awareness of the certain distinguishing features of western civilization, that may not be so obvious or have escaped the notice of the dedicated western scholars and their diligent and faithful pupils in other parts of the world, scholars, who have grown and have been nourished within the folds of this most dominant civilizations of the planet.
All of the above facts would I hope justify our listing of these publications at this site, even when they do not explicitly cater to any specific institutionally legitimized field of human endeavor. The need was felt less because of any inherently existing shortcomings in any of these disciplines but more because human beings are a complex of rational and irrational, and despite the Britannica-Busloads of knowledge sorrowfully incapable of solving the problems confronting not only the mankind but also all other innocent bystanders, like angiosperms and earthworms and algae who made it all possible that I can write about it today!
Abstract: Of Homer <br />
Of odyssey's of soul and bodies wallowing in salty waters, of maritime tales, of longing, of being for years one toke over the line...<br />
Of Melville, Max Weber, Humboldt and Darwin <br />
Concerning the progressive demystification ( <em>Entzauberung </em>) of the Oceans.<br />
Of Whales and great Mammals and their transformations from a dark Siren to a noble Beast to a Cetacean and blubber for industry.
Abstract: Time in a Nutshell <br />
The Cyclic Time within the Linear <br />
And the Linear within the Cyclic.<br />
Of Ernst Haeckel. Ontogenesis as a recapitulation of the Phylogenesis.
Abstract: Of Durkheim, Malinowski and Freud. <br />
Or of the magic of piece of cloth in Hi-Tech Societies. The Nectie <br />
With a Postscrpt concerning: <br />
Desktop Anthropology and Herman Melville.
Abstract: Here we divulge a bit deeper to support our contention, that the emergence of Logos and the establishment of an institutional fundament for a systematic enquiry into the great Secrets of the Universe was a specifically Greek achievement and try to explain the sources responsible for this immensely fertile landscape where it lay its roots to sprout all over the Globe in our age.
Additionally we ponder over the reasons why the lopsided view of Greek heritage in Europe later would lead to a disdain for classical Idealism.
Abstract: <br />Heaven<br />
Of Charles Darwin <br />
Extracts From The Voyage of the Beagle (Chapter 17 )<br /><br />
Hell <br />
Of Hermann Melville <br />
Extracts From The Encantadas <br /><br />
And some mundane observations of a new-age tourist (Mushtaq Bhat)
Abstract: Concerning the role of oral heritage in the formative years of Civilizations, prior to the development of the script. <br />
Part 1 <br />
Poets, Epos and Civilizations
Notes: In Part 2, we emphasize the influence of the epics attributed to Homer in creating that pan-Hellenic cultural homogeneity which we consider as a prerequisite for the emergence of the logos here.
I have gone a bit more into details concerning the aspects of poetry that are relevant to us here and which may or may not be related to any established subjective schools of thought dealing with aesthetics, in my article:<em>Afterthought. Oh! That disdain for Idealism!</em>
Abstract: Concerning the role of oral heritage in the formative years of Civilizations, prior to the development of the script. <br />
<br />
Part 2 <br />
Homer and his legacy. From Myth to Logos.
Notes: See also: <em> Afterthoughts and Oh! that disdain for Idealism</em>, for more detailed arguments brought in favor of the two great Greek Epics being a prerequisite for that quantum spring from Myth to Logos and the specific conditions that favored the almost eternal establishment of the Socratian Institution of Enquiry _ the greatest asset of western Civilization.
Abstract: Julian Jaynes and the work of Gazzaniga<br />
A short assessment of the work of Julian Jaynes: the Origin of the Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Brain, relevant to our ongoing discussion concerning epic poetry, poets, Homer, evolution of language, logos, religion, the Muses and the greatest institution of mankind, that of learning and teaching (humanism, per se!).
