It’s a conundrum of the philosopher’s biography that most basic human needs were alien to her By Judith Thurman The French philosopher Simone Weil was a soul at odds with herself and with a world of affliction. The causes she espoused as a social activist and the faith she professed as a mystic were urgent to… Read More The Supreme Contradictions of Simone Weil
Ø दिलीप सिमियन ‘’अपने क्षेत्र की विशिष्टता का आग्रह हमारे जीवन का एक अभिशाप है. हम चाहते हैं कि हमारा क्षेत्र फैल कर भारत की सीमा के साथ मिल जाए और अंततः वह इस पृथ्वी की सीमा तक फैल जाए. और ऐसा नहीं हुआ तो यह नष्ट हो जाएगा.“ — महात्मा गांधी, सितंबर 1947 “सत्य कभी… Read More गांधी का समुद्री वर्तुल
In some ways, zero is just like any other number on a number line. But a new study suggests that the mind may treat the symbol for absence differently. Yasemin Saplakoglu Around 2,500 years ago, Babylonian traders in Mesopotamia impressed two slanted wedges into clay tablets. The shapes represented a placeholder digit, squeezed between others,… Read More The Strangeness of Zero
Paul Klee, Angelus Novus (1920) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Klee%2C_Angelus_novus.png?20130120065947 Paul Klee, Angelus Novus Walter Benjamin: Thesis 9 in The Concept of History (1940) My wing is ready to fly / I would rather turn backFor had I stayed mortal time / I would have had little luck Gerhard Scholem, Angelic Greetings There is a painting by Klee called… Read More Walter Benjamin and The Angel of History
Henri Bergson and Albert Einstein fundamentally disagreed about the nature of time and how it can be measured. Who was right? Think of a melody. Each note has its own distinct individuality while blending with the other notes and silences that come before and after. As we listen, past notes linger in the present ones,… Read More Clock time contra lived time
NB: This is the text of the talk I delivered on October 2 at the Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi. DS The bane of our life is our exclusive provincialism, whereas my province must be co-extensive with the Indian boundary so that ultimately it extends to the boundary of the earth. Else it perishes – Mahatma Gandhi,… Read More The Oceanic Circle: Talk on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 155th birthday
Even if our brains are not up to the task of appreciating all the connections that relate to quality of air, water, nutrients, soils, etc., these things are still vitally important. In other words, we would be tragically foolish to imagine living without insects, plankton, microbes, fish, birds, etc., and the uncountable and unknowable interrelationships between… Read More Certainty
The Oceanic CircleThree things occupied Mahatma Gandhi all his life: God, truth, and Ahimsa. He did not see them in different compartments but as threads in the fabric of life. A life spent in pursuit of truth is a philosophical life. His efforts towards social and political reform do not subtract from his deeply thoughtful… Read More Gandhi’s Oceanic Circle. October 2, 2024
Knowledge is often a matter of discovery. But when the nature of an enquiry itself is at question, it is an act of creation NB: Physical reality is one thing, the ethical domain another. Sometimes the two intersect, as in global warming. But in either case, the ‘framing inquiry’ is about something – otherwise the… Read More Frameworks
Hello, we are pleased to invite you to join us for a conversation with Dilip Simeon in Chandigarh on Saturday, August 3; 2024. More details here: https://pagdandi.substack.com/p/jaag-musafir Kindly RSVP if you plan to come: https://forms.gle/P7vAeWmWHWic7pgi6 My regards and gratitude to Pagdandi Collective for organising this conversation. What follows below is my personal addition to the matter above,… Read More Jaag Musafir: Pagdandi Collective
After the truth-shower 
