January 2022 Archives

How Quantity Science Emerged from Quality Science

Posted on: January 22, 2022June 25, 2023

Numbers: Truth vs. Usefulness Even as I often criticize quantity thinking, I don’t mean to say that it is completely useless. Many quantitative truths are pervasively true. 2 + 2 = 4 in all situations, for example. This truth can be used for practical purposes like counting the number of […]

LogicBinary Truth, Non-Binary Truth

Quantity and Quality Notions of Truth

Posted on: January 22, 2022June 25, 2023

Distinction Between Truth and Existence What is truth? Some people say that truth means existence. If a tree exists, then it is true. But it also means that if you think that the tree doesn’t exist, that thought is also true, because your thought exists. To allow for the distinction […]

PhilosophyChit vs. Achit, Mind-Body Problem

Matter is Not Insentient

Posted on: January 14, 2022June 25, 2023

Material Inertness in Religions It is well-known that the material energy is personified in Vedic texts as Durga. And yet, starting with Advaita, the Vedānta doctrines have designated matter as achit—inert, inanimate, or insentient. Descartes, of course, designated matter as being distinct from the mind in his famous mind-body dualism. […]

Biology / MedicineBhagavad-Gita, Satkāryavāda

Why Diets and Exercises Don’t Always Work

Posted on: January 11, 2022June 27, 2023

Body Weight and Calorie Intake There was a time when I used to eat a lot—up to four times a day. And yet I was very thin. Then came a time when I did not increase my food intake, and yet I gained a lot of weight. Then there have […]

Economics / PhysicsEntropy, Quality vs. Quantity, Second Law of Thermodynamics, Sustainble Development

What is Sustainable Economic Growth?

Posted on: January 2, 2022June 27, 2023

The Enemy of Economic Growth Economics has an unknown enemy in the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which says that entropy (disorder) cannot decrease in a physical process. If the net disorder is increasing, then how can there be net growth in wealth? Net growth in wealth is possible only with […]