Modernism and education

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Sun, 24 Nov 2002, Steve Wray wrote:

> I'd have to stick my neck out and recommend much of so-called
> 'classical western occultism' which seems to have begun
> in an effort on the part of europeans to comprehend vedanta.
> Some, without studying it, might be tempted to place it
> in the "half-baked mysticism" category but having studied it
> in some depth I can assuredly say that it is fully baked
> and quite educational.
>

I'll just say I don't agree and leave it at that.  On the other hand I
grew up in a small village in England and found the remnants of old Celtic
and Norse customs interesting.  And the mystical ieas of e.g. Kabbalah and
Gnosticism etc.  But I purposly did not include such things on my list not
because they don't merit any interest or it is not pleasant to discover
similiarities between them and my own beliefs but because they don't tell
me anything I "need" to know which I can't get from other sources.

> I notice that you mainly mention western philosophers belonging
> to the 'continental philosophy' school!

My goal in presenting that list was to try and name thinkers who influence
the way those who call themselves "modern" right now.  I think that
analytical kind of philosophy is the most prevalent right now in society
at large.  I purposely omitted the type of philosopher only
"professionals" care about like all those wordy french guys or those who
are mainly of historical interest nowadays like Marx.  I noticed the
writers I included are mainly those who dealt with the subject of
totalitarianism which I suppose is a bit biased on my part.  It was not
meant to be a definitive list, the point is that confronted with the
problems in society today (and I'm not denying there are problems,) there
seem to be two camps.  One I'll call traditionalists think the answer is
to keep on doing what we are doing.  The other which I'll call radicals
think the very structure needs to be changed.  And they say it needs to be
changed to become "modern."  So I would like to know what does it mean to
be modern?  Unfortunately this isn't a question which is being asked very
much in India and this is at the root of many problems.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/