Lanka Citizen

by Nalin de Silva

We have outlined some aspects of the logic and attitudes of western GJC Chinthanaya. Western knowledge is based on the GJC Chinthanaya, one of its attitude being the domination of the world, which includes not only the domination of the other people, which Europeans and their descendants in North America have been engaged since the fifteenth century, but nature as well. The Biblical attitudes that man has been created in the image of God, and that the world (universe) including the woman has been created for the man, and that the Jews are the chosen people have been changed so as to replace Jews by the white Europeans, and after about three hundred years since the renaissance, the white Anglican Christians had become the dominant people on the earth. Since the fifteenth century that saw the emergence of the GJC Chinthanaya, it took about three hundred years for the English to rule the world defeating finally not only the Pope but the Catholic Chinthanaya as well. However, the Catholic Chinthanaya has not died down completely as could be seen from the advent of Communism and Fascism in the twentieth century, which are in the final analysis based on the community feeling reigning over the individual, and superficially on the three fold logic. Both Communism and Fascism were products of Germany which remains a Catholic country to date, but which gradually follows Anglo Christian countries and their culture. It has to be emphasised that the logic of Catholic Chinthanaya is two valued three fold, while the logic of GJC Chinthanaya, which is Aristotelian, is two valued and two fold

The economic man giving priority to the economics with welfare of man being substituted by the economic welfare, and the material goods acquired by the individual becoming a yard stick of the success of the individual, is a product of the GJC Chinthanaya that climaxed in England, in Europe, which has begun the next stage of development in USA. If Liberalism was a product of England (if one wishes Britain or UK) neo Liberalism is a product of USA. It is the evolution of the western society with its leadership changing from English kings and prime ministers to the American presidents that began after the so-called second world war, which has been identified as Post Modernism by some intellectuals in the west. If industrial revolution and machine technology belonged to England, electronic revolution and information technology belong to USA, though countries such as Japan may be producing more computers than north America. If India and China continue to take the path of Japan imitating the western Anglo Christian countries, they would soon lose their identities and become so called neo liberal countries with the individual dominating the community going against Hindu and Confucian cultures respectively. India and China could become economic giants in the future at the expense of becoming spiritual pygmies, and losing their sovereignties as well.

In any event, it has to be pointed out that the Newtonian world view that was challenged by scientists such as Heisenberg produced by German culture, as well as by people such as Bohr who had been greatly influenced by the Chinese culture, has been to a large extent defended by those in the USA and England with what could be identified as the neo Newtonian world view, if one wishes to do so. The adjective neo as far as we are concerned, implies a development within the same GJC Chinthanaya, though the paradigm may have been changed somewhat in certain cases. In that sense it is possible to identify Einstein as a neo Newtonian, with his opposition to interpretations of Quantum Mechanics by Bohr and Heisenberg. Einstein’s relativity did not change the GJC Chinthanaya though the Newtonian paradigm was changed as a result. Similarly what is known as post modernism could be identified as neo Modernism. It is clear that a paradigm shift has occurred in the GJC Chinthanaya in certain areas during the twentieth century without a change in the Chinthanaya as a whole. The logic of the GJC Chinthanaya has not been changed and in certain fields in “neo Modernism” the Einsteinian paradigm reins supreme. However, we do not subscribe to the nomenclature of neo this and neo that as we do not believe these limited changes only in certain areas warrant a change of name. For us it is Modernism and Modernity that has evolved for five centuries.

In the Newtonian paradigm, within the GJC Chinthanaya it is assumed among others that (i) the world (reality) exists outside the observer independent of him, (ii) the world obeys laws that could be discovered by the observer, (iii) the laws as well as the observer are rational, (iv) it is through the sense organs that the observer observes and understands the world, (v) there exists a space which is absolute, (vi) time which is absolute flows uniformly through absolute space, (vii) space and time are continuous, (viii) the properties (measurements) of objects exist independent of the observer, (ix) the measurements such as lengths, energies can take continuous values, (x) all the properties of an object can be known (measured) simultaneously at least theoretically, (xi) measurement of a property gives an already existing value, (xii) the objects exist independent of each other, (xiii) the objects move with velocities that could be measured or are at rest, in space and time (xiv) a system could be analysed into components, (xv) properties of objects could be deduced from fundamental properties implying reductionism. In the Einsteinian paradigm only (v), (vi) and (xiii) were modified, and space and time became relative, while what was introduced as space-time became absolute. However, with the Quantum Paradigm most of the others were rejected. The western world has failed to come to grips with the Quantum Paradigm, and as a consequence the GJC Chinthanaya has not been changed.

Western Classical Economics is essentially built on the Newtonian paradigm and not even on the Einsteinian paradigm. In general it is assumed that rational selfish individuals competing with each other in a Newtonian space and time, who try to satisfy their “infinite” needs (including sensual pleasures) with finite “resources” on the earth, during their lifetimes, contribute towards the economy of a country. With this view western engineering sciences and related disciplines try to maximise the resources (”efficiently” use them, or theoretically looking for infinite energies), and the medical sciences take pains in attempting to avoid death, as if it is possible to do so. However, it has been shown that the human beings are not rational beings taking decisions on a rational basis always, nor are they selfish. In fact it has been shown that human beings are no more rational than the capuchin monkeys. (For details please read the article entitled Monkey Business that appeared in the 5th November 2005 issue of the New Scientist). However, the western Christian modernity assuming the existence of a rational man, in five hundred years has reduced everything to Economics and Economic man. Marxism, though with a superficial three valued logic, subscribed to reductionism, and in essence reduced social evolution to economics.

There is no pluralism in western Christian modernity which pays only lip service to the former. It is the Judaic Christian culture and the GJC Chinthanaya that dominate the world. The other cultures and Chinthanayas are given the freedom to agitate on soap boxes (soap box freedom), as has been demonstrated by the recent incidents in UK, Australia and the present crisis in France involving black Muslims. Only the knowledge constructed in the GJC Chinthanaya is recognised as true or objective knowledge with other systems considered as “traditional” knowledge. How can there be pluralism in a Chinthanaya that has absorbed a version of a chosen people found in the Jewish culture? The White Anglo Saxon Christian Males are the chosen people in the world with other European whites following Lutheran religions coming second.

The attitudes of Jathika Chinthanaya based, among other things, on Buddha’s advice to Gahapthi Upali to continue to pay respect to the Nighanata Natha Putththa, and not to hasten to become a disciple of Buddha, is pluralistic to the core. The Sinhala people have tolerated the others through out history and also knowledge systems other than their own. The Jathika Chinthanaya of this country has a logic which is four valued that contains not only propositions of the form A and its negation but also of the form neither A nor its negation. The logic of the Jathika Chinthanaya is not two fold, and there does not arise the necessity of expressing the world in terms of binary oppositions. The question of an economic man presiding over the destinies of all other men would not arise in the Jathika Chinthanaya. There is no reductionism taught in Jathika Chinthanaya and the welfare of the man is not believed to be confined to Economics. It is neither the individual nor the community that take precedence over the other, and aspects other than economics of people are also considered. The Sinhala leaders of the past had taken into consideration the integrated life of a person dealing with bringing up children and making them useful citizens of the country, the spiritual life and such other aspects of life. The people were not measured with an economic yardstick, and the economy had to be integrated with the environment, nature and also the spiritual and other non economic lives of a person. The cyclic logic of Jathika Chinthanaya helped people to lead a more balanced way of life, one aspect of which depending on the other and finally ending up as Dhamma, which anybody could learn from the texts, even if it was not possible to find a teacher at a particular period of life.

However, it has to be pointed out that we have not formulated the theories of economics within the Jathika Chinthanaya. We have not even begun this work, but it does not mean that we have no intuitive ideas on what could be called a Jathika Arthikaya. The so called Thulana Arthikaya is only one aspect of a Jathika Arthikaya, arising out of four fold logic. A Jathika Arthikaya would not give prominence to either the “private sector” or the “state sector”. As we do not think in terms of binary oppositions, within a Jathika Arthikaya it is possible to have both “private sector” and the “state sector” complementing each other. Also there would not be a ban on investments by the foreigners, provided of course the investors agree to the conditions imposed by Jathika Arthikaya. Within a Jathika Arthikaya neither the nature nor the man become the important component, and it would not be assumed that the world has been created for man, nor that the men are rational and selfish, and are all out to compete with each other. The Jathika Arthikaya would also see to it that the “economic man” does not take the upper hand over the “spiritual man” and others.

Finally as some people have over the years gained the idea that Jathika Chinthanaya rejects everything western, we have to emphasise that it is the imitation of western knowledge and attitudes under western cultural colonialism, which most of the so-called intellectuals among us are unaware, that we are against. It is possible to absorb western knowledge into our culture when it is necessary to do so, and still be independent without losing our identity.