Best Spiritual Website
Hayagriva dasa: In Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke writes: “This argument of universal consent, which is made use of to prove innate principles, seems to me a demonstration that there are none such because there are none to which all mankind give a universal consent.” That is, it cannot be argued that all people have […]
Syamasundara dasa: Leibnitz was a German mathematician and philosopher who maintained that in the universe, every act has a purpose, and the purpose of the universe is to realize the goal set forth by God. Srila Prabhupada: Yes, actually the goal is to reach God. The ignorant do not know this. Instead, they are hoping […]
Hayagriva dasa: Spinoza asserts that God cannot be a remote cause of the creation. He sees the creation flowing from God just as conclusions flow from principles in mathematics. God is free to create, but He is the immanent cause; the creation is but an extension. Srila Prabhupada: Yes, because He creates through His energy. […]
Hayagriva dasa: Pascal saw man situated in the universe between two extremes: infinity and nothingness. Man has a body like the animals, and an intellect like the angels or demigods. As such, he is neither a demigod nor an animal but somewhere between the two. He is intelligent enough to know that he is in […]
Hayagriva dasa: In Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes writes: “The power of forming a good judgement and of distinguishing the true from the false, which is called good sense or reason, is by nature equal in all men…. God has given to each of us some light with which to distinguish truth from error.” Is […]
Syamasundara dasa: It is Hobbes who declared, “Whatever exists is matter, and whatever changes is motion. ” For him, mental or spiritual entities are not realities in their own right, but are merely by-products of matter. Spirit and mind perish when the material basis is destroyed. Srila Prabhupada: Spirit is not a combination of material […]
Hayagriva dasa: Francis Bacon is generally acknowledged as the founding father of modern science in England, and although he did not work in a modern laboratory like today’s scientists, he inspired what has become known as the scientific method. He believed that science could give man a mastery over nature that would improve his life […]
Hayagriva dasa: Machiavelli has been called the most influential political philosopher of the Renaissance, and his philosophy of politics has influenced rulers down to modern times. He is typical of the Renaissance in that he turned from the subjects of the Church fathers-such as God, heaven, and salvation-to concentrate on man and nature. The Renaissance […]
Hayagriva dasa: Scotus, a Thirteenth Century Scotsman, was Thomas Aquinas’s principal antagonist. Whereas Aquinas emphasized the intellect, Scotus emphasized what he called the primacy of will. The will is even superior to the intellect, and this is true for both God and man. Scotus felt that if this were not the case, the will would […]
Hayagriva dasa: Thomas Aquinas compiled the entire Church doctrine in Summa Theologiae, which constitutes the official philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church. Aquinas did not make Augustine’s sharp distinction between the material and spiritual worlds, or between secular society and the city of God. For him, both material and spiritual creations have their origin in […]
