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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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. … Read more

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 … Read more

Hayagriva dasa: Darwin’s conception of evolution rests on the premise that there is a real genetic change from generation to generation. In other words, he rejects the Platonic eidos (idea, type, or essence) for a species. Whereas Krsna says that He is the generating seed of all existences, Darwin would reject the existence of a … Read more

Hayagriva dasa: Huxley felt that the main difference between man and the animals is the ability to speak. In his essay “Man and the Lower Animals,” he writes: “Man alone possesses the marvelous endowment of intelligible rational speech, whereby … he has slowly accumulated and organized the experience which is almost lost with the cessation … Read more

Hayagriva dasa: Bergson maintained that God’s reality can be intuited only by mystical experience. The creative effort “is of God if it is not God Himself. ” This knowledge of God leads to activity, not passivity. Srila Prabhupada: Yes, knowledge of God certainly leads to activity. For instance, in bhakti-yoga we are engaged twenty-four hours … Read more

Syamasundara dasa: Alexander is the philosopher of emergent evolution. For him, external objects have an existence independent of consciousness. Unlike many other philosophies, Alexander’s neorealism contends that something may exist even though it is not perceived. Srila Prabhupada: Yes, that is so. God exists whether we perceive Him or not. God is the original creator, … Read more

Hayagriva dasa: Origen is generally considered the founder of formal Christian philosophy, because he was the first to attempt to establish Christianity on the basis of philosophy as well as faith. He believed that the ultimate spiritual reality consists of the supreme, infinite Person, God, as well as individual personalities. Ultimate reality may be defined … Read more

Hayagriva dasa: Fichte is not as important as Kant or Hegel, but he is in the same tradition. He followed pretty much in the footsteps of Kant. In his first work, entitled Our Belief in a Divine Government of the Universe, he writes: “Our belief in a moral world order must be based on the … Read more