Hayagriva dasa: Abstract objects, relations, space, time, and matter are all considered by Hume to be mind-dependent perceptions. For him, perceptions or impressions are all there is. He rejected revealed religion, which he considered dogmatic, and accepted “natural religion” instead, a religion wherein the existence of God can be proved or even shown to be … Read more

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 … Read more

Hayagriva dasa: Plato made a sharp distinction between the material and spiritual universes, but this dualism is not expressed by Aristotle. Since matter is simply one of God’s energies, the finite reflects the infinite. Matter is a potency in the process of realizing itself. Srila Prabhupada: Aristotle may know something of God’s energies, but our … Read more

Hayagriva dasa: Augustine considered the soul to be spiritual and incorporeal, but he also believed that the soul of the individual does not exist prior to birth. The soul attains its immortality only at death, and thengoes on to live through eternity. Srila Prabhupada: If the soul is created, how is it immortal? How can … Read more

Syamasundara dasa: In Critique of Pure Reason, Kant asks the fundamental question, “How are a priori synthetic judgments possible?” How can we apprehend the relationship between cause and effect? Where does this facility come from? What is the source of knowledge? He proposes that one knowledge-acquiring process, the transcendental aesthetic, synthesizes sense experience through the … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

Hayagriva dasa: Plotinus, as well as Origen, studied philosophy in Alexandria under the supposed founder of Neo-Platonism, Ammonius Saccas. Plotinus ascribed to a theory of emanation, which holds that the soul emanates from the intelligence just as the intelligence emanates from the One. The intelligence (nous) is multiple and yet one at the same time. The … Read more

Hayagriva dasa: Berkeley seems to argue against objective reality. For instance, three men standing in a field looking at a tree could all have different impressions or ideas of the tree. The problem is that although there are three different impressions of the tree, there is no tree as such. Now, how does the tree … Read more

Hayagriva dasa: For Schopenhauer, happiness is inactive satisfaction, inactivity, nirvarya. Since the will to live is the irrational urge that brings about all suffering, he advocates the extinction of this world. In The World As Idea, he writes: “The Vedas and Pural)as have no better simile than a dream for the whole knowledge of the … Read more