“One may think that the Philosophical outlook has nothing to do with the fight between the two factions in the JVP represented by the two Vansas. However, with an objective reality of a revolution that would invariably take place the revolutionary party can have only one line as dictated by the central committee. Veeravansa was not willing to agree with the central committee view and had to go. The Marxists except for a few Trotskyite Parties could not come to terms with many views within one paradigm, though the liberal bourgeoisie learnt to play this game more than two centuries ago.” _______________
by Prof. Nallin de Silva
(April 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Michael Roberts in his article on "History Making in Lanka – I : Problems", which appeared on 19th April 2008, has referred to me from the field of Mathematics and the concept of Hela that I had used in an article written long time ago. This article has been reproduced recently in the electronic journal "Sri Lanka Guardian" and has caught the eye of Roberts. I am glad that a historian produced by the University of Ceylon that does not exist anymore but belongs to history has responded to the history that I have made or created. I will respond to Roberts as and when I get an opportunity do so. In the meantime I take some space from the present series on "The crisis in JVP" to emphasise a point or two on creating or making history.
I admit that I create not only Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics but History as well, not to mention Philosophy, Literary Criticism etc., though I do not have any formal qualifications in the latter fields from any recognized or unrecognized University in the world. I publish almost all my creations in "The Island", "Divaina" and "Vidusara" whose editors are kind enough neither to ask for my qualifications nor to subject the articles to peer review, though I do not get any points for them in connection with my promotions. Thank God or anybody else for newspapers being alive and kicking and not belonging to History. In fact if Roberts read my contributions to recent issues of "Vidusara", which he could access through www.kalaya.org website, he would find that I have developed my thesis further and created more history after I wrote that article that has been reproduced by "Sri Lanka Guardian". I will describe the history I have created in English for the benefit of those who cannot read Sinhala, in the near future. In this article I just want to make two points both one may call Philosophical.
Perhaps some Historians who speak on British or any other empiricism without going deep into these philosophical concepts are unaware that it is the Historians and others who write and talk History (not the mere scholars), who create history and not the so called actors in history. History is created or made by Historians and others, and not by kings, presidents, prime ministers, artists, sports personalities etc., just as much Physics is created by Physicists and others such as myself who write on Physics occasionally, and not by particles, apples, electromagnetic fields, planets, atoms, strings, black holes etc. This may sound as a concept in Postmodernism but we have had these ideas in our culture for more than two thousand years in the form of avijja pachchaya sankara, albeit some Buddhist scholars may not agree with me. Unfortunately most of the scholars who have been produced by the country in Buddhist Philosophy, History or any other field, whether they live here or abroad, are not creators, and they would not know that Newton created the Gravitational force and that Einstein later created a more Mathematically complicated but conceptually simple theory called General Relativity in order to explain how the apples (and of course coconuts) fall to the ground. Surely the apples do not create the gravitational force, though the school teachers and the university lecturers would talk of the gravitational field or force due to the apples. It was Cumaratunga Munidasa, the best intellectual produced by the country in the past few centuries, though he had no degree from a recognized or unrecognized university here or abroad, and could not become even an Assistant Lecturer in those "august institutions", who created the concept of Hela, which I will explain for the benefit of Roberts and others in a future article. However, I must emphasise that I do not believe in all that Cumaratunga Munidasa has created and I use the concept of Hela only as a category that included certain tribes who lived in Sri Lanka.
I would just touch on British empiricism before I continue with my article on the crisis in the JVP. Could empiricism alone explain Newton’s gravitation? Has anybody seen the gravitational force created by the greatest British scientist to live in History, as reckoned by the English? Is gravitation an empirical fact hard, soft or otherwise? Leave alone gravitation, is causality an empirical fact? The Scottish and hence (how empirical is hence?) the British Philosopher Hume had some serious problems regarding cause and effect. An event A may be followed billion, nay trillion times by an event B, but is there any empirical way of claiming that A is the cause of B? Gravitation was created by Newton in order to explain why the apples fall. Gravitation nor causality cannot be deduced or inferred from the so called empirical facts. Causality would have been created by an intellectual(s) who lived thousands of years ago before Buddha. Karma would have been the creation of some pre Vedic intellectual who lived in ancient Dambadiva. Same with space time curvature of Einstein who would have asked the empiricists to go somewhere else if their "empirical observations" did not agree with his theoretical deductions. Most of the present day concepts in modern Physics have not been observed though theorists continue to play not only with strings but with what are called "unparticles". (Not surprisingly the computer suggests the word unpractical!). I do not know what Feyarabend thought about empiricism, but I have no hesitation to say to hell with empiricism or any variation of empiricism.
Now back to the JVP. Though I was originally of the view that I was taking space from the article on "The crisis in the JVP", on second thoughts I find that the above preamble could be considered as part of the series of articles. The scholars who could not create and the so called ugath gemi tharuna parapura (educated rural youth) had the same education in the same schools and universities though in different media of instructions. It is unlikely that there are more than two or three cadre members in the JVP, who have read Lenin’s Empirio Criticism, which was written against the positivist philosophy of Mach and his followers. Lenin was against Empiricism and Positivism, but he believed in an objective reality that existed independent of the observer. This was only a few decades before the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Physics and the Solway Conferences of the twenties and thirties where Bohr who was influenced by Positivism, and Einstein the realist debated on the interpretations of Quantum Physics and on the thought experiments proposed by the latter. Neither Einstein nor Bohr lived to read the celebrated theorems by John Bell that showed that local reality was in contradiction with Quantum Physics. In other words in the Quantum world there is no local reality.
However, this does not mean that the western world has now given up realism and embraced positivism. In fact the western Physicists are trying hard to give a realist interpretation to Quantum Physics. The very fact that Quantum Physics needs interpretations implies that empiricism is not in a position to grasp the so called empirical facts associated with Quantum Physics. At Kelaniya we have formulated an interpretation of Quantum Physics based in the Sinhala Buddhist culture. The "Mage Lokaya" published in 1986 took the first steps in formulating (creating) an interpretation of Quantum Physics based in a Sinhala Buddhist culture, and towards a Philosophy neither materialistic nor idealistic. The Samajavadi Shishya Sangamaya (Socialist Student Union) of the JVP found Mage Lokaya, a threat to their (dialectical) materialistic Philosophy that they have inherited from Marx, Engels and Lenin and has recently come out with a book on Quantum Physics and Dialectics written by a person who understands neither Marxist Philosophy nor Quantum Physics. When I read some of the passages from the book to my students at Kelaniya, they burst out in laughter.
The JVP from its inception has tried to mix Marxism with nationalism unsuccessfully. They have a materialistic world view with an objective reality and are based on the Greek Judaic Christian Chinthanaya. Incidentally though Gunadasa Amerasekera may have used chinthanaya as a translation of the word thought as Michael Roberts does, my usage of chinthanaya is somewhat different. I have explained it number of times in these columns and it is much deeper than the concept of paradigm due to Kuhn. The difference between the members of the JVP and most of the non Marxist scholars is that while almost all of them believe in an objective reality, the JVP cadres do not believe in empiricism per se. The JVP cadres do not realise that a nationalistic epistemology based on a Sinhala Buddhist Chinthanaya has no objective reality as such. They unknowingly and erroneously attempt to give a realistic interpretation to Quantum Physics as they believe in an objective reality following their gurus in the west.
One may think that the Philosophical outlook has nothing to do with the fight between the two factions in the JVP represented by the two Vansas. However, with an objective reality of a revolution that would invariably take place the revolutionary party can have only one line as dictated by the central committee. Veeravansa was not willing to agree with the central committee view and had to go. The Marxists except for a few Trotskyite Parties could not come to terms with many views within one paradigm, though the liberal bourgeoisie learnt to play this game more than two centuries ago.
(Professor Nalin de Silva is a Sri Lankan theoretical physicist, philosopher and a political analyst. He is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.)
- Sri Lanka Guardian
by Prof. Nallin de Silva
(April 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Michael Roberts in his article on "History Making in Lanka – I : Problems", which appeared on 19th April 2008, has referred to me from the field of Mathematics and the concept of Hela that I had used in an article written long time ago. This article has been reproduced recently in the electronic journal "Sri Lanka Guardian" and has caught the eye of Roberts. I am glad that a historian produced by the University of Ceylon that does not exist anymore but belongs to history has responded to the history that I have made or created. I will respond to Roberts as and when I get an opportunity do so. In the meantime I take some space from the present series on "The crisis in JVP" to emphasise a point or two on creating or making history.
I admit that I create not only Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics but History as well, not to mention Philosophy, Literary Criticism etc., though I do not have any formal qualifications in the latter fields from any recognized or unrecognized University in the world. I publish almost all my creations in "The Island", "Divaina" and "Vidusara" whose editors are kind enough neither to ask for my qualifications nor to subject the articles to peer review, though I do not get any points for them in connection with my promotions. Thank God or anybody else for newspapers being alive and kicking and not belonging to History. In fact if Roberts read my contributions to recent issues of "Vidusara", which he could access through www.kalaya.org website, he would find that I have developed my thesis further and created more history after I wrote that article that has been reproduced by "Sri Lanka Guardian". I will describe the history I have created in English for the benefit of those who cannot read Sinhala, in the near future. In this article I just want to make two points both one may call Philosophical.
Perhaps some Historians who speak on British or any other empiricism without going deep into these philosophical concepts are unaware that it is the Historians and others who write and talk History (not the mere scholars), who create history and not the so called actors in history. History is created or made by Historians and others, and not by kings, presidents, prime ministers, artists, sports personalities etc., just as much Physics is created by Physicists and others such as myself who write on Physics occasionally, and not by particles, apples, electromagnetic fields, planets, atoms, strings, black holes etc. This may sound as a concept in Postmodernism but we have had these ideas in our culture for more than two thousand years in the form of avijja pachchaya sankara, albeit some Buddhist scholars may not agree with me. Unfortunately most of the scholars who have been produced by the country in Buddhist Philosophy, History or any other field, whether they live here or abroad, are not creators, and they would not know that Newton created the Gravitational force and that Einstein later created a more Mathematically complicated but conceptually simple theory called General Relativity in order to explain how the apples (and of course coconuts) fall to the ground. Surely the apples do not create the gravitational force, though the school teachers and the university lecturers would talk of the gravitational field or force due to the apples. It was Cumaratunga Munidasa, the best intellectual produced by the country in the past few centuries, though he had no degree from a recognized or unrecognized university here or abroad, and could not become even an Assistant Lecturer in those "august institutions", who created the concept of Hela, which I will explain for the benefit of Roberts and others in a future article. However, I must emphasise that I do not believe in all that Cumaratunga Munidasa has created and I use the concept of Hela only as a category that included certain tribes who lived in Sri Lanka.
I would just touch on British empiricism before I continue with my article on the crisis in the JVP. Could empiricism alone explain Newton’s gravitation? Has anybody seen the gravitational force created by the greatest British scientist to live in History, as reckoned by the English? Is gravitation an empirical fact hard, soft or otherwise? Leave alone gravitation, is causality an empirical fact? The Scottish and hence (how empirical is hence?) the British Philosopher Hume had some serious problems regarding cause and effect. An event A may be followed billion, nay trillion times by an event B, but is there any empirical way of claiming that A is the cause of B? Gravitation was created by Newton in order to explain why the apples fall. Gravitation nor causality cannot be deduced or inferred from the so called empirical facts. Causality would have been created by an intellectual(s) who lived thousands of years ago before Buddha. Karma would have been the creation of some pre Vedic intellectual who lived in ancient Dambadiva. Same with space time curvature of Einstein who would have asked the empiricists to go somewhere else if their "empirical observations" did not agree with his theoretical deductions. Most of the present day concepts in modern Physics have not been observed though theorists continue to play not only with strings but with what are called "unparticles". (Not surprisingly the computer suggests the word unpractical!). I do not know what Feyarabend thought about empiricism, but I have no hesitation to say to hell with empiricism or any variation of empiricism.
Now back to the JVP. Though I was originally of the view that I was taking space from the article on "The crisis in the JVP", on second thoughts I find that the above preamble could be considered as part of the series of articles. The scholars who could not create and the so called ugath gemi tharuna parapura (educated rural youth) had the same education in the same schools and universities though in different media of instructions. It is unlikely that there are more than two or three cadre members in the JVP, who have read Lenin’s Empirio Criticism, which was written against the positivist philosophy of Mach and his followers. Lenin was against Empiricism and Positivism, but he believed in an objective reality that existed independent of the observer. This was only a few decades before the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Physics and the Solway Conferences of the twenties and thirties where Bohr who was influenced by Positivism, and Einstein the realist debated on the interpretations of Quantum Physics and on the thought experiments proposed by the latter. Neither Einstein nor Bohr lived to read the celebrated theorems by John Bell that showed that local reality was in contradiction with Quantum Physics. In other words in the Quantum world there is no local reality.
However, this does not mean that the western world has now given up realism and embraced positivism. In fact the western Physicists are trying hard to give a realist interpretation to Quantum Physics. The very fact that Quantum Physics needs interpretations implies that empiricism is not in a position to grasp the so called empirical facts associated with Quantum Physics. At Kelaniya we have formulated an interpretation of Quantum Physics based in the Sinhala Buddhist culture. The "Mage Lokaya" published in 1986 took the first steps in formulating (creating) an interpretation of Quantum Physics based in a Sinhala Buddhist culture, and towards a Philosophy neither materialistic nor idealistic. The Samajavadi Shishya Sangamaya (Socialist Student Union) of the JVP found Mage Lokaya, a threat to their (dialectical) materialistic Philosophy that they have inherited from Marx, Engels and Lenin and has recently come out with a book on Quantum Physics and Dialectics written by a person who understands neither Marxist Philosophy nor Quantum Physics. When I read some of the passages from the book to my students at Kelaniya, they burst out in laughter.
The JVP from its inception has tried to mix Marxism with nationalism unsuccessfully. They have a materialistic world view with an objective reality and are based on the Greek Judaic Christian Chinthanaya. Incidentally though Gunadasa Amerasekera may have used chinthanaya as a translation of the word thought as Michael Roberts does, my usage of chinthanaya is somewhat different. I have explained it number of times in these columns and it is much deeper than the concept of paradigm due to Kuhn. The difference between the members of the JVP and most of the non Marxist scholars is that while almost all of them believe in an objective reality, the JVP cadres do not believe in empiricism per se. The JVP cadres do not realise that a nationalistic epistemology based on a Sinhala Buddhist Chinthanaya has no objective reality as such. They unknowingly and erroneously attempt to give a realistic interpretation to Quantum Physics as they believe in an objective reality following their gurus in the west.
One may think that the Philosophical outlook has nothing to do with the fight between the two factions in the JVP represented by the two Vansas. However, with an objective reality of a revolution that would invariably take place the revolutionary party can have only one line as dictated by the central committee. Veeravansa was not willing to agree with the central committee view and had to go. The Marxists except for a few Trotskyite Parties could not come to terms with many views within one paradigm, though the liberal bourgeoisie learnt to play this game more than two centuries ago.
(Professor Nalin de Silva is a Sri Lankan theoretical physicist, philosopher and a political analyst. He is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.)
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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