Self And The Phenomenon Of Life: A Biologist Examines Life From Molecules To Humanity

(Sean Pound) #1
Self, Realities, and the Transcendents 333

“9x6” b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity


  1. Russell B. (1927) Why I am Not a Christian. (A lecture given in 1927),
    in: Edwards P. ed.(1957) Why I am Not a Christian. Simon & Schuster,
    New York.

  2. Laozi: Dao De Jing 《老子道德经》, “The Scripture of Dao and De” by
    Laozi, Chap. 25.

  3. Translated from the Chinese text by Ramon Lim. Original in Chinese: 有物
    混成, 先天地生。寂兮寥兮, 独立不改, 周行而不殆。可以为天下母。吾不
    知其名, 字之曰“道”; 强为之名, 曰 “大”。... 人法地, 地法天, 天法道, 道法
    自然。

  4. Thilly F. (1914) A History of Philosophy. Henry Holt, New York, Chap. 47,
    pp. 296 & 307.

  5. Clark RW. (1971) Einstein: The Life and Times. World Publishing,
    New  York, p. 413; also cited as a telegram to a Jewish newspaper, 1929,
    Einstein Archive 33-272, from Calaprice A. ed. (2000) The Expanded
    Quotable Einstein. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ.

  6. Einstein A. (1949) The World as I See It. Trans. by Harris A. Philosophical
    Library, New York, pp. 25 & 26 (original in 1934).

  7. The Upanisads.

  8. The Indian thought of cosmic self has a hint of an all-pervading conscious-
    ness whereas the Daoist thought of China is totally natural and impersonal,
    but this of course is subject to interpretation.

  9. Freud S. (1930) Civilization and its Discontents. Hogarth Press, London;
    English trans. by Riviere J.

  10. Another way to say it is that being has no intrinsic meaning. Its meaning
    arises only when it is taken in reference to something else.

  11. Swafford J. (1996) Charles Ives, A Life with Music. Norton, New York.

  12. A broad definition of religion does not necessarily include a personal God.

  13. Einstein A. (1949) The World as I See It. Trans. by Harris A. Philosophical
    Library, New York, pp. 26 & 28 (original in 1934).

  14. It is interesting to note that Western monotheistic religions emphasize the
    assertion of self, as in the resurrection of the physical body and its ascension
    to Heaven; in contrast, Buddhism and Hinduism stress the denunciation of
    the biological self as the road to liberation.

  15. Culotta E. (2009) News focus: On the origin of religion. Science 326:
    784–787.

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