Recognizing Reality

Dreyfus examines the central ideas of Dharmakīrti, one of the most important Indian Buddhist philosophers, and their reception among Tibetan thinkers. During the golden age of ancient Indian civilization, Dharmakīrti articulated and defended Buddhist philosophical principles. He did so more systematically than anyone before his time (the seventh century CE) and was followed by a rich tradition of profound thinkers in India and Tibet. This work presents a detailed picture of this Buddhist tradition and its relevance to the history of human ideas. Its perspective is mostly philosophical, but it also uses historical considerations as they relate to the evolution of ideas.

"[Children and young people] should know --and really sense and feel --that viruses are not 'evil' but a part of our organism, of our organic 'self,' and that also the group of mutable coronaviruses has been known for many years; we also live with them and deal with them, especially in the upper respiratory tract, although not with SARS-CoV-2, which is a new challenge for the human immune system, though not quite as new as initially assumed." -- Peter Selg Recognizing Reality is a clarion call for broader perspectives in a time of global crisis, for a differentiated understanding of current events, especially Covid, and for a deepening of dialogue, in Martin Buber's sense of the word. In this book, Peter Selg walks the reader through some of the lesser-known, and often ignored, contexts of the global response to Covid. He describes, for example, the role-play simulations and exercises conducted by private institutions (such as The Rockefeller Foundation and the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University) in collaboration with government agencies and corporations in the years leading up to 2020. A large part of such exercises involved the role of the media in public-health messaging, including censorship of dissenting or alternative viewpoints. Having a "cohesive narrative" was seen as vital to establishing the mechanisms of control in "states of emergency" and was used as a justification for restricting fundamental human rights. As Selg demonstrates, much of what has played out over the past two years in response to Covid was actively prepared and rehearsed in such roleplay scenarios. He remarks that the goal of these exercises was not "to avert the danger by changing or correcting the system through new values in ecological, socioeconomic, and political terms --or in terms of a 'peace policy' with regard to the natural environment --but solely in the sense of system-stabilizing crisis management, combined with far-reaching vaccination strategies." Selg also discusses the disastrous consequences of the global lockdown, which are often overlooked or outright suppressed in the mass media in favor of a monolithic narrative that ignores all facts and viewpoints which undermine its "key messages." He points out, for example, that "while...the wealth of the approximately 650 billionaires in the US increased from one trillion dollars to a total of approximately four trillion dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic, countless people worldwide became impoverished on a catastrophic scale, through the loss of all their meager earnings, through the interruption of supply and production chains, through stay-at-home orders that kept them stuck in poor conditions, etc." This book leaves us with the question: Will we say yes to the dehumanizing, technocratic vision of society emerging across the globe, or will we seek a future worthy of the human being? Recognizing Reality was originally published as two volumes in German as Wirklichkeits-verständnis: Jugend-pädagogik in globaler Krisenzeit and as Zivilcourage: Die Herausforderung Freier Waldorfschulen (Verlag des Ita Wegman Instituts, Arlesheim, Switzerland, 2021).

Some central banks have maintained overvalued official exchange rates, while unable to ensure that supply of foreign exchange meets legitimate demand for current account transactions at that price. A parallel exchange rate market develops, in such circumstances; and when the spread between the official and parallel rates is both substantial and sustained, price levels in the economy typically reflect the parallel market exchange rate. “Recognizing reality” by allowing economic agents to use a market clearing rate benefits economic activity without necessarily leading to more inflation. But a unified, market-clearing exchange rate will not stabilize without a supportive fiscal and monetary context. A number of country case studies are included; my thanks to Jie Ren for pulling together all the data for the country case studies, and the production of the charts.

Dreyfus examines the central ideas of Dharmakīrti, one of the most important Indian Buddhist philosophers, and their reception among Tibetan thinkers. During the golden age of ancient Indian civilization, Dharmakīrti articulated and defended Buddhist philosophical principles. He did so more systematically than anyone before his time (the seventh century CE) and was followed by a rich tradition of profound thinkers in India and Tibet. This work presents a detailed picture of this Buddhist tradition and its relevance to the history of human ideas. Its perspective is mostly philosophical, but it also uses historical considerations as they relate to the evolution of ideas.

Is knowledge discovered, or just invented? Can we ever get outside ourselves to know how reality is in itself, independent of us? Philosophical realism raises the question whether in our knowing we connect with an independent reality--or only connect with our own mental constructs. Far from being a silly parlor game, the question impacts our lives concretely and deeply. Modern Western culture has been infected with antirealism and the doubt, skepticism, subjectivism, relativism, and atheism that attends it--not to mention distrust and arbitrary (mis)use of reality. Premier scientist-turned-philosopher Michael Polanyi stepped aside from research to offer an innovative account of knowing that takes its cue from how discovery actually happens. Polanyi defied the antirealism of the twentieth century, sounding a ringing note of hope in his repeated claim that in discovery, we know we have made contact with reality because "we have a sense of the possibility of indeterminate future manifestations." And that sense marks contact with reality, because it is the way reality is: abundant, generous, and fraught with as-yet-unnameable possibilities. This book examines that distinctive claim, contrasting it to the wider philosophical discussions regarding realism and antirealism in the recent decades. It shows why Polanyi's outlook is superior, and why that matters, not just to scientific discoverers, but to us all.

Science has made tremendous advances in overcoming superstition and replacing “revealed truth” with proven factual truth. Quantum mechanics and the Theories of Relativity have contributed immensely to these advances. But, in spite of this, certain absurdities, referred to as the “quantum enigma”, have emerged from the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics. This has been recognized by some physicists, but the absurdities have been largely ignored by most to the detriment of our understanding of the creation, evolution and nature of the universe. Albert Einstein himself felt quantum mechanics was incomplete and spent the last 3 or 4 decades of his life fighting the proponents of the absurdities. It has been claimed that Einstein lost this battle, but the author disagrees and provides proof of the opposite. Einstein may have made slight mistakes in developing his Theories of Relativity, however, that may have unintentionally contributed to the absurdities and the author’s work supports the statement that "Einstein may have been wrong just where most thought he was right and right just where most thought he was wrong." The author provides a new analysis of space and time and corrections to aspects of quantum mechanics and the Theories of Relativity that may eliminate the absurdities. This could provide a new understanding of the birth, evolution and nature of the universe and possible explanations for dark energy and dark matter. This is presented in a manner that can be understood and appreciated by all curious folks, not just physicists, and will help them understand their universe and the amazing things physicists have accomplished.

Since the early twentieth century, scholars have researched leadership and it is one of the most researched topics of our time. Understanding how to be a strong leader and what makes a good leader is something that we continue to strive to understand. Research ponders various positive leadership models such as transformational, servant, authentic, charismatic, situational and ethical leadership to name a few. Yet, we find that a small number of our leaders are truly transformational. While scholars continue to provide examples of positive and influential leaders, we still struggle to understand what a dysfunctional leader is. Practitioners and followers are quick to identify a leader that is a nightmare, yet they can’t name what type of dysfunction that leader possesses. Day in and day out, we struggle with these leaders and how to intervene when dysfunctional behavior arises. This is most evident with recent scandals that have plagued the media involving characters such as Bernie Madoff, Dennis Kozlowski, Tyco, Enron’s Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling. It is vital to understand the importance of dysfunctional leadership and its impact on organizations, followers and society. The recent literature focuses on the psychology of dysfunctional leadership and the destruction of organizations. Little has been written in relation to the characteristics, traits and behaviors of dysfunctional leaders. In addition, little has been included on how to deal with this types of behavior within organizations. Individual books have been written on each of these types of characteristics, but no one book has been written that focuses on all of these characteristics and studies the subtle differences of these behaviors, interventions that can be employed to address this type of behavior and how to recognize the impact on our organizations. Understanding and Recognizing Dysfunctional Leadership will be of interest to professionals and researchers in this field.