Science Religion and God

 This essay is my attempt to organize my thoughts related to the relationship between God Science and Religion. I have been thinking about it for last 20 years starting with my initiation in hinduism  in 2002 but I have never attempted to document it. This is beginning of that so it is all bits and pieces which I hope to keep updating in future.

Generalization  -  Reason, Ultimate Reality and Philosophy of Life 

I would begin by clarifying the notions of Science, Religion and God.Today Science is mainly associated with natural science but until few centuries science was not separated, and scientists like Newton was considered as Natural philosopher. So in this essay by 'science' I meant the general use of reason like experiments and logical reasoning. The main distinguishing aspect of reason is that it is intersubjectively verifiable, it can be verified by other people. Such verification is necessary for acceptance of it by the community. 

Unlike science the notion of God and Religion may be self evident, God is the Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence creator and Religion is about following his commandments isn't it? But unfortunately this works only with abrahamic monotheistic religions.Some Hindu schools don't believe in creator God and Buddhists and Jains don't believe in creator of the universe and predictably the religion is not about following God's commandments. So I will generalize the concept of 'God' as Ultimate Reality and 'Religion' as Way of Life. The ultimate reality may be creator God as in abrahamic religions  or anthropocentric creator in theistic  schools of vedanta in hinduism. It can also refer to more abstract entity like Brahman (~universal consciousness) in advaitha Vedanta or Sunyata(Emptiness) in Mahayana Buddhism. In the context of materialism it  refer to the view ultimately physical matter is real and mental consciousness is emergent property of particular arrangement of physical matter.It  is mainly a metaphysical doctrine i.e. view about nature of reality, what kind of things exists. 

The concept of way of life may appear very vague and I would define it as consisting of two aspects. First what is the purpose of life, what should we aim for? how we should live our life. Second aspect is how to go about achieving it? It may not be a detailed plan but general guidelines and maybe consisting of daily, regular practices.

Is Science True  ? 

The main question one faces when answering the question of science proving the existence of something is that is science True ? Does science actually describes reality or it is just a useful tool to navigate the world. One may say it is obviously true because it works, considering the accuracy of scientific theories, it will be surprising if they are not true. But one may counter it by saying scientific theories are constantly changing so the current theories can be superseded by other theories which can be very different from existing ones. The Newtonian mechanics is very accurate in macroscopic world but it is an approximation of general theory of relativity. This is referred as scientific realism v/s anti-realism debate in philosophy of science.

So based on how one answers this question one may take two routes to the question of science proving the existence of God or any entity. The first one is to say science is true description of reality and it justifies one's view of reality. But the fallibility of science creates a problem for this view, what you will do when current scientific theories are replaced by new theories, will one change one's faith?    

Another approach  is to say science doesn't describe reality, at best it describes the reality as it appears to human beings. The  actual reality is what one believes. This requires the believer to provide a way to access the ultimate reality. If science doesn't describe actual reality, how can other methods provide access to it. how can be trust those methods are better than science. 

Science and Religion - The is/ought Fallacy

The attempts to prove religion using science raises the question of relation between metaphysics(what exists) and Ethics(How we should behave). Is accurate description of reality is necessary or sufficient for deciding what should we do, how we should live our life ? It is true that consequences of our actions play important role in choosing between them. But ethics is not just about consequences of our actions, one may argue that one should do perform one's duty irrespective of the consequences. One cannot go from what the world is to what we ought to be doing, this is called as is/ought fallacy. when we do that , we are implicitly assuming that actions must be chosen based on their consequences.

Say we can prove that there is a God who will burn you will eternity in hell for not believing in him or nor following his commandments. It doesn't necessarily follow  from this  that we should be worshipping him. 

The reconciliation of Pramanas 

      Another way to think about the process of relating science and religion is that reconciling different ways of knowing, what  Philosophers in Indian traditions call as  'pramanas'. The main kind of pramanas are perception, inference and testimony. Perception refers to observation and experimentation interacting with external world. Inference can be broadly classified as deductive or inducting reasoning. Testimony refers to statement from an expert and in the context of religion testimony refers to  the scriptures . 

   So different pramana may disagree, for example our we don't experience the rotation of earth but through inference we can understand that earth is moving very fast. Our world view created by reconciling the evidences  of different pramana. In the context of science and God the question is mainly about reconciling the evidence from perception and inference with testimony.

God and Reason -   Two kind of Believers. 

Generally believers take two different routes to reconcile God and Reason. First group uses reason  to justify belief in God and in the context of science they would argue science justifies or at least doesn't contradict belief in God.For example Thomas aquinas provides logical arguments for the existence of God. Similarly in Indian traction Udayana philosopher of Nyaya School wrote a text providing logical reasons for believing in creator God. In current times many people argue that latest discoveries in science justifies their religious beliefs like existence of God or concept of rebirth and Karma. 

 Thinkers in 2nd group who are also devout believers strongly disagree with the method of first group, as it gives more weight to reason and science. They see logical reason at best can provide justification of abstract God - philosopher's God not the  God of devotees. Logical reason can be used to justify an abstract creator but it is not sufficient to justify specific God say God of Bible or specific deities like vishnu or shiva. So believers like Vedanta Philosopher Ramanuja uses scripture as their main pramana to justify existence of God, in his case hindu puranic deity Vishnu. Some thinkers argues science is only capable of explaining phenomenal world, world as appearance and ultimate reality the way world really is known by faith or scripture. Immanuel Kant argues that our mind plays an active role in creating the world we experience. This is the world explained by science, but ultimate reality is unaccessible to it. So phenomenal world of appearance is explained by science while the real world that give rise to it is inaccessible to it. In this way one can gave space to both reason and faith. In hinduism Advaitha vedantha philosopher Sankara takes a similar view arguing in the matter of empirical world observation takes precedence but one requires scripture to know the ultimate reality of Brahman. The notion of two-level truth in Advaitha Vedantha and Mahayana Buddhism helps in this regard, science deals with conventional truth while scripture. People who point out the fallibility of scientific knowledge and argue that therefore we cannot refute the existence of God can be considered to be in 2nd group. 

My view is more inclined to second group, acknowledging the active role mind plays in constructing our view of the world and fallibility of our knowledge. I accept the possibility that the actual reality can be  very different than the worldview given by our scientific theories.

Discussion on my post 'Zizek , psychoanalysis and Literary Theory'

 

I am having a discussion on my article  Zizek, Psychonalysis and Literary Theory' with Kamalakar Bhat. Below I have posted his  response. I broadly agree with him but would write a detailed reply to discuss in detail.

Chomsky on Zizek

I read your blog piece. You have raised many interesting issues. As for Chomsky's old quarrel with PoMos, it is never ending. In a system where it pays to write, and it becomes necessary to write in order to advance your career, there will be many pretenders. No doubt academics is full of such pretenders. PoMo had many such pretenders, esp in the US academy which has made it necessary to keep publishing.

 Writing Style and Popular Works

 The issue of complexity is always there. I remember a conversation with Spivak in which she was very very lucid. No jargon. No obscurity.

 I have read and seen interviews with Derrida and Foucault and such, where they enunciate themselves very lucidly.

 As Spivak told us, a group of students, the academic writing is a space addressing a certain audience. One calibrates one's language according to the audience. It is also important to make the argument in as accurate a manner as possible otherwise it can be misinterpreted.

 It is not as if the so called common people are going to read a Derrida piece! Who reads what and where determines how one writes.

 Even Dipankar Guha for example, wrote very accessible newspaper edits, and very complex academic books.

 I personally made my peace with this question, accepting the difficult style in its place and respecting accessible style in its place. I have also felt that writing only accessible stuff would lead to disaster. It is important not to yield to the pressure of a person less knowledgeable in a specific field.

 Difficult reading has its advantage in that I become a more careful reader. Accessible writing makes the reader lazy and prone to the devious designs of writing that can cheat. Whereas, if I am a careful reader it is likely that I see the falsehood more easily.

 Resisting reader

Because, without the reader being non-accessible to writing, we will have a situation like the language of advertising - people who don't resist Advt language fall for any fake news.

Sokal Affair, Postmodernism and Science Studies

 I don't agree with Alan Sokal argument at all. While no doubt there is a lot of no sense that goes under PoMo, as does under Physics too, or other Sciences, the constructivist argument has its value. And the constructivists were never claiming, as accused by Sokal, that reality is relative etc, but that our knowledge of the reality is. In fact Science studies have to some extent proved that the constructivist ideas are applicable to Scientific Method too.

I would rather go with the critique of PoMo kind of stuff that has emerged from someone like Bruno Latour, a once practitioner of constructivism who saw how it can be mis-used and turned to a certain pragmaticism. Even Richard Rorty is persuasive to me, as I also feel that merely demonstrating instability isn't enough. So, better work towards how to go beyond critique and facilitate changes required, including perhaps refusal to change in some respects.

 Psychoanalysis

 As for psychoanalysis, I am not familiar with some of the issues you point out. Yes, in litcrit psychoanalysis is used extensively. Positive psychology tends to reject Freud. I don't know much, but may be the point is not to allow only one path, this or that, as the right one. We will need Freud, though with the faults of his methods.

Carvaka Darasana

 Carvaka as sarvadarsana pratikakshi

 Rejection of vedic authority carvaka's may be classified with buddhist,jaina and other shramana traditions. But in their world-view there is a difference while buddhist and jaina traditions are pessimistic about this world and argue for renouncement - the debate b/w vyasa and his son in mahabharatha may be expressing this debate and ashrama system can be considered as a reconcilation of two views. The belief in rebirth , karma and moksa can be considered the basic common beliefs of both vedika and avaidika traditions even-while they vehemently disagreed on details like nature of self, working of karma and state of liberation. Carvaka is an outlier so may be they are called "sarvadarsana pratikakshi".

Carvaka as Optimistic Buddhist -  If we focus on Jayarasi a sceptic symphathetic to carvaka position in his work Tattvôpaplava-siṁha (‘The Lion of the Dissolution of [all] Categories’) he is sceptical of philosophy i.e. epistemology itself arguing we can't know much and these speculations are distractions from enjoying life he concldues “When, in this way, the principles are entirely destroyed, all everyday practices are made delightful, because they are not deliberated”. One may compare to Buddha's mahamouna and his dismissing of metaphysical speculation saying it distracts from the immediate aim of cessation of dukha.Both seems to represent pragmatist bent of problem solving and criticises metaphysical speculation as distraction. But their radically disagree on nature of world for buddha it is full of suffering and he gives a image of a person struck by posinous arrow so he should be treated instead of speculation on its who shooted it etc.May be jayarasi will give a image of tasty food one should eat it instead of indulging in unneccary speculation.

Carvaka as Mimamsaka who lacks belief in vedas
I agree both Carvaka and Purva-Mimamsa are both Darsanas, i am not demeaning the carvaka view-point but reflecting on the two darsanas.
Mimamsaka's were accused of half-carvakas (ardha-lokayatas) whcih kumarila famously wanted to refute it. Purushottama Bilimoria in his essay "Hindu Doubts About God: Towards a Mimamsa Deconstruction" discusses it in detail and explains kumarila's main problem with that characterization is the ethical implication of hedonism not the ontological question of materialism. So  may be we can call a mimamsaka as "realist who vouches by the vedas" - representing both its realism and belief in the authority of the vedas.

So by saying "carvaka is a mimasaka who lost faith in the vedas"I was reformulating the statement that mimasaka is ardha-lokayatha.
From the mimamsa position if  one takes away the belief in vedas and associated notion of karma,apurva etc the left out theory will not sound like caraka position?Qouting from [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/naturalism-india/]

//The Mīmāṃsaka-s admit the doctrine of karma but supports non-naturalism in moral context. They believe in two causal realms — ritual and natural and according to them the ritual order is independent of the natural order. In fact the causal connection that obtains between a ritual enjoined by the scripture and its result cannot be explained naturally, e.g., how the correct performance of putreśṭi sacrifice fulfills one’s desire for a son is beyond natural and scientific explanation// 

The ritual world may stand for his belief in vedas, so carvaka can be said to believe in only one natural world.
This is further supported by the this-wordliness as in  positive  attitude about loukika world compared to complete renouncment of shramana traditions like Jainism and buddhism.

Considering the historical development of Purva mimamsaka throuh the works of jaimini sutras and later sabara,kumarila,prabhakar may be considered as mature articulation of ideas in karma kanda of vedas empahasing yagna and rituals i would speculate there was a sceptical stream of thinkers best expressed in nasadiya sukata whose ideas may have given rise to carvaka position as they kept the this worldly focus but rejected the authorith of vedas and efficacy of rituals mainly due to scpetical attitude towards sabda and anumana pramana.

Book Discussion - Materialism : A Historical and Philosophical Inquiry

 

Fundamentally materialism is  a particular view on ontological question of basic constituents of our existence.It claims that fundamental constituents of our world is material or physical not spiritual.Many people believe in the existence of soul that is responsible for mental phenomena and different from physical body. Such a soul is believed exist even after the death and gives a sense of purpose and meaning to their existence.This makes materialism a very contentious issue that questions the fundamental premise of their existence.Both its supporters and critics argue for a more social significance, supporters equate it with rationalism and progressive attitude, while opponents deride by equating with hedonism and rejection of morality. The book Materialism by Robin Gordon Brown and James Ladyman is an introductory text dealing with both the historical and philosophical aspects. It explains the history of materialist thought in ancient India and Greek and its relevance to development of modern western thought particularly the age of Enlightenment and the development of modern science.Philosophically it summarizes the notion of materialism, the challenge posed by developments in modern science science particularly quantum physics and current formulation of physicalism that takes into account these challenges seriously. Authors considers the notion of materialism as fundamentally a ontological position and insist against it implying hedonism or inherently standing for social change.

The discussion of materialism in ancient world is started with Carvaka school in ancient India which argued consciousness is emergent property of material constituents and there is no after life. Against the Vedic orthodoxy they argued that Vedas were written to fool people and get free food. This discussion is a welcome step in dispelling the orientalist notion of spiritual east that ignores the rationalist thought in India. I wish the author also discussed proto-materialist atomism in Vaisesika, Buddhist and Jaina schools, realism in Mimamsa, and rationalism in  Nyaya and Buddhist logicians.

In the context of ancient Greek and Roman period the author's mainly discusses the works of Democritus, Epicurus and later Lucretius mainly their atomism and questioning of authority will be an continuing inspiration. The destruction of materialist and other schools in Alexandria and ascendancy of christian church and its dogmatism and curtailing of freedom of opinion is the biggest tragedy in our history. If it hadn't happen world would have had more rapid progress atleast in its understanding of the universe.Epicureans were killed mercilessly may be  because they held a opinion that  seemed more dangerous than the idea of non-existence of gods i.e. gods exists but don't care about human beings.

The discovery of Greek and Roman works particularly the works of Lucretius resulted in rejuvenated interest in atomism and materialism. The authors traces how it  lead to scientific revolution to the development of scientific philosophy and formed the basis of  the worldview of Enlightenment. It is a fascinating journey and shows the diversity of opinions and the dialogue between them. In the work of Feuerbach and Marx it got equated with progressive social outlook and  acquired a militant zeal. I wish the authors had clarified the difference between dialectical materialism and materialism has a ontological position.

The simplistic notion of materialism rejects the existence of spirits,ghosts etc independent of the material body and offers a picture of world consisting of atoms interacting in space similar to billiard balls.This encouraged developments in physics and chemistry particularly atomic theory and the evolutionary theory of Darwin resulted in further support for materialism. But the development of modern physics particularly General theory of Relativity and Quantum Physics threatens the notion of space and matter(particle) implicit in the formulation of materialism.The theories of fundamental physical are expressed in the framework of mathematics and completely alien to our everyday world.

In the light of  this the materialism is modified to physicalism.It doesn't say anything about final constituents of physical world but only predicts that it will not be mental and spiritual. This is a falsifiable claim based on  observation that even after radical changes scientific theories have not postulated the existence of mental entity at fundamental level.The main issue is to explain the existence of mental phenomena in a physical world. Authors defends the notion of supervenient physicalism which doesn't deny the existence of mental phenomena but argues that it is supervenient on physical constituents. So it denies the possibility of change in mental phenomena while the underlying physical aspects are unaffected.

The  notion of free will, concept of supervenience especially hierarchical and local aspects of it and place of  morality in a naturalistic world all requires further discussion. The physicalist notion of self raises skepticism about existence of free will, supervenience seems to obscure than explain,morality particularly the aspects of agency and responsibility are radically questioned by the physicalism.

Overall the book is a good introduction, its lucid style and minimum use of technical concepts makes it suitable for people who wants to read about materialism and lack background in philosophy.

 

Vivekananda and Navya-Nyaya : What changed between 1895 and 1902 ?

 

 Nyaya and Indian Enlightenment

I have been studying Jonardan Ganeri's wonderful book 'The lost age of reason - Philosophy in early modern India 1450-1700' that chronicles the intellectual history of early modernity in India especially Navya-Nyaya (new reason) school and explores the alternative conception of modernity not as rejection of past but change of attitude towards it.

I have been interested in Nyaya school not only because of interest in logic and epistemology but more broadly as I believe Nyaya with its notion of 'Apta' - that doesn't discriminate among human beings and 'deistic' notion of 'God' (in udayana and later Raghunatha) may provide a 'philosophical basis' for an Indian 'Enlightenment'.

  

Neglect of Nyaya in Indian Renaissance/Freedom Movement

In this regard i am interested about how Nyaya influenced thinkers of Indian Freedom movement/Renaissance and I am surprised by the apparent neglect of it and (advaitha)vedantha-centrism - emphasis on vedantha that had continued to this day.Related to this I am also interested in influence of west on formation of Indian identity.For example in Bagavadgeetha becoming the holy book of the Hindus I guess there is influence of one holy book concept of abrahmic religions as even in the vedantha schools prasthanathrayas that are basic scriptures which comes to atleast 12 books. [1-Brahma Sutra,10- canonical Upanishads, and Bhagavadgeetha]

 

Question - For Vivekananda What changed between 1895 and 1902 ?

 What is the reason for dramatic change  Vivekananda about Navya-Nyaya between 1895 and 1992 ? and is it representative of views of other leading people in the Independence/renaissance movement ?

 

In 1895 -Vivekananda has Positive attitude about Navya-Nyaya [From Ganeri's book - The lost age of reason]

 

Vivekananda, writing at the end of the nineteenth century, evinced a continuing awareness of the power and influence of the movement:

 

Transported from the soil of Mithilā to Navadvı̄pa, nurtured and developed by the fostering genius of [Raghunātha] Śiromani, Gadādhara, Jagadı̄śa, and a host of other great names, an analysis of the laws of reasoning in some points superior to every other system in the whole world, expressed in a wonderful and precise mosaic of language, stands the Nyāya of Bengal, respected and studied throughout the length and breadth of Hindusthān. (1895: 336)

 

 

Later in 1902 - Sceptical about Nyaya and Full Praise for Advaita Vedantha 

 

A few years later he had become less complimentary about the ‘new reason’, and gives voice to what was already a standard cliché. Speaking to a Bengali student, he says:

 

Why do you not set about propagating Vedānta in your part of the country? Rouse and agitate the country with the lion-roar of Advaita-vāda. Then I shall know you to be a Vedāntist. First open a Sanskrit school there and teach the Upanishads and the Brahma-sūtras. I have heard that in your country there is much logic-chopping of the Nyāya school. What is there in it? Only vyāpti [pervasion] and anumāna [inference]—on these subjects the pandits of the Nyāya school discuss for months! What does it help towards the knowledge of the ātman[the self]?(1902:256-267] 

 

Hindu religion has now become the only thing worth studying, and ‘new reason’ philosophy is reduced to so many soteriologically irrelevant logical games.

 

 Such a drastic change in his views in such a short span of time. Reading about Daya Krishna is justifying my suspicion that neo-vedantic interpretation was inspired by west's view of spiritual east .

From Preface of the book - contrary thinking - a collection of his essays .

 

Daya Krishna’s was a much-needed iconoclastic voice, given the resurgence of

neo- Vedānta in the nineteenth century, which he saw as Hinduism’s quest for scripture analogous to the Semitic religions conditioned by the Orientalist fiction that India is a spiritual civilization, in contrast to Europe. His articles raise the question, “What is śruti? “In “The Vedic Corpus,” he highlights how each śākhā had its own Saṃhitās, Brāhmaṇas, Āraņyakas, and Upanişads. It is only with the Mīmāṃsāsūtra and the Brahmasūtra that the idea of a unified śruti arose.

 

The Limitations of New-Atheist Style Rationalism

 

Getting Blocked by an ‘Atheist’ Guru
Recently a self-proclaimed atheist- rationalist who previously was my FB friend blocked me. ‘The arrogant Atheist’ is a caricature of people like him.
Please note: It is not criticism of atheism but a caricature of certain atheists. I can be described as atheist myself if by ‘atheism’ you mean belief in the existence of the natural world only.
Getting Blocked in FB by a “rationalist” for asking evidence for his claims
Recently I got blocked by such a self-proclaimed atheist guru. He blocked me for asking evidence to his claims. I pointed out that his assertion is based on anecdotes and as rationalists we need to be careful about generalisation. He immediately blocked me !! He is a professor in a prestigious Business School and he encouraged his students to question him. He runs a FB for Humanism and calls for Indian Enlightenment(similar to European Enlightenment). But in that FBPage he never replies and none of my detailed comments,even the ones related to his interview are answered.He also believes that we can know the meaning of words like ‘religion’ by looking in the dictionary.

The arrogant atheist and their Fallacies
The core beliefs of the ‘The arrogant atheist’ and my criticism of such beliefs.
1.Atheism is rationalism :It confuses taking an ontological position (atheism) that there is no God or more generally believing only the physical world exists as equivalent to become rationalist. They seem to reason as follows:
Premise 1: Following the path of reason that is critically evaluating one’s beliefs lead to atheism.
Premise 2: I am an atheist
Conclusion: I am rationalist:
Even assuming premises are correct it is a classical Affirming the consequent fallacy possibly coming from confusing process and outcome.
2. Rejection of Religion as Progress : From this they come to the conclusion that for society to progress we need to reject religion.They don’t ask questions like what exactly religion is? do all cultures have religion and how certain thinkers are classified as religious. In Indian context schools of thought like Nyaya-Vaisesika, Yogachara Buddhists etc are considered as religious even though when you compared them to many western philosophers they make more sophisticated arguments.Is it possible orientalist mindset that sees East as the rationalist west’s other working here. Does rejecting the Religion is necessary or sufficient to become rationalist? Or what it means to reject religion? Just because somebody considers a particular book as infallible/religious doesn’t mean one shouldn’t read them. I can read Sankara,Kumarila,Nagarjuna in the sameway as I read Plato,Aristotle or Spinoza.There are atheist authoritarian countries and people who argue for religious majoritarianism while being non-believers in their personal life.
3. Naive view of Human Beliefs: They think people literally believe the stories underlying the rituals.They reject the possibility that people may do rituals for the experience of doing it or just do for the sake of it.
4. Moral Superiority : Considering most atheist/materialist tradition has been historically maligned( except in the 20th century) and even today prosecuted in many countries. This makes them feel superior to others especially ‘religious people’.

Atheist Guru as Inverted God Man
Some of them start to preach this kind of atheism and start to act like GodMan’s whom they despise so much. Their belief that adoption of atheism and rejection of religion as equivalent to being rationalists is a similar experience of enlightenment(Self Realisation- atmasakshatkar) described by Godman. In their moral superiority they equal the GodMan’s attitude of being superior to others' attitude. In the words of Ashish Nandy the GodMan is their intimate enemy.

Meeting Professor Rahamath Tarikere

It is always wonderful to finally meet the people whose books one has admired.
Met literary and cultural critic Prof Rahamath Tarikere when he gave a talk on Kuvempu's lecture Vivharakranthige Ahvana
I have enjoyed reading his works particularly the following aspects
1)The way he contextualizes the text with our and its times making us rethink both present and future 
2)Emphasises the incompleteness of all perspectives
3)Never loosing sight of present concerns- reminding if our study is not cognizant of present it may end up being mere scholaticism

His works provides us with material and theoretical basis for envisioning a pluralistic and egalitarian India. His work on Natha,Saktha and Sufi traditions explores the rich cultural tradition while more theoretical works like Kattiyanchina Dari,Samskriti-PrathiSamskrithi and Maradolagina Kicchu provides theoretical tools for developing alternative pluralistic narratives of our tradition.
He politely said he is not known outside karnataka but if it is really the case then it is loss of outside world
I felt "Theory"(Literary criticism and cultural studies) in English departments is mostly focussed within continental tradition and ignores contributions of scholars in vernacular traditions.
In the lecture and subsequent discussion he emphasised the continued relevance of Kuvempu's call for Vicharakranthi('Intellectual/Thought Revolutiion) by placing him in the wider context of kannada/Indian literary and social milieu.I will write on it separately on it later. I thank organizing team and Prof Rahamth Tarikere for making me go back and again read Kuvempu

Imperialist Feminism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrWYb7u3jKo&feature=youtu.be Very good talk on how feminist arguments are used to justify imperial wars. She starts from war on Afghanistan the so called war on terror and to the time of napoleon’s invasion on Egypt. She particularly through the cultural articrafts like  paintings, movies, documentaries a very narrow view of Muslim world is created where women are showed as passive, women groups in these countries are not recognised and as “half terror – half victim”. I particularly liked that unlike some anti-imperialistists she didn’t fall into cultural relativist arguments but argued for global feminist movement where there is no hierarchy and western feminists are not considered as vanguards but as equals.

We need to expand this notion to include intersectionality of different modes of oppression like patriarchy, casteism, class, race etc and integrate into a a single movement if not there will be a chance that in opposing a particular form oppression one may strengthen other  forms of  oppression. 

My problems with Astrology

Recently I had a discussion about the criticism of astrology by rationalists. Off course he did know that astrology is a pseudoscience but his problem was with why we should criticise them?

His question was as below

// Question: Why do we have a problem with astrology? The profession is founded on nonsensical principles but an astrologer can be a productive and useful member of society.

He/she earns an income, providing what is seen as a service. He/she pays taxes, and consumes goods and uses services with that income, thus providing direct and indirect employment to multiple people (like anybody else with an income). An astrologer is specifically useful in boosting activity in the gems and jewellery related sector - call it a marketing channel for that industry. Arguably astrologers also add to the happiness quotient.

Why is this service seen as different by Nirmuktaites from say, fashion models who sell clothes, or interior decorators, or any of a dozen other service professions?//

(Nirmukta is a freethought community in India which promote scientific ,secular humanism and similar values see http://nirmukta.com/ and this discussion took place in facebook page of nirmukta see https://www.facebook.com/groups/nirmukta/10151553275998152/?ref=notif&notif_t=group_comment_reply for discussion page )

My reply is given below

Before taking up the problems I face with astrology I want to answer a general question implicitly raised by you. The question is if somebody is providing a service and people are ok with it why one should question it? Are they not satisfying the needs of people? Therefore doing a service to the people? But as it explained below in the excerpt from a discussion on markets we need to note that the preferences of people are not constant and unchanging they are made shaped by their interaction with the world? The service provider tries to changes the preference of the individuals through advertisements etc which may create false beliefs which may affect the behaviour of individuals in other contexts. For examples the promoters of fairness cream promote it by creating racist views like being white is superior to other colour and skin colour is important part of one’s personality etc.

//As critics of markets point out, markets may be efficient in satisfying people's wants, but sometimes this may happen because they actually shift people's preferences towards things that can easily (which often means: profitably) be provided in markets. These are not necessarily the preferences people would choose it they reflected about which preferences they would like to have (cf. e.g. George 2001, who uses the metaphor of “preference pollution”). Economic models of markets usually take individuals' preferences as given, which makes them colour blind, as it were, to a whole range of questions that have been raised about markets in this respect: how do markets change individuals, their relation to one another, and their relation to certain goods and values?//  From (here http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/markets/)

All the preferences of individuals are not equally important and the service provided by all individuals is not equal.  (See http://www.scribd.com/doc/65334878/Singer-Hegel-A-Very-Short-Introduction     pg 36-37 for more details.)

Problems with astrology

First thing I respect the rights of the astrologers or anybody to promote their beliefs within the rules of law. Also it is very clear that astrology is a superstition and has no valid evidence.

1. It is an attempt to spread ignorance to people. As Plato observed long ago “Ignorance is the root of all evil” i.e. our beliefs affects our actions so it is important to have our beliefs correspond to reality if not it will harm us and other people.   It is equivalent of exploiting people using their ignorance. It is similar to medical quackery where

2. The desire to go to the astrologer comes from the irrational fear that is created by believing in astrology. Astrologers are not just satisfying the needs of people these needs themselves are created by them (and others). So they don’t get real solutions and it will mislead them especially when they take major decisions about marriage, business etc. people go to astrologer because they believe that astrology can help them in solving the problems of their life. So their main intention is to solve those problems so by showing how astrology is false and making them to look at the issues causing their problem we help them to solve their problems. The benefit created by the astrologers is very much less than the harm being done by them

3.  Gems, jewellery and astrology: It is very interesting to note how the concept of gem therapy associated with astrology. When all these pseudoscience related to gem therapy started to became popular it got associated with astrology. Instead of selling their quackery as a separate pseudoscience Gem therapists attached to astrology because since astrology is associated with Hindu religion and “Indian culture” they get a kind of double immunity. On the one hand they used the language of science and the other culture and religion. Much such nonsense like Rekhi etc are propagated in this way.

4. Also my criticism of astrology is made from the boarder perspective of encourage people to question things, developing critical thinking skills etc. so when people hear our criticism of astrology they will not only understand the lack of evidence for astrology but develop skills to identify other pseudoscience.  

As per the issues like fashion models etc as I explained I do criticise them when they promote ideas that are harmful to society. For example skin lotion and creams which promote racist white supremacist ideas related to skin colour or film industry objectify women and make movies that justify patriarchal and similar oppressive power structures.

Zizek , psychoanalysis and literary theory

Recently one of my friend showed me this video which is a interview of famous intellectual noam chomsky  on philosopher slavoj zizek . Chomsky has sharply criticised postmodernism and related work in critical theory etc.  below is my views on the video and related matters of psychoanalysis and literary theory .

1. I agree with Noam Chomsky that one should try to simplify things and academics and intellectuals shouldn’t act like high priests in a ivory tower but should try to share their knowledge with common people. For academics it would be a good idea that their work in public education  say  writing popular books etc should be  given importance for granting tenure etc. what do you think of this idea?

2. Literary theory : as alan sokal and others have shown there is lot of nonsense is there in literary theory. But I won’t dismiss it altogether at least part of what I have read of literary theory (from critical theory a friendly guide) most of it is applying  Marxism, feminism etc to literary works to identify hidden form of class bias, sexism, racism etc. Learning these theories will help us to identify these prejudices in our day to day real world interactions. From my personal experience I have learnt that eventhough “intellectually” we are against these form of exploitative forms it takes time and effort to put them in practice.

3. Lacan psychoanalysis: I am unable to understand the intellectual status of psychoanalysis. Popper criticised Freudian psychoanalysis  for being unfalsifiable  and psychologists have rejected most of the concepts of psychoanalysis . But many people say that it is a interpretive theory and it can’t be judged by the same standard of natural sciences (Reference : ch 4 philosophy of social science  by alex Rosenberg).

 For example philosopher Habermas  says (from habermas a very short introduction pg 18)

Habermas remained critical of the view that all knowledge, particularly knowledge of the social world, must conform to the canons of  natural science. Eventually, he developed the view that the different  kinds of knowledge – theoretical, practical and critical – take shape   within different frameworks, and serve different human interests.

Theoretical knowledge is based on the human interest in technical  control over nature; practical and moral knowledge is based on the  human interest in understanding one another; while critical social theory and psychoanalysis are based respectively on the collective  and individual interest in emancipation, in freedom from illusion, in autonomy (Mündigkeit), and the realization of the good life.

It leads to never ending debate about naturalists and their critics in philosophy of social science which I don’t have much knowledge about (see for a short summary http://www.iep.utm.edu/soc-sci/)

4. Zizek : I have only read his book first as tragedy, then as farce and few of his lectures. I think he repeats himself and repeats many of the examples. His main message his simple and original. he explains them using examples from popular culture which makes them accessible. His mix of technical jargon and popular culture is unconventional and sometimes I got the feeling that he got those insights first and then tried to fit them into technical jargon.

BOOK REVIEW SILENT SPRING

BOOK- SILENT SPRING AUTHOR- RACHEL CARSON

Silent spring which was written by marine biologist Rachel Carson and first published in 1962 is the first book to explain in detail the harmful effects of DDT and other chemicals on environment including human beings. The book is widely credited as helping to launch the environment movement. It facilitated the ban of the pesticide DDT in 1972 in the United States. It was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time by the editors of Discover Magazine. It has been featured in many lists of the best nonfiction books of the twentieth century. In the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Nonfiction it was at #5 and it was at No.78 in the conservative National Review.

Rachel Carson started her career as a marine biologist in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, and became a full-time nature writer in the 1950s by writing best-selling books like The Sea around Us on ocean life. In 1958 she received a letter from Olga Owens Huckin turned her attention towards harmful effects of chemicals which subsequently paved the way for ‘silent spring’. It not only created global awareness about harmful effects of DDT and other chemicals, it created a global environmental movement. Both her concern for nature and her courage to take on giant chemical companies and other similar groups is highly remarkable.

As contrary to popular misconception silent spring is not only about DDT. RC Wrote about damages from all kind of chemicals. She also alternative methods to replace chemicals but more importantly she severely criticised the human belief(arrogance?) that he can control the nature by showing that many times he fails to understand the consequences of his reactions. Her style of writing is very lively also she explained the facts such that every layman can understand. She managed to strike a perfect balance between citing relevant facts and maintaining curiosity of reader.

She starts with a story of an imaginary village that was destroyed due to use of DDT, which is sure to shock the reader and will make him realise the great danger in using pesticides. Then her analysis the effect of pesticides on humans, water, soil and on the entire ecosystem in a detailed way. Her main objections to use of chemicals are 1)gradually due to mutations insects will become resistant to existing chemicals so the chemicals will become useless and one need to develop more toxic chemiclas.They will also create mutations in the human genes. 2) They may end up in destroying essential insects/plants creating ecological imbalances.3)due to their non-bio degradable nature and solvency in fat, they will enter the food chain & using them in seemingly small quantities will result in large amount of accumulation in the bodies of humans and other living beings. She also questions the wasting huge amount of money on them while there are other cheaper opportunities available. I think this point is particularly relevant in India where use of chemicals in agriculture has highly increased the cost of production of farmers.

She traces the increase of harmful insects to destruction of biodiversity by human activities starting from large scale commercial agriculture to growing predominantly forests with single species. She says that most of the species that came with explorers to the new lands became pests in the new environment. In explaining the increased use of chemicals in agriculture she notes that most of the chemicals used as pesticides were created during the World War II for the purpose of chemical warfare. She argues after the world war ended chemical companies rebranded them and started to sell them as ‘pesticides’. But she doesn’t totally reject them. She calls for a sensible use of chemicals.

Her analysis of the structure of DDT and other chemicals like organic phosphates etc reveals that these chemicals are harmful not only to human beings but to the entire ecosystem. She severely criticises the use of systemic insecticides. She then does a detailed examination of their effect on water, soil, birds, human health in separate chapters. She cites lot of evidences not only events occurred but also scientific research. Her style is so lucid and easy to follow that any laymen can easily understand. Surprisingly she doesn’t tell anything new, all the things were known before but by bringing them together and through her way of writing she created awareness among masses about the hazardous of pesticides. In this way her book virtually created the modern environment movement against using chemicals in agriculture.

In explaining the effect of chemicals on water she argues ‘In the entire water-pollution problem, there is probably nothing more disturbing than the threat of widespread contamination of groundwater’. It is due to the fact that chemicals pass through water cycles contaminating wells and other water sources. But as she explains the most dangerous consequence of mixing chemicals in water is that it leads to the creation of new chemicals due to chemical reactions. These chemicals can be very harmful even if the initial chemicals were not dangerous. The story of farmers in Colorado shockingly displays these dangerous of underground contamination by chemicals. In explaining the effect on species in water sources she cites several cases like Tule Lake and Lower Klamath where birds, fishes and other species were died due to accumulation of chemicals like DDT. There were used as weed killers but because of their non-bio-degradability they passed to other species through food chain. The most dangerous thing is that even though the initial amount used was not harmful due to accumulation the amount found in fishes & birds were very high.It also affected the migratory pattern of birds due to contamination of water sources. In explaining the hazardous effects she basically criticises the human arrogance of trying to change nature as he wishes.

She explains the intricate relations existing between species and shows how insecticides are destroying it. Along with pests good & important species like earthworm etc are also killed. Birds which eat these insects are died due to poisoning. More dangerously as case Florida shows pesticides like DDT, BHC destroys nitrogenity of soil. Due to their non-biodegradability these chemicals get collected in large quantities even when applied in small quantities. On above all that these crops grown in those fields wii contain these chemicals, and get accumulated in body of people who consumes it.

The almost universal presence of these pesticides shocks anyone. They have spread from places of Eskimos in arctic to Antarctica, from our dining tables to deserts. Her concern for environment shows reflects in her writing. She clearly demonstrates that human beings in their egoist attempt to control nature as their wishes are actually acting with total ignorance of complex interconnections of nature. She warns that ultimately it will lead to his own demise. It amazes me how prophetic her words were! For example she gives examples of birds dyeing due to accumulation of DDT, but recently we have seen cases like Endosulphan where people died due to exposure of pesticides.

As the incidence she cites clearly demonstrates that the effect of chemicals on human beings is more disastrous. Since these chemicals are non-biodegradable there cumulative affects over long periods of time are hazardous. As they are fat soluble they are stored in human body, but there effects are not seen until they reach a critical stage. But then it will be too late to take any action. As human beings are top of the food chain, significant amount of chemicals get stored in their body even if only small amount was sprayed. They adversely affect internal organs and in some cases physically challenged children are born due to the affects of chemicals that get passed to them in mother womb through placenta. Furthermore they disturb the activities of individual cells by affecting oxygen cycle and other important functions. Some chemicals are identified as carcinogenic i.e. cancer causing even when taken in small quantities. But the most fearful of all the things she cites is that some chemicals are even capable of causing mutations in genes and damaging chromosomes resulting in alternation of hereditary material itself. It makes mockery of all things human beings do since man’s attempt to control nature resulting in destruction of his own hereditary materials.

She just didn’t explain the harmful effects of chemicals Carlson but expressed universal outlook challenges the human belief in his understanding the nature. She clearly demonstrates his very limited understanding of complex ecological system. She severely criticises his arrogance for trying to control nature by make him to realise that he is the one who need to adjust. I really appreciate her courage for writing.As the book published many chemical companies launched smear campagains against her. She bravely fought them & as her book had high standards in terms of facts and references her critics lost their ground. Lately she has been criticised for ‘causing deaths due to malaria due to her call for DDT ban’. Nothing can be more farther from the truth. DDT was not used for malaria because after few years mosquitoes became resistant to them. This was exactly the thing she suspected while explaining that insects gain resistance to chemicals due to mutations in their genes.

Furthermore she didn’t call for total ban of insecticides .She called for their limited and intelligent use. She argued for understanding their implications on ecological system before using them. She called for other alternative methods like using natural enemies of insects, sterilization techniques, ultrasound, and transgenic methods. Contrary to her critics, her views on transgenic crops etc were so advanced that research on them just started in 1990’s. But some of these methods like transgenic crops caused adverse side effects (like BT cotton). But other methods like organic farming, using insecticides made from plants as neem have proved to be quite useful.

Carlson’s book surprises by its relevance to today’s problems. It is shocking that in India and other developing countries many chemicals represented in her book are still used despite their harmful effects are well known. In India Endosulphon case is a best example. Surprisingly she didn’t cite any new research on the topic but she chronicled all the facts and presented in such a way that anyone can understand. It created awareness in people and they started fight against these chemicals. It demonstrates the importance of popular science.

Overall I think this book must be read by anyone who is concerned about environment. I am sure that after reading the book there perspective about human activities will itself will change. They will appreciate the complexity of environment surrounding us.

World Data Bases

Internet and historical snapshots
Internet Archive / Wayback machine
The Internet Archive offers permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996, now the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is the most famous cooperatively edited encyclopedia. Since every change is stored, Web pages' history can offer a detailed subject-based overview of the most important references of the past.
The Knowledge Centers
A collection of links to other resources for fifinding Web pages as they used to exist in the past.
Whenago
Whenago provides quick access to historical information about what happened in the past on a given day.
World Digital Library
The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, signifificant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.

Information retrieval engines
Freebase
Freebase is an open, Creative Commons licensed repository of structured data of more than 12 million entities. It provides collaborative tools to link entities together and keep them updated.
Wolfram Alpha Computational Knowledge Engine
An attempt to compute whatever can be computed about anything. It aims to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for defifinitive answers to factual queries.
Text mining on the Web
Google Trends
Google Trends shows visual statistics about how often keywords have been searched on Google over time. Google Trends also shows how frequently topics have appeared in Google News stories, and in which geographic regions people have searched for them most.
Google Flu Trends
Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity. Data available for download as well.
The Observatorium
The Observatorium project focuses on complex network dynamics in the Internet, proposing to monitor its evolution in real-time, with the general objective of better understanding the processes of knowledge generation and opinion dynamics.
We Feel Fine
A database of several million human feelings, harvested from blogs and social pages in the Web. Using a series of playful interfaces, the feelings can be searched and sorted across a number of demographic slices. Web api available as well.
CyberEmotions
The CyberEmotions project focuses on the role of collective emotions in creating, forming and breaking-up ecommunities. It makes available for download three datasets containing news and comments from the BBC News forum, Digg and MySpace, only for academic research and only after the submission of an application form.
Social data sharing
Linked Data
Linked Data is about using the Web to connect related data that was not previously linked, or using the Web to lower the barriers to linking data currently linked using other methods.
Dataverse Network Project
The Dataverse Network is an application to publish, share, reference, extract and analyze research data. It facilitates making data available to others, and allows to replicate others work. Researchers and data authors get credit, publishers and distributors get credit, affiliated institutions get credit.
Data360
Data360 is an open-source, collaborative and free Web site. The site hosts a common and shared database, which any person or organization, committed to neutrality and non-partisanship (meaning let the data speak), can use for presentations and visualizations.
Swivel
Swivel is a web site where people share reports of charts and numbers. It is free for public data, and charges a monthly fee to people who want to use it in private.
Many Eyes
A IBM initiative that allows users to upload their datasets and use a collection of tools to obtain meaningful visualizations from them. Each visualization is publicly stored on a dedicated page, where users can comment, rate and tag it. Reuse of the data is possible and encouraged.
Conflict data
CSCW Data on Armed Conflict
CSCW and Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, have collaborated in the production of a dataset of armed conflicts, both internal and external, in the period 1946 to the present. Currently, probably the most extensive dataset repository available, in particular for historic data.
WarViews
The aim of the WarViews project is to create an easy-to-use front-end for the exploration of GIS data on conflict. It can run on a Web browser or it can be displayed using Google Earth.
The following are civil war specifific datasets with additional empirical information:
Ethnic group location dataset
Ethnic power balances dataset
Collection of updated datasets and codebooks from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP).
ACLED
Partially contained in the PRIO dataset, ACLED (Armed Conflict Location and Events Dataset) is designed for disaggregated conflict analysis and crisis mapping. This dataset codes the location of all reported conflict events in 50 countries in the developing world. Data are currently being coded from 1997 to 2009 and the project continues to backdate conflict information for African states to the year of independence.
CERAC
The Conflict Analysis Resource Center hosts several cross country conflict data sets and a few datasets of particular countries. Repositories also have datasets of political instability and conflict.
The Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive
The Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive provides annual data for a range of countries from 1815 to the present. Frequently cited, it is one of the \leading datasets on political violence", according to Robert Bates at Harvard University. It is \possibly the most widely used event dataset" according to Henrik Urdal, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO).
Country specifific repositories: Iraq, Afghanistan
Collection of datasets of terrorist acts.
Data in economics and finance

Bloomberg
International real-time data provider for decision makers in finance, business and government.
Maddison Data
Historical statistics about GDP and population data.
UNCTAD Statistics
The UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics on-line provides time series of economic data and development indicators, in some cases going back as far as 1950; the Commodity Price Statistics Online Database; the UNCTAD-TRAINS on the Internet (Trade Analysis and Information System) for trade control measures as well as import flows by origin for over 130 countries; the Foreign Direct Investment database (FDI).
OECD Statistics Portal
Large collection of datasets covering economics, demographics. Extractions are freely available, full access requires subscription.
EUROSTAT
Detailed statistics on the EU and candidate countries, and various statistical publications for sale.
Where's George?
Spatial tracking system for U.S. and Canadian dollars.
Eurobilltracker
Spatial tracking system for Euro banknotes.

Scientifific collaboration data
ISI Web of Knowledge
Comprehensive source of information in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. It encompasses several datasets, among which the following are maybe the most noteworthy:
Journal Citation Reports. It allows one to evaluate and compare journals using citation data drawn from over 7,500 scholarly and technical journals;
Web of Science. It consists of seven databases containing information gathered from thousands of scholarly journals, books, book series, reports, conferences, and more.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is search engine specialized in scholarly literature. It indexes different sources (articles, books, abstract, thesis, etc.) from several disciplines and sorts them according to number of citations, author and journal impact factor.
Scholarometer
Scholarometer is a social tool to facilitate citation analysis and help evaluate the impact of an author's publications. It works as a software plug-in for the Firefox browser.
Scopus
Scopus is a very large abstract and citation database of research literature. It is available only for registered users.
Living Science
Living Science is a real time global science observatory based on publications submitted to arXiv.org. It covers real time (daily) submissions of publications in areas as diverse as Physics, Astronomy, Computer Science, Mathematics and Quantitative Biology. Currently, contents are dynamically updated each day. Living Science is a powerful analysis tool to identify the magnitude and impact of scientifific work worldwide.

Social sciences
ICPSR of the University of Michigan
ICPSR offers more than 500,000 digital fifiles containing social science research data. Disciplines represented include political science, sociology, demography, economics, history, gerontology, criminal justice, public health, foreign policy, terrorism, health and medical care, early education, education, racial and ethnic minorities, psychology, law, substance abuse and mental health, and more.
UK Data Center of the University of Essex
The UK's largest collection of digital research data in the social sciences and humanities.
Berkeley's UC DATA Archive
UC DATA's data holdings are primarily in the areas of Political, Social and Health Sciences.
The Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS)
The Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) is a national data service providing access and support for an extensive range of key economic and social data, both quantitative and qualitative, spanning many disciplines and themes. It contains a map of additional datasets from several European countries.
CESSDA
Wide data collections including sociological surveys, election studies, longitudinal studies, opinion polls, and census data. Among the materials are international and European data such as the European Social Survey, the Eurobarometers, and the International Social Survey Programme.
Gapminder Data
Gapminder is a popular technology and Web application for cross-visualisation of trends in time series of data. It also opens an archive of multiple datasets on diverse socio-economic indicators.
World Value Survey
The World Value Survey provides data about values and cultural changes in societies all over the world.
Urban data
Global Urban Observatory database
The Global Urban Observatory (GUO) offers policy-oriented urban indicators, statistics and other urban information.
Urban Observatory
U.S. based datasets about wealth, innovation and crime across cities.
Traffic data
NGSIM
The Next Generation Simulation (NGSIM) program was initiated by the United States Department of Transportation (US DOT). The program developed a core of open behavioral algorithms in support of traffic simulation, and collected high-quality primary trac and trajectory data intended to support the research and testing of the new algorithms.
Swiss Federal Roads Office FEDRO
The Swiss Federal Roads Office offers a comprehensive overview on traffic flows in Switzerland. Data are collected by permanent automatic traffic counting stations and complemented by regular manual checking since 1961.
TrafficData
The aim of the International Traffic Database (ITDb) project is to provide traffic data to various groups (researchers, practitioners, public entities) in a format according to their particular needs, ranging from raw measurement data to statistical analysis. ITDb promotes a flexible traffic data provision format based on user needs and standard habits.
Clearing House for Transport Data
The Clearing House for Transport Data in the German Aerospace Center is the fifirst point of contact for a quick overview of the available data. It is targeted at both organizations who gather transport-relevant data and those who wish to use the results of such research. The information offered includes the preparation of detailed metadata on the data sets, as well as notes on possible uses and sources.
Desweiteren das Regiolab Delft
The regiolab-delft initiative started just after 2000 as a joint project led by TU Delft in association with the Municipality of Delft, the TRAIL research school, the Province of South Holland, the Ministry of Transport and several industrial partners. The archived dataset consists of over 6 years of 1 minute averaged speed and aggregate flow data from densely spaced inductive loops on the freeway network in the province of south Holland and other data from intersection controllers, license plate detection camera's and much more.
RITA
The Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation offers several datasets about maritime, freights, airline, passengers, etc. traffic statistics.
ETH Travel Data Archive (ETHTDA)
The ETH Travel Data Archive (ETHTDA) is a virtual platform allowing end users to browse the archived travel data over the Web and enabling simple statistical analysis.
Metropolitan Travel Survey Archive
The Metropolitan Travel Survey Archive to store, preserve, and make publicly available, via the Internet, travel surveys conducted by metropolitan areas, states and localities.
Infoblu
Infoblu is a private company providing real-time traffic monitoring services for Italy. All services are available for a fee.
Open maps
Google Maps
World-famous map service. It offers several additional services such as: Street View, user-uploaded content (photos, comments and ratings) and personalized overlays through service apis.
OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap (by UCL) is a free editable map of the whole world. OpenStreetMap allows you to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth.
Tracksource Brasil
Tracksource is a collaborative project aimed at creating and distributing for free maps of Brasil.
Logistics data
National Household Travel Survey
The National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) collect data on both long-distance and local travel by the American public. The joint survey gathers trip-related data such as mode of transportation, duration, distance and purpose of trip. It also gathers demographic, geographic, and economic data for analysis purposes. It is part of RITA.
Commodity Flow Survey
The Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) is the primary source of national and state-level data on domestic freight shipments by American establishments in mining, manufacturing, wholesale, auxiliaries, and selected retail industries. Data are provided on the types, origins and destinations, values, weights, modes of transport, distance shipped, and ton-miles of commodities shipped. It is part of RITA and it is conducted every fifive years (last sampling on 2007).
Climate data
Julich
Climate data from Julich Research Center.
Google.org
Google introduces its data-driven philanthropic projects, among which two environmental satellite observatories:
the Earth Engine: for monitoring trends in world deforestation;
the Crisis Response: for monitoring the oil spill from the Deep Horizon sank platform.
Reality mining
Reality Mining
Behavioral data collected from 100 mobile phones over 9 months. Includes both proximity and phone usage statistics. Two anonymized datasets available: single user (MySQL) and global (Matlab).
Other open data initiatives
Data.gov
Wide collection of public US datasets available for research.
Data.gov.uk
Wide collection of public UK datasets available for research.
Digging Into Data
Launched by the National Science Foundation (NSF), it offers a collection of diverse data repositories.
Guardian Data Blog
Data journalism initiative that posts public interest (primarily UK relevant) datasets together with their analysis. A few collaborations with data visualization artists are present as well.
Google Public Data
Google offers several large datasets on diverse world socio-economic indicators and provides tools for easy visualization.