MSI Press Blog

  Preface “Philosophy is dead,” declared Stephen Hawking in agreement with many others. “As philosophers have not kept up with science, their art is dated” (Warman, 2011). However, if we refer to the history of how humans peruse knowledge, we will not find that different disciplines replaced one another in sequence. It is not that the wilt of religion gave rise to philosophy, or that the denouement of philosophy set the stage for science—nor is the world segmented into discrete, incompatible disciplinary fields. A biological reaction can be expanded to millions of chemical reactions or trillions of interactions between physical particles; likewise, the emergence of “social behaviors” among neural networks as they grow and that of “tacit agreement” from quantum entanglement have implied the possibility of adopting a sociological language to explain phenomena previously deemed as lifeless and strictly adherent to the laws of physics. Every discipline is a language capable of encompassing

Renyuan Dong works as a senior healthcare consultant based in Tokyo. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in both philosophy and economics, speaks three languages – English, Chinese and Japanese – and boasts of having traveled to over 30 countries. Most of the ideas presented in his book  Rainstorm of Tomorrow – The Ever-Flowing Banquet of Philosophy  matured during the author’s collegiate study of philosophy and economics, as well as his professional tenure in healthcare and biology; the shift wrought a cross-disciplinary mode of thinking, illuminating connections and contradictions that defy the boundaries of each subject. Through his travels, the author found persistent proofs of and supplements to his existing philosophical belief transcendent of the confines of any single culture. At the root of the author’s ideas, however, lie his inherent sense of alienation from the world and his vigilance against any established norms. The multinational identity of the author may help usher in

  From the interview: Rainstorm of Tomorrow  shares your provocative philosophical insights on truth, ethics, and aesthetics. Why was this an important book for you to write? “Philosophy is dead,” declared Stephen Hawking in agreement with many others. “As philosophers have not kept up with science, their art is dated.” However, if we refer to the history of how humans pursue knowledge, we will not find that different disciplines replaced one another in sequence. It is not that the wilt of religion gave rise to philosophy, or that the denouement of philosophy set the stage for science—nor is the world segmented into discrete, incompatible disciplinary fields. Every discipline is a language capable of encompassing all phenomena in the world. Each speaks with a unique voice. In practice, however, we rarely lean on one discipline alone to explain everything around us. For example, we are not likely to use the language of physics—despite its sufficiency—to restore psychological activities

  Editor’s Introduction   This book is a transcription of lectures that revolve around two questions:   How does a person become educated?   What does it mean to be a teacher?   Without continuously entertaining the problems that these two questions create, no one should be licensed to discuss religion or philosophy.   These problems seem to have been forgotten in an age when anyone with the privilege of time, intellect and emotions can buy a PhD or publish a book and be considered “educated.”   But if not with the privilege of a PhD or with a voluminous collection of information, what qualifies someone as a teacher?   Introductory Lectures on Religious Philosophy addresses these questions within the context of five ancient traditions: the Epic of Gilgamesh , Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.   The language of the lectures, the questions that guide the dialogue, and the social atmosphere of this class also comment directly on these problems of education.     

Dr. Amir Sabzevary holds two Master’s degrees and a PhD; his dissertation is entitled Choiceless Awareness: Psychological Freedom in the Philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti. Dr. Sabzevary has taught religion and philosophy for over 30 years at a variety of colleges and universities in the Bay Area and is currently the Chair of Philosophy and Humanities at Laney College in Oakland, CA. For more posts on Dr. Sabzevary and his award-winning book, click HERE .

Today's blog post is the next in the series of book back stories and is the story behind Rainstorm of Tomorrow by Renyuan Dong. From the publisher -  Rainstorm of Tomorrow presented as a rather unusual book. The author was very young and nothing short of brilliant. The traditional publisher would say: "cannot take this book because the traditional author cred is lacking." (Make no mistake, Renyuan is building that cred now and has been doing so and will be doing so. He just happened to write his book before building the cred -- and the book, having won awards and great reviews -- lends to his credibility now.) The insights of someone so young was breathtaking; the level of knowledge of multiple domains --philosophy, history, art, science -- was astounding (and makes it difficult to pigeonhole, i.e. categorize the book); how Renyuan wove it all together in a logical argument that is simultaneously an emotional story is magical. We HAD to take a risk on this book. We did.

  Today's back story is about the book,  Introductory Lectures on Religious Philosophy,  by Dr. Amir Sabsevary. From the publisher: A colleague of the author, a distinguished dean at a distinguished university but not (yet) highly published, brought to us a collection of the author's lecture notes, asking if they were publishable, especially given that the author was not a native speaker of English or writer of texts in a format expected by American readers. The answer: yes, with some editing. We put one of our best copyeditors to the task, a professor of English with a background in spiritual topics. Together, author and copyeditor worked through the book -- and, upon launch, it became one of our bestsellers. The author has since self-published (with our encouragement) two other books . Paperback available at 25% discount with code FF25 at  msipress.com/shop . Read excerpts and other blog posts about Amir and his book HERE . For more posts about MSI Press's religious books

  excerpt from How to Argue with an Atheist (Brink) -  STEP #1: I affirm that people are values-centered.   STUDENT: Dr. Brink? Do you remember me? I came by last week and we talked about religion.   BRINK: Of course, but as I said last time, to give you the entire answer as to why I am religious or why you should be religious is not something that we should attempt all at once. We need to approach this topic one step at a time.   STUDENT: So, where do we start?   BRINK: My first point is that humans are values-oriented beings. They seek values, uphold values, and when they are not oriented by values, they fall into alienation.   STUDENT: That sounds like Chapter 13 on social psychology.   BRINK: My, you have read ahead in your psychology textbook.   STUDENT:  So, what's the next point?   BRINK: Don't be so quick to agree with me. If we have not fully established step #1, then we do not have a good footing for the next step. We need to break down step #1 into several sub-step