More about Prasad

Introducing myself

Ethnicity: Sinhalese

Religious Background: Theravada Buddhism

Mother tongue: Sinhala

Speaks/Writes: Sinhala and some English.

Education: Bachelor of Science Degree (in Computer Engineering)

Occupation: Software Engineer

Age: 30 as of year 2000

I consider myself lucky to have been born in the locality of Sri Lanka, which is an ex-colony of Great Britain. We are brought up in an environment where the native culture and the culture of the ex-colonial masters and the popular culture of the so-called new imperialism compete with each other for dominance. This salad-bowl model has given us the opportunity to taste the best of several worlds. Right now this does not taste all that good because of the war and all other prevailing conditions in the country.

My cultural identity is hard to define. I believe this is the case with anyone who is living in a salad bowl model society. I think I have adopted values from all cultures which I have been exposed to. However, I would like not to promote nor reject any culture. I am a believer in the global community, which is rich with values from many cultures. I also believe that it is possible to be part of the global community and live in harmony while preserving one's own cultural identity.

Let me try to give an account of myself in a few sentences. According the common usage of the phrase ‘take for granted’, I would say that I am a very stubborn individual who does not take anything for granted. In a more philosophical sense, there may be many things which I have taken for granted based on my worldview. I support whatever course of actions which would seem to improve the quality of life of the human race in the long run. Being easily irritated is a vulnerable weakness I have, which I am working to mitigate. Apart from this, I have been accused many times of being egocentric, which I like not to agree.

It is little difficult to describe my religious affiliations at this point. It is easier for me to say that I do not have any and elaborate the point later. When it comes to my philosophy of life, again it is hard to define. I have coined a term called ‘Postponism’ to describe my approach towards philosophy. You need to read the Random Thoughts essay to find out the definition of Postponism. Fortunately, Karl Popper has coined a term ‘logical positivism’ to describe my kind of attitude towards the scientific enquiry. This saves me a lot of trouble trying to describe it. In summary, a positivist is a person who does not demand to know what is real or what is certain. A positivist seeks knowledge for action, not knowledge for contemplation. A positivist won’t demand to know the ‘God’s eye view’ of nature; the ‘human’s eye view’ of things will do. Having said that I have to confess half of me secretly believes in determinism and causality as reminiscent of my childhood worldview. If what I wrote above is not very clear, I invite you to read RT. The purpose of RT is to make my views clear.