M P Subramanian
Dear & respected Sir,
Greetings from your loving friend !
I really enjoyed the forwarded
message of Mr P.
Ramanathan and take it into heart to
realise that
not only LIC, all the Employers are
insisting from their
ex-employees for the same
certificate of EXISTENCE
every year for the continued payment
of pension.
My suggestion is that why not these
Employers go ahead
merely on the basis of self attested life certificates
as in
the case of novel idea introduced by
our present Honourable
PM when he was as the Chief
Minister of Gujarat and thereafter
to in various Govt . offices in
Delhi too , similar to that of his
earlier action. To prove the
correctness, there are ample records
also are available in
their office numerous files.
This practice will not only
eliminate various inconveniences of
the ex-employees who have almost
exhausted energy of their life,
to run from one pillar to another to
prove his/ her self existence
with the unknown person solely for
the purpose of pension.
On most of the occasions there
is every possibility of declining
that they are not known to them
earlier or insist for any identity.
In such circumstances the
situations goes worst.
Respected MPS Sir, Please
think over it and suggest some
enervated idea at least for the future generations.
Kind Regards,
SKS
Kulandaisamy <kulandaisamy.sengol@gmail.com>
That's
right : it is "Existence" Certificate and not "Life"
Certificate because LIC knows only too well that the pittance doled out by it
under the guise of 'pension' to earlier retirees does not enable them to lead a
decent 'life" and so "Life" Certificate will be a misnomer in
their case at least, right?
Remember
that favourite phrase of LIC's - "By way of abundant caution"?
As for
"Existence" Certificate I hold that it's enough if we ourselves
convince LIC that we
THINK and so we EXIST taking a cue from Descartes instead of going after serving
LIC Class I / II Officers, HGAs, Bank Managers, Medical Practitioners, etc.
Or we can
emulate that spunky girl in the joke who whipped out her compact, took out her
mirror, looked at it and declared : "Yes, it's me all right" when
asked by a bank clerk to prove her identity. We can go to the nearest office of
LIC with a mirror, look at it and declare ourselves on which the head of that
office / authorised official would convey our existence to our respective
pension disbursing offices.
I know my
fellow pensioners are capable of suggesting various other ingenious methods
also to prove to LIC that we "EXIST" (somehow?)
René Descartes (1596–1650)
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
Cogito, ergo sum
Philosophy
Alternative titles: I think, therefore I am; Je pense, donc je suis
Cogito, ergo sum, ( Latin: “I think, therefore I am)
Descartes, René [Credit: National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland]
dictum coined by the French philosopher René Descartes in his Discourse on Method (1637) as a first step in demonstrating the attainability of certain knowledge. It is the only statement to survive the test of his methodic doubt. The statement is indubitable, as Descartes argued in the second of his six Meditations on First Philosophy (1641), because even if an all-powerful demon were to try to deceive him into thinking that he exists when he does not, he would have to exist in order for the demon to deceive him. Therefore, whenever he thinks, he exists. Furthermore, as he argued in his replies to critics in the second edition (1642) of the Meditations, the statement “I am” (sum) expresses an immediate intuition, not the conclusion of a piece of reasoning (regarding the steps of which he could be deceived), and is thus indubitable. However, in a later work, the Principles of Philosophy (1644), Descartes suggested that the cogito is indeed the conclusion of a syllogism whose premises include the propositions that he is thinking and that whatever thinks must exist.
NEW WORLD ENCYCLOPAEDIA
Cogito ergo sum
"Cogito, ergo sum" (Latin: "I am thinking, therefore I exist," or traditionally "I think, therefore I am") is a philosophical phrase by René Descartes, and it is a translation of Descartes' original French statement: "Je pense, donc je suis," which occurs in his Discourse on Method (1637).
Descartes understood "certainty" as the primary characteristic of valid knowledge. He conducted a series of thought experiments (regarding methodic doubt) in order to find the indubitable, self-evident truth expressed by this phrase. The interpretation of this phrase has been subject to numerous philosophical debates. The phrase expresses a skeptical intellectual climate which is indicative of early modern philosophy.
Although the idea expressed in "cogito ergo sum" is widely attributed to Descartes, many predecessors offer similar arguments—particularly Augustine of Hippo in De Civitate Dei (books XI, 26), who also anticipates modern refutations of the concept. (In Principles of Philosophy,§7: "Ac proinde haec cognitio, ego cogito, ergo sum, est omnium prima et certissima etc."). Since Descartes, the phrase has grown popular beyond the field of philosophy.
P Ramanathan <suprashanth2@gmail.com>
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
Cogito, ergo sum
Philosophy
Alternative titles: I think, therefore I am; Je pense, donc je suis
Cogito, ergo sum, ( Latin: “I think, therefore I am)
Descartes, René [Credit: National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland]
dictum coined by the French philosopher René Descartes in his Discourse on Method (1637) as a first step in demonstrating the attainability of certain knowledge. It is the only statement to survive the test of his methodic doubt. The statement is indubitable, as Descartes argued in the second of his six Meditations on First Philosophy (1641), because even if an all-powerful demon were to try to deceive him into thinking that he exists when he does not, he would have to exist in order for the demon to deceive him. Therefore, whenever he thinks, he exists. Furthermore, as he argued in his replies to critics in the second edition (1642) of the Meditations, the statement “I am” (sum) expresses an immediate intuition, not the conclusion of a piece of reasoning (regarding the steps of which he could be deceived), and is thus indubitable. However, in a later work, the Principles of Philosophy (1644), Descartes suggested that the cogito is indeed the conclusion of a syllogism whose premises include the propositions that he is thinking and that whatever thinks must exist.
NEW WORLD ENCYCLOPAEDIA
Cogito ergo sum
"Cogito, ergo sum" (Latin: "I am thinking, therefore I exist," or traditionally "I think, therefore I am") is a philosophical phrase by René Descartes, and it is a translation of Descartes' original French statement: "Je pense, donc je suis," which occurs in his Discourse on Method (1637).
Descartes understood "certainty" as the primary characteristic of valid knowledge. He conducted a series of thought experiments (regarding methodic doubt) in order to find the indubitable, self-evident truth expressed by this phrase. The interpretation of this phrase has been subject to numerous philosophical debates. The phrase expresses a skeptical intellectual climate which is indicative of early modern philosophy.
Although the idea expressed in "cogito ergo sum" is widely attributed to Descartes, many predecessors offer similar arguments—particularly Augustine of Hippo in De Civitate Dei (books XI, 26), who also anticipates modern refutations of the concept. (In Principles of Philosophy,§7: "Ac proinde haec cognitio, ego cogito, ergo sum, est omnium prima et certissima etc."). Since Descartes, the phrase has grown popular beyond the field of philosophy.
P Ramanathan <suprashanth2@gmail.com>