Nalin de Silva
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Professor Nalin de Silva is a Sri Lankan theoretical physicist, philosopher and a political analyst. He is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
Nalin de Silva was born on October 20, 1944 in Kovilagodella, Panadura, Sri Lanka. He studied at Bauddhaloka Maha Vidyalaya - Wekada (Panadura), Thurstan College, Colombo, and Royal College, Colombo.
He entered the University of Ceylon in 1963 and graduated with a First Class Honors degree in Mathematics in 1967. De Silva obtained his Doctorate in Theoretical Cosmology from the University of Sussex in 1970. He mathematically predicted, using the General Theory of Relativity, that a particle projected in the sense opposite to that of a rotating body eventually rotates in the same sense as the rotating body. It was later observed by a British-American research team in the 1980’s.
Nalin de Silva was formally a member of the Marxist Trotskyite Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Nava Samasamaja Party, and as a marxist and a theoretical physicist studying both disciplines he intensively began to question the foundations of both Marxism and Western Science. As a result, in 1986, he wrote Mage Lokaya (My World), criticizing the basis of the established western system of knowledge, and its domination throughout the world. This has further evolved in to a study of Epistemology & Ontology, and in the process he has introduced and developed the concept of chinthanaya as the basis on which knowledge is constructed by men relative to the sense organs, culture and the mind. His writings form the theoretical and philosophical basis of “Jathika Chinthanaya” an idea proposed by Gunadasa Amarassekera.
Nalin de Silva's writings and lectures, as well as Gaweshakayo (Explorers) organization which he guided while teaching Mathematics in the University of Colombo, and the Chinthana Parshadaya organization, of which he is the secretary, have made a definite impact on the Sri Lankan society.
de Silva is also the President of the Federation of University Teachers' Associations (FUTA) in Sri Lanka, and of the University Teachers' Association of the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. He has published more than one thousand five hundred articles in the press and some of the articles can be found in the Kalaya online collection.
[edit] Bibliography
- Mage Lokaya (My World)
- Jathiya Sanskruthiya Saha Chinthanaya (Nation, Culture and Chinthanaya), Maharagama, 1991 OCLC 27387252
- Bududahama Pavadeema (Buddhism Betrayed), Kelaniya, 1993 OCLC 32274198
- Apohakaye Roopikaya (Formalism of Dialectics)
- Marxvadaye Daridrathawaya (Poverty of Marxism)
- Prabhakaran Ohuge Seeyala Bappala saha Massinala (Prabhakaran and his relatives), Maharagama, 1995 OCLC 35151717
- An Introduction to Tamil Racism in Sri Lanka, Maharagama, 1997 OCLC 40331529 (English translation of the previous book)
- Nidahase Pahantemba (Beacon of Freedom)
- Nidahasa Dinaganeema (Winning Freedom)
- Jathiye Iranama (Fate of the Nation)
- Sinhala Avurudda (Sinhala New Year)
- Vidya Kathandara (Stories of Science)
- Methivaranaya Ha Hamuduruwo (Elections and Bhikkus)
- Panashaye Daruwo (Children of Fifty Six)
- Ape Pravada (Our Theories)
- Parisaraya Ha Batahira Akalpa (Environment and Western Attitudes)
