Norm, utilitarian ought, Patanjali
1. Assume that India (or any other society) does not have an ethics. What would happen? Surely, if ethics has something to do with coordinating human actions, we know of…
Read moreThe word ‘Normative’
1. There are other normative statements besides ethical ones: even aesthetic statements are normative (when you judge something to be ugly or beautiful) or statements about the presence of other…
Read moreNormativity as ‘parasitic’ behavior
We need to tackle the following issues properly if we want to get a handle on normativity and its relation to a configuration of learning. 1.1. Normativity cannot be the…
Read moreNormative Ethics III
I still have some difficulty in figuring out the problem about normative ethics expressed on the Abhinavagupta forum. There is obviously something that bugs people, but I cannot make out…
Read moreOught vs. should
X asks: I am unable to figure out what the special significance is of not having a ‘moral ought’ in the Indian traditions. If ‘should not’ and ‘must not’ have…
Read moreNormative Ethics II
Whenever I discuss the absence of normative ethics in India, people, especially Indians, get agitated. They hear me say that India has no ethics. Consequently, they want to show that…
Read moreReligion and Origin of Natural Sciences
My proposal addresses itself to the following observation: the natural sciences, as we know them today, arise in the western culture. What ‘natural sciences’ mean in the above statement is…
Read moreThe absence of supernatural entities in Indian traditions
1. The absence of supernatural entities in the Indian traditions may seem counterintuitive to many. We can let someone else do the talking for us, namely Dale B. Martin in…
Read moreWhat is Anubhava? III
1. Let us retain the translation of ‘Anu’ as ‘appropriate’ or ‘apt’. Let us emphasize the active dimension of the word ‘Bhava’ to translate it as ‘coming into existence’. (‘Existence’…
Read moreWhat is experience? I
The biggest issue is: what is experience? All the Indian traditions have been busy with answering this question. But both posing this question and answering it are themselves experiential, as…
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