Evolution of ‘Supererogation’
It is advisable to get into a discussion about this question only after one knows what ‘supererogation’ means and how it has been discussed for centuries. In the Greek ethics…
Read moreReal and Practical Uses of Normative Ethics
When you provide a moral criticism of someone, you are saying that such a person is morally wrong. If you bracket, for a moment, my writings and talks on the…
Read moreStupidity of Indian meanings of English words
Note: For a broader application and context, please read this paper: translation, interpretation and culture 1. The word ‘temple’ is not used in English to refer to a place where…
Read moreEnlightenment by Grace or Efforts or Birth?
9.32 Bhagavadgita māṃ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye ‘pi syuḥ pāpayonayaḥ striyo vaiśyāstathā śūdrās te’ pi yānti parāṃ gatim The situation is a bit more complex. The word ‘yoni’ here does…
Read moreNaming a phenomenon
(a) Paolo Friere, a Brazilian educationalist, has spoken about such a phenomenon at length in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He calls it as an ‘internalisation of the oppressor by…
Read moreHeuristics: traps to avoid
1. Perhaps, one of the ways to test whether your search is taking you in the right direction is by seeing whether it solves a well-known paradox, or explicates it…
Read moreHijabs, Turbans and the Secular
1. Let us suppose that some school or another in India also prescribes uniform to its students. A Sikh boy and a Muslim girl enroll. They wear the colors of…
Read moreSecular State and Hijab
1. We can all accept the fact, I suppose, that some thing or another is a religious symbol to someone when s/he belongs to that religion whose symbol it is.…
Read moreSelf-reflexivity of Religion
It would be interesting to answer the question of whether or not The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) is a religious story by testing against ‘religion is an explanatorily intelligible…
Read moreErudition
I keep teaching my students the need to unlearn: unlearn the desire to ‘show off’ their erudition; unlearn shallowness and so on. I am more than convinced that whatever we…
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