Philosophy - Publications

Permanent URI for this collection

https://dspace.uohyd.ac.in/handle/1/80

Browse

Browsing Philosophy - Publications by Issue Date

Jump to a point in the index:
  • Item
  • Item
  • Item
    Of thinking machines and the centred self
    ( 1995-06-01) Raghuramaraju, A.
  • Item
    Theory-ladenness of evidence: A case study from history of chemistry
    ( 2003-06-01) Basu, Prajit K.
    This paper attempts to argue for the theory-ladenness of evidence. It does so by employing and analysing an episode from the history of eighteenth century chemistry. It delineates attempts by Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier to construct entirely different kinds of evidence for and against a particular hypothesis from a set of agreed upon observations or (raw) data. Based on an augmented version of a distinction, drawn by J. Bogen and J. Woodward, between data and phenomena it is shown that the role of theoretical auxiliary assumptions is very important in constructing evidence for (or against) a theory from observation or (raw) data. In revolutionary situations, rival groups hold radically different theories and theoretical auxiliary assumptions. These are employed to construct very different evidence from the agreed upon set of observations or (raw) data. Hence, theory resolution becomes difficult. It is argued that evidence construction is a multi-layered exercise and can be disputed at any level. What counts as unproblematic observation or (raw) data at one level may become problematic at another level. The contingency of these constructions and the (un)problematic nature of evidence are shown to be partially dependent upon the scientific knowledge that the scientific community possesses. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
  • Item
    Rethinking the west
    ( 2005-12-01) Raghuramaraju, A.
  • Item
    Computer ethics: Constitutive and consequential morality
    ( 2006-12-01) Raghuramaraju, A.
    This chapter introduces two distinct models of morality, namely, constitutive which is available in traditional moral philosophy and consequential which surrounds the present day computer ethics discourse. It shows how constitutive morality thoroughly rehearses possible problems arising out of new developments or introduction of new products before accepting a moral rule, whereas consequential morality, propelled by liberalism, allows freedom for new products without deliberation and attends to problems only when they arise. The chapter, looking from the point of view of constitutive morality, highlights some of the structural problems associated with computer ethics. In conclusion, it suggests how societies, like India, that are not fully modern, can learn from both of these two models, thereby instituting additional terms to a new discipline like computer ethics. © 2007 by Idea Group Inc.
  • Item
    Internal criticism in the democracies outside the west
    ( 2009-01-01) Raghuramaraju, A.
    Democracy requires criticism. A significant feature of democracies outside the West, though often ignored by liberal traditions of analysis, is the practice of internal criticism. This article examines some experiences of internal criticism that may be found in the writings of some Indian philosophers, focusing especially on the work of Swami Vivekananda.
  • Item
    Nanoscience and nanotechnology: Ethical, legal, social and environmental issues
    ( 2009-03-01) Patra, Debasmita ; Ejnavarzala, Haribabu ; Basu, Prajit K.
    The present article attempts to understand the debate over nanoscience and nanotechnology regarding its potential benefits to the society. One view in this debate is that nanoscience and nanotechnology has a revolutionary potential and will have significant economic benefits, while the other view is skeptical about its potential in the context of ethical, legal, social and environmental (ELSE) issues and values such as equity and justice. In some developed countries, discussion on the ELSE issues of nanoscience and nanotechnology has already begun. Hence, there is a need to take a cue from the debate in the developed countries and focus our attention on these issues in the Indian context. The ELSE issues should be addressed right from the beginning of the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology, so that it is possible to make informed policy decisions.
  • Item
    Pre of art in modern India
    ( 2009-12-01) Raghuramaraju, A.
    This article lays bare an unusual underlying relationship between modernity and art or literature in the West by elucidating the sequential relationship between the premodern and the modern in the West as scripted by Descartes. Modernity rejected the premodern and the rejected is recalled and preserved by art and literature. This formula, when it travelled to societies like India through colonialism, met with mixed results as there remained the large premodern social reality. In this sequential relationship the premodern at times interrogated the modern. Creativity in these societies is to be found not only in art and literature but also in politics. This is illustrated by analysing how Swami Vivekananda chose saffron dress and wandering; Sri Aurobindo departed from this and selected white and seclusion; subsequently, Mahatma Gandhi chose wandering from Vivekananda and white from Aurobindo. The article concludes by pointing out how Descartes simultaneously decided to leave the past and enter into modernity whereas Ambedkar tokk nearly three decades between the decision to leave Hinduism and convert to Buddhism. © Third Text (2009).
  • Item
    Why moral relativism does not make sense
    ( 2010-01-01) Pradhan, R. C.
    In this paper I would like to examine the presuppositions of moral relativism and suggest that moral relativism, like any other relativism, does not hold good because of certain conceptual oddities involved in it. To argue that moral values are relative to cultures and societies and that morality is culture-variant is wrong because there are moral values which cut across all cultures and societies. Moral ideals and principles are not products of culture because culture itself presupposes them. Hence it is more appropriate to argue that morality has a core that does not change with history and culture. What is Moral Relativism? Moral relativism is the moral theory that says that moral values are of cultural origin and that they are relative to the cultures in which they are expressed. That is to say, moral values are culture-variant and they cannot be shared by all cultures. This argument regarding the nature and origin of moral values admits the relativity of moral ideals and values and reduces them to certain cultural practices or at best to some cultural ideals which are specific to some historical contexts. This is how cultural relativism has been identified with moral relativism in recent times. (Matilal 1994) The strongest argument for moral relativism is that moral values are mancentric and that they arise due to historical and cultural needs of mankind. Thus moral values are no exception to the general historical and cultural situation which controls and conditions our life.
  • Item
    Problematising lived dalit experience
    ( 2010-07-17) Raghuramaraju, A.
    If the Indian social sciences represent a "pernicious divide between theoretical brahmins and empirical shudras", should dalits move from poetry which generates inwardness to theory so as to advance the dalit epistemological cause? And are Habermas' views on universalism truly in contrast to the position that only the people who own an experience can theorise about it? This essay argues that the emphasis must be on the search for an authentic space for dalits in poetry instead of attempting to move them into social theory and elucidates the problems related to using Habermas as an illustration of universalism.
  • Item
    Forgotten Moral Exemplars of the West: A Critique of Akeel Bilgrami’s Projection of Gandhi
    ( 2012-01-01) Raghuramaraju, A.
    This chapter focuses on eAkeel Bilgrami’s famous essay on Mahatma Gandhi entitled ‘Gandhi’s Integrity: The Philosophy Behind the Politics’ in the volume in honour of Mrinal Miri. Bilgrami introduces a distinction between universality and universalisability. He defines the former as suggesting that ‘a moral value, whether or not someone in particular holds it, applies to all persons’. While agreeing with Bilgrami’s preference for exemplary lives over moral principles one could wonder how one accounts for morally wrong actions too becoming exemplary lives for others to emulate, using the provision of flexibility. The life of Christ and the morality derived from it has also played an important role in shaping Western moral theory. Gandhi largely avoided offering Indian solutions to Western problems. All major contemporary Indian thinkers in one way or an other fell prey to this temptation: glaring instances are Bankim Chandra, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and even Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya.
  • Item
    Grounding Morality: Freedom, Knowledge and the Plurality of Cultures
    ( 2012-01-01) Sharma, Jyotirmaya ; Raghuramaraju, A.
    Put together to honour one of the most influential philosophers in recent times, Mrinal Miri, this book brings together articles on philosophy, politics, literature and society, and updates the status of enquiry in each of these fields. In his philosophical writings, Miri has broken the stranglehold that early training has on academics and written on a range of themes and areas, including analytical philosophy, political philosophy, tribal identity, ethics and, more recently, an abiding engagement with the ideas of Gandhi. The articles in this volume mirror some of Miri’s concerns and philosophical interests, but go beyond the format of a festschrift, as they seek to enhance and restate themes in moral philosophy, ethics, questions of identity, Gandhi’s philosophy, and offer a fresh perspective on themes such as secularism, religion and politics.
  • Item
    Modernity in Indian Social Theory
    ( 2012-09-20) Raghuramaraju, A.
    Indian society is extremely complex, particularly in the twentieth century. However, this complexity has not been captured by Indian social theory. One reason is the theoretical burden caused by historical events such as colonialism, which incidentally brought modernity to India. Western modernity is mainly normative, and its norms include the concept of autonomous individual, freedom, and instrumental rationality. This normative project is sought to be ruthlessly implemented through modern programmes of secularism, nationalism, urbanization, and industrialization where the pre-modern is sought to be disinherited. This book explores the limitations surrounding Indian social theorists' views on Indian society. It discusses Partha Chatterjee's perspectives on Indian nationalism, Javeed Alam's interpretation of Indian secularism and the use of plural character of Indian society by some Indian social scientists, and Gopal Guru's proposal to move Dalits' lived experience from literature into social theory. The book also examines the limitations surrounding the reading of contemporary texts and activities of thinkers such as Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, B.R. Ambedkar, and Aurobindo Ghosh.
  • Item
    Debates in Indian Philosophy: Classical, Colonial, and Contemporary
    ( 2012-10-18) Raghuramaraju, A.
    This book elucidates the debate between Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi, V.D. Savarkar and Gandhi, and Sri Aurobindo and Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya. It also compares and contrasts for the first time, scholars like Sudhir Kakar and Tapan Raychaudhuri. The debates in classical, colonial and contemporary Indian philosophy are specifically reported. A discussion on Indian state, civil society, religion and politics is presented. Moreover, the association between science and spiritualism is explained.
  • Item
    Enduring Colonialism: Classical Presences and Modern Absences in Indian Philosophy
    ( 2012-10-18) Raghuramaraju, A.
    This volume explores three significant issues - absence, the consciousness of the contemporary, and new philosophical episteme - relevant to thought-systems in the Indian subcontinent. The author discusses the present lack of original philosophical discourse in the context of South Asia, especially India and investigates the reasons of such absences. It examines the reasons for decline in traditional philosophical schools and Sanskritic studies in the subcontinent. The book also discusses the manner in which Indian thinkers from the times of nineteenth century social reforms to the present day have interacted with the contemporary issues of philosophical engagement the world over. It also explores the relevance of classical texts and thought systems alongside contemporary philosophical consciousness. A major part of the discussion comprises of philosophical analysis of a new contemporary Indian text entitled, Desire and Liberation: The Fundamentals of Cosmicontology by Vaddera Chandidas.
  • Item
  • Item
    Grounding morality: Freedom, knowledge and the plurality of culture
    ( 2012-12-01) Sharma, Jyotirmaya ; Raghuramaraju, A.
    Put together to honour one of the most influential philosophers in recent times, Mrinal Miri, this book brings together articles on philosophy, politics, literature and society, and updates the status of enquiry in each of these fields. In his philosophical writings, Miri has broken the stranglehold that early training has on academics and written on a range of themes and areas, including analytical philosophy, political philosophy, tribal identity, ethics and, more recently, an abiding engagement with the ideas of Gandhi. The articles in this volume mirror some of Miri's concerns and philosophical interests, but go beyond the format of a festschrift, as they seek to enhance and restate themes in moral philosophy, ethics, questions of identity, Gandhi's philosophy, and offer a fresh perspective on themes such as secularism, religion and politics. © Jyotirmaya Sharma and A. Raghuramaraju. All rights reserved.
  • Item
    Philosophy and India: Ancestors, Outsiders, and Predecessors
    ( 2013-09-26) Raghuramaraju, A.
    Philosophy is the terrain that can systematically explicate the soul of India. Yet, notwithstanding its true capacity and assigned centrality, philosophy in modern India has not lived up to fulfilling this task. Taking cognizance of this history, this book embarks on the project of critically assessing the contributions of seven twentieth-century academic philosophers of India. The first part examines three philosophers who offer Indian solutions to Western problems: Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya, who offers Advaita to overcome the Kantian problem of unknowability of the self; Akeel Bilgrami, who offers Gandhi's views of exemplar as the way out for solving the problems surrounding Western moral philosophy; and B. K. Matilal, who invests the resources of the epic, the Mahabharata, to buy ethics for Indian philosophy. The second part discusses Daya Krishna and K. Satchidananda Murty, who, while preoccupied with ancient Indian and Western philosophies, have failed to take into consideration the contributions of their immediate predecessors. The last part discusses how both Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and S. Radhakrishnan explain away the radical project of Buddha and Buddhism and portray it as a part of Hinduism. In this context the contribution of B. R. Ambedkar and T. R. V. Murti is discussed. Thus, this book brings critical perspectives on some of the major Indian philosophers' discussion on the West, modernity, colonialism, classical Indian philosophy, and modern Western philosophy. This critical evaluation of the works of these prominent philosophers will enable us to take stock of the strengths and also be aware of the limitations if not weaknesses that prevail in the practice of philosophy in India.
  • Item
    Philosophy in Colonial India: The Science Question
    ( 2015-01-01) Kulkarni, S. G.
    This essay purports to highlight the creative dimensions of modern Indian philosophy by focusing on the ways it configured colonial reality and came to terms with the question of modern science and technology. The three main perspectives on colonialism can be characterized as (a) a theory of Total Subjugation (b) a theory of Cultural Self ; and (c) a theory of Revitalization to which correspond, respectively, three points of view regarding modern science and technology, namely (a) unqualified acceptance, (b) qualified acceptance and (c) qualified rejection. The first and the second responses promoted, with different degrees of vehemence, the project of India as a nation state to be built under the leadership of a scientific and technological elite, whereas the third response made room for the project of India as a civilizational endeavour led by artisans and craftsmen.