What is history? In the first place, it is the subject matter of historiography, which is what historians write. What does historiography talk about? The human past. In other words, there is a distinction to be made between ’the past’ and ways of talking about this past. If this distinction (between ’the past’ and ‘ways of talking about it’) is accepted, then we can answer the question about what …

Consider the everyday phenomenon of sunrise and sunset. We see the movement of the sun on the horizon and, for a very long period of time, people thought that they observed this because that is the way the reality is: the sun moves around the earth. With Galileo Galilei, two things happened. (a) He argued that the earth moves round the sun. (b) On the basis of this theory, he claimed that we are …

Criticism: I use jargon and twisted arguments on a mundane topic. And that every Swami says that Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life. And so on. If anything, I have avoided jargon (i.e. the use of technical language) in my book. I would like to know where I use technical language without explaining it. As far as twisted arguments go, I presume you to mean invalid arguments. If you can …

Regarding nonsense. I take it you mean that my claims are false or wrong. In that case, I would like to read your reasons. There is no point in simply saying something like that without telling which other theory of religion does better than mine. Even if there are problems in my theory, I claim that this is the best theory we have in the market place. If you think differently, I would like you to …

Why does one bring up the issue of one’s grandmother’s judgment about a clerk taking bribes as a counter-example? First, what do I say? That he calls it as corruption has to do with western normative ethics. Does it follow from this that the action of the municipal clerk is ethically good? It does not, unless one assumes either (a) I am presenting an alternate moral principle, which will make the …

The universalisability of norms does not mean that the western people all factually follow these norms. Even if everyone were to lie, the ethical statement “No one ought to lie” is a universal moral statement. The existence of debates about abortion, war, etc. is indicative of the nature of normative rules. Because “one ought not to kill”, debates and doctrines about “justified war” come into …

The ‘corruption’ refers to the social phenomenon in India which makes about 20% of the adult population into immoral people. When I said that I refuse to call the clerk ‘corrupt’ or that the issue I raise is anterior, I am talking about this phenomenon. One uses the word ‘cheating’ (something like the Hindi ‘Dhoka’ probably). One could, for instance, use this word to describe the individual …

Does the notion of “relative ethics” make sense within the context of the western ethics? There are some attempts to develop “ethical relativism”, even though it is not clear what is relativistic about them. One would be a kind of factual claim: different people, different groups, different cultures have different principles which they consider as “morally good”. This does not make for ethical …

The inability of the Chinese language to express counterfactuals is even more intriguing. As you know, Confucius wrote his “Analects” in the Classical Chinese language. In order to see where I am heading, consider some of the thoughts that Rosemont, Jr. expresses. (Rosemont, Jr., H., “Against Relativism.” In Larson G. J. and E. Deutsch (eds.), Interpreting Across Boundaries: New Essays in …

Are western traditions innately richer because they have the moral ought? My answer: No. In fact, in my book on ethics I will prove the following: the non-normative ethics are richer: Under specific assumptions, in limited conditions, one can derive a normative ethics from a non-normative one. The relation between non-normative ethics and normative ethics is analogous to the relation between …

The first thing to note is that there is no distance between how we use corruption in our daily language and the way it is used in political and sociological theories of corruption. You see, the problem we (Indians) face is the asymmetry in the way the word is used while talking about us and the way it is used when talking about India. I want to signal this by putting up the red flag: I want to …

Is the division between the West and East Orientalist in nature? Well, that is what Edward Said says in his Orientalism; that is what many writers in his wake say too. I beg to disagree. Let me make but three points. One: that there is an Indian culture and a western culture has been established in my book. (Of course, it is also an experiential given.) Consequently, I have just presumed this …

Let us say that ‘X’ does something which ‘Y’ considers corrupt. To keep it simple, let us say that ‘Y’ expresses the aforementioned judgment. In order to express it, or persuade others about the validity of this moral judgment, ‘Y’ will have to do something like this: Y defines ‘corruption’: “All actions which exhibit _______ properties are corrupt” Y’s ’ethical principle’ (itself justified): “All …

The first thing that is really striking involves what I will call the burden of proof. That is, I am being asked to prove that my assertions about corruption are true. In one sense, it appears an entirely reasonable demand to make: after all, one should not entertain gratuitous claims. But what seems to have escaped the attention of many is this: what precisely do I have to prove? Who has the …

The first question: “By saying that there exist “Western” and “Indian” cultures aren’t you somehow essentializing cultures into monoliths?” I do not see how. When we talk of ’the human species’ (in the singular), or about ’life’ (again in the singular) while doing evolutionary biology, we do not presuppose or imply that either of the two is a monolithic entity, do we? In fact, diversity is a …

(A) Consider the following sequence of sentences: All Indians are perfectly and fully moral. All westerners are perfectly fully moral. All Indians are immoral. All westerners are immoral. For sentences (1) and (2), all it takes is one instance of immorality to be proven wrong. Our proverbial municipal clerk would be immoral, and it would disprove the sentence (1). The same example could also …

One of the striking things about the British colonial rule is its success in developing certain ways of talking about the Indian culture and society. The British criticised the Indian ‘religions’, the Indian ‘caste system’, the Indian education system, practices like ‘sati’ and ‘untouchability’, and so on and so forth. They redrew the outlines of Indian intellectual history as indigenous responses …

What is western normative ethics? It is a structure or style of thinking about ethics. What is its structure? It makes use of norms. What are norms? ‘Rules’ or ‘principles’ which have a characteristic structure that use certain concepts like the moral ‘ought’ and moral ‘ought not’. That is, some actions ought to be performed (i.e. they are obligatory); some actions ought not to be performed (i.e. …

Symbolic interpretation of lingam from a netizen: “In ancient India, there was a fertility cult; our ancestors knew that it was a fertility cult; Lingam was a symbol for the phallus then; it continues to be one even when many millions are ignorant of this now; and that the Modern Indians’ attitude to sex is inhibiting because of which they do not see the symbolism.” To keep the contrast between us …

I do not want to indulge in a discussion about Behavioral Psychology either on this forum or on any other forum. It is to waste of time I do not have. Let me very briefly state where I stand with respect to that discipline. In its early days, it was useful in providing some insights into animal behavior. I share the dominant consensus regarding its status today: it is obsolete. It does not quite …