JECRC UNIVERSITY JAIPUR

SCHEME AND SYLLABUS

FOR THE DEGREE

OF

MASTER OF ARTS

IN PHILOSOPHY

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

JECRC UNIVERSITY JAIPUR

[2013-2015]

M.A. PHILOSOPHY

COURSE STRUCTURE

CODE Subjects L T P C

Semester-I

H11022 Philosophical Inquiry 5 1 0 6

H11023 Cross-cultural Philosophy 4 1 0 5

H11024 Logic: Indian and Western 4 1 0 5

H11025 Epistemology: Indian and Western 4 1 0 5

Total Credits 21

Semester-II

H12023 Classical Indian Philosophy 5 1 0 6

H12024 A New Hermeneutic of Reality 4 1 0 5

H12025 Scientific Methods 4 1 0 5

H12026 Metaphysics: Indian and Western 4 1 0 5

Total Credits 21

Semester-III

H13022 Recent Trends in Western Philosophy 5 1 0 6

H13023 A New Kosmology 5 1 0 6

H13024 The Intercultural Foundations of Human Rights 5 1 0 6

H13025 Medicine and Religion 5 1 0 6

Total Credits 24

Semester-IV

H14021 Aesthetics: Indian and Western 4 1 0 5

H14022 Ecosophy 4 1 0 5

H14023 Religion, Technology and Human Liberation 5 1 0 6

H14025 Dissertation 0 0 10 5

H14024 Open Elective 2 1 0 3

Total Credits 24

Grand Total of Credits 90

SEMESTER I

H11022 PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY {5 1 0 6}

Course Description:

This course intends to introduce the student to the art of philosophical inquiry. Besides

inculcating a sense of critical and creative reading and thinking across a wide variety of

disciplines and philosophical traditions, it will present some aspects of transformative

philosophy, required for our times.

Course Objectives:

1. To introduce the student to the art of philosophical inquiry.

2. To indicate the link between Philosophy and transformation (self and social)

Course Outline:

1. Why do we inquire?

2. Tools of Inquiry: Body (sensing), Mind (thinking), and Heart (loving and imagining)

3. Nature of Inquiry:

Two ways of experiencing reality: Experiment and Experience

Experiment (rational, critical and masculine thinking): the principle of non-

contradiction: uniqueness by difference (individuality); giving

Experience (symbolic, creative and feminine thinking): the principle of identity:

uniqueness by non-differentiation (commonality or totality); receiving

The cross-cultural paradox and the insufficiency of both the approaches; the need for

dialogical enterprise, beginning by overcoming the Parmenidean paradigm by “Being-

Speaking-Thinking” scheme); thinking as more of clarification than calculus

4. Expression of Inquiry: Reading, Writing, Speaking: literacy and orality; the artistic,

literary, scientific, and religious imagination.

5. Fruit of Inquiry: Transformative Philosophy: Loving the world without ceasing to

interpret and change it.

A re-vision of reality: the Cosmos, the Human and the Divine, with love as the unifying

tool, more than reason;

A New Ethics of Self and Society: Demonetizing Culture, Reducing Modern Science to

its proper Limit, Displacing Technocracy by Art, Recovering Animism, Peace with the

Earth.

Readings:

1. Panikkar, Raimon: The Rhythm of Being (The Gifford Lectures) (New York: Orbis

Books, 2010).

2. Panikkar, Raimon: “A Nonary of Priorities,” Interculture, Vol. XXIX, No.1, pp. 48-

58.

3. James A. Ogilvy (ed.), Revisioning Philosophy (Albany: State University of New York

Press, 1992).

4. Zygmund, Bauman: Thinking Sociologically (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001).

5. Ananta Kumar Giri, Conversations and Transformations. Towards A New Ethics of

Self and Society (Lexington Books, 2001).

SEMESTER I

H11023 CROSS-CULTURAL PHILOSOPHY {4 1 0 5}

Course Description:

There is a common acceptance today that there are different cosmologies, world-views that

belong to other cultures, but only a few reflect on the fact that these visions of the world are the

fruit of different ways of thinking and being. This course tries to address this problematic.

Course Objectives:

1. To give the student an idea of what cross-cultural philosophy is all about

2. To introduce some key concerns, issues, problems and methodology of cross-cultural

Philosophy

3. To sensitize the student to an experience of cultural pluralism

Course Outline:

I. THE CONTEXT AND NEED OF CROSS-CULTURAL PHILOSOPHY

1. THE CONTEMPORARY MONOCULTURAL PARADIGM

a. The Link between Monotheism and Monoculturalism

b. The Principle of Reasonableness

c. The Axiom of Non-contradiction

d. Some Consequences

2. THE NEED FOR A CR0SS-CULTURAL ENTERPRISE

II. CROSS-CULTURAL HERMENEUTICS

1. Reality and Multiple World-views

a. Subjectivity and Reality

b. Pre-understanding and Tradition

2. Mythos, Logos and Openness to other world-views

a. The Irreducibility of Reality to Consciousness

b. Each person is a source of self-understanding

c. The Diatopical Hermeneutics: homeomorphic equivalents

III. AN EMERGING CROSS-CULTURAL MYTH

1. ADVAITA AND TRINITY

a. Monism and Dualism

b. Advaita

c. Trinity

d. Historical Excursus

2. THE ANTHROPOPHANIC FACTOR

a. The Human Approach to Reality

b. The Three Eyes: The Senses, Reason and Spirit

c. The Three-fold Experience

d. The Field of Emptiness

III. CONSEQUENCES FOR PHILOSOPHY

a. A re-visioning of Philosophical priorities

b. Towards a Transformative Philosophy

c. A New Ethics of Self and Society

Readings:

1. Dallmayr, Fred. Beyond Orientalism. Essays on Cross-Cultural Encounter (Alban, NY:

SUNY Press, 1991).

2. Kimmerle, Heinz and Franz M. Wimmer (eds.). Studies in Intercultural Philosophy

(Chennai: Satyailayam Publications, 2001).

3. Mall, Ram Adhar. Intercultural Philosophy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000).

4. Panikkar, R. Myth, Faith and Hermeneutics. Cross-Cultural Studies (Bangalore: Asian

Trading Corporation, 1983).

5. Panikkar, R. The Rhythm of Being (New York: Orbis Books, 2010).

6. Prabhu, Joseph. The Intercultural Challenge of Raimon Panikkar (New York: Orbis Books,

1996).

7. Anthony Savari Raj. A New Hermeneutic of Reality. R. Panikkar's Cosmotheandric

Vision (Peter Lang AG: Bern, Berlin,Frankfurt/M, New York, Paris, Wien, 1998).

8. James A. Ogilvy (ed.), Revisioning Philosophy ((Albany: State University of New York

Press, 1992).

10. Rajeev Bhargava, et al (eds.): Multiculturalism, Liberalism and Democracy (New Delhi:

Oxford University Press, 1999).

SEMESTER I

H11024 LOGIC: INDIAN AND WESTERN {4 1 0 5}

Course Description:

This course aims at highlighting some distinctive aspects of Indian Logic and at introducing the

student to the basic elements of Western Logic in a panoramic way.

Course Objectives:

1. To introduce the student to key concepts of Indian and Western logic

2. To provide the student with the tools to identify lapses is reasoning and help him/her

to be more cogent in communication

Course Outline:

Indian Logic:

Theories of inference in Nyaya, Buddhism and Jainism: definition, constituenets, process and

types; paksata; paramarsa; vyaptigrahopaya; hetvabhasa

Western Logic:

1. Introductory topics: sentence, proposition, argument, truth, validity, soundness

2. Aristotelian classification of propositions

3. Immediate inference: square of opposition, conversion, obversion

4. Categorical syllogism: figure, mood, rules for validity, fallacies

5. Symbolic logic: use of symbols

6. Truth-functions: negation, conjunction, disjunction, implication, equivalence

7. Tautology, contradiction, contingency

8. Decision procedure: truth-table

9. Using truth-tables for testing the validity of arguments: Venn diagram method of testing

validity; fallacies

Readings:

1. S.S. Barlingay: A Modern Introduction to Indian Logic (Delhi: National Publishing House,

1965).

2. Irving M. Copi: Introduction to Logic (6th edition) (London: Macmillan Publishing

Company, 1990).

3. Susan Stebbing: A Modern Introduction to Logic (Methuen, 1933).

4. W.Y. Quine: Methods of Logic (Taylor & Francis, 1974).

5. Bholanath Roy: Text Book of Deductive Logic (S.C. Sarkar & Sons, Pvt Ltd., 1982).

SEMESTER I

H11025 EPISTEMOLOGY: INDIAN AND WESTERN {4 1 0 5}

Course Description:

The goal of this course is to highlight the special and distinctive ideas and aspects of Indian

epistemology. It also aims at providing a bird's-eye-view of the general features and

problems of Western epistemology.

Course Objectives:

1. To provide basic familiarity with the Indian and Western epistemological traditions

and concepts.

2. To develop an awareness of problematic aspects of Indian and Western

epistemologies.

Course Outline:

Indian Epistemology:

1. The nature of cognition; valid and invalid cognitions

2. prama

3. pramana: definitions an varieties

4. pramanya: origin an ascertainment

5. pramanasamplava and pramanvyavastha

6. Theories concerning sense organs and their objects

7. Theories of perceptual error (khyativada)

Western Epistemology:

1. Knowedge: definition and kinds; different uses of the word „know‟; propositional and

non-propositional knowledge; knowing how and knowing that; knowledge by

acquaintance and knowledge by description; necessary and sufficient conditions of

propositional knowledge

2. Scepticism and justification of knowledge-claims: truth, belief, justification;

foundationalism and coherentism

3. Theories of knowledge: rationalism, empiricism, Kantian theory

4. Theories of truth: correspondence; coherence; pragmatic, existential

5. Sociology of knowledge

6. The possibility of Religious Knowledge and Religious Language

7. Literature, art and truth

8. Politics of truth and knowledge

9. Overcoming hunter‟s epistemology through Diatopical Hermeneutics

Readings:

1. D.M. Datta: The Six Ways of Knowing (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1932).

2. S. Chatterjee The Nyaya Theory of Knowledge (Calcutta: University of

Calcutta, 1950).

3. Srinivasa Rao Perceptual Error: The Indian Theories (University of Hawai‟i

Press, 1998).

4. John Hospers: An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis (Taylor & Francis,

1990).

5. Bertrand Russell: The Problems of Philosophy (Oxford University Press, USA,

1997).

6. A.D. Woozley: Theory of Knowledge (Hutchinson's University Library, 1949).

7. Gilbert Ryle: The Concept of Mind (relevant chapters) (Kessinger Publishing, LLC,

2008).

8. W.H. Walsh: Reason and Experience (London: OUP, 1963).

9. D.W. Hamlyn: Theory of Knowledge (Macmillan, 1971).

10. Sundar Sarukkai, “Indian Philosophy and Philosophy of Science,” (New Delhi:

PHISPC/Motilal Banarsidass, 2005).

SEMESTER II

H12023 CLASSICAL INDIAN PHILOSOPHY {5 1 0 6}

Course Description:

The course proposes to offer a broad outline of the classical systems of Indian

Philosophy. It begins with the basic world-views of the Vedas and Upanishads and

concludes with the Vedantic system.

Course Objectives:

1. To acquaint the student with t h e broad outlines of the classical systems of

Indian Philosophy.

2. To inculcate an interest in the Indian way of looking at life and reality

Course Outline:

1. Nature of Indian philosophy: plurality as well as common concerns

2. Basic concepts of the Vedic and the Upanisadic world-view. rta, atman, brahman

3. Carvaka school: its epistemology, metaphysics and ethics

4. Jainism: concepts of sat, dravya, guna, paryaya, jiva, ajiva; anekantavada, syadvada

and nayavada; pramaryas; ahimsa; bondage and liberation

5. Buddhism: Theory of dependent origination; the four noble truths; doctrine of

momentariness; theory of no-soul; the interpretation of these theories in schools of

Buddhism: Vaibhashaka, Sautrantika, Yogacara and Madhyamika

6. Nyaya: theory of pramanas; the individual self and its liberation; the idea of God

and proofs for His existence

7. Vaisesika: padarthas; dravya, guna, karma, samanya, samavaya, visesa, abhava;

causation: asatkaryavada; karana; samavayi, asamavayi, nimitta; paramanuvada;

adrsta; nihsreyasam

8. Sankhya: causation: satkaryavada; prakrti: its constituents, evolutes and

arguments for its existence; purusa: arguments for its existence; plurality of

purusas; relationship between prakrti and purusa; kaivalya; atheism

9. Yoga: yoga; citta and citta-vritti; eightfold path; God

10. Purva Mimamsa: sruti and its importance; classification of sruti vakyas; vidhi,

nisedha, arthavada; dharma; bhavana; sabdanityatvavada; jatisaktivada; atheism

11. Advaita: nirguna Brahman; adhyasa; rejection of difference; vivartavada; grades

of satta; pramanas; jiva; jivanmukti

12. V i sitadvaita: Saguna Brahman; refutation of maya; parinamavada; aprthaksiddhi;

jiva; bhakti and prapatti; rejection of jivanmukti

13. Dvaita: saguna Brahman; rejection of nirguna Brahman and maya; bheda; saksi

bhakti; Moksa

Readings:

1. M. Hiriyanna: Outlines of Indian Philosophy (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1994).

2. C.D. Sharma: A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy (Orient Book Distributors,

1971).

3. S.N. Dasgupta: A History of Indian Philosophy, V ols. I to V (Delhi: Motilal

Banarsidass, 2000).

4. S. Radhakrishnan: Indian Philosophy, Vols. I & II (Oxford University Press, USA,

2008). 5. T.R.V. Murti: Central Philosophy of Buddhism (George Allen and Unwin, 1955). 6. J. N. Mohanty: Reason and Tradition in Indian Thought (Oxford University Press, 1992).

7. P.T. Raju: Structural Depths of Indian Thought Studies in Philosophy (State University

of New York Press, 1985).

8. K.C. Bhattacharyya: Studies in Philosophy, Vol. I (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2008).

9. Datta & Chatterjee: Introduction to Indian Philosophy (University of Calcutta, 1968).

10. A.K. Warder: Indian Buddhism (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000).

11. R. Puligandla: Fundamentals of Indian Philosophy (Abingdon Press, 1975). 12. T.M.P. Mahadevan: An Outline of Hinduism (Chetana, 1999).

13. Arvind Sharma: Advaita Vedanta – An Introduction (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,

2004).

SEMESTER II

H12024 A NEW HERMENEUTIC OF REALITY {4 1 0 5}

Course Description:

How do we name that in which we all live and move? The modern scientist sees it as the

material universe, the philosopher as the human mind, the theologian as the mysterious

divine. A new hermeneutic reality discerns this as partial and points to a holistic vision of

reality required for our times.

Course Objectives:

1. To sensitize the student of the need to look at reality newly and creatively

2. To give a brief presentation of the emerging new vision of reality

3. To draw out some implications of the vision for contemporary life

Course Outline:

I. THE CONTEXT AND NEED OF A RE-VISION OF REALITY

1. The Signs of Our Times

1.1 The Problems of Our Times

1.1.1 Blindness to the Cosmic in the Cosmos

1.1.2 Blindness to the Human in Human Beings

1.1.3 Blindness to the Divine in God

1.2 The Hopes of Our Times

1.2.1 Re-member-ing the World

1.2.2 Re-cogniz(e)-ing the World

1.2.3 Re-search-ing the Divine

II. THE APPROACH REQUIRED

- Understanding of Reality: Towards an Integration of Reality through

Symbolic Vision of Reality

- DIATOPICAL HERMENEUTICS

* Dialogue with Oneself

* Dialogue with the Other

* Trust in Reality

III. A NEW HERMENEUTIC OF REALITY: THE COSMOTHEANDRIC VISION

- A Re-Vision of Space: COSMOTHEANDRISM

Cosmos -- Theos -- Anthropos

World - God - Man

Objectifiable - Non-Objectifiable - Objectifying

Symbol - Symbolized - Symbolizer

- A Re-Vision of Time: TEMPITERNITY

Temporality – Eternity

IV. IMPLICATIONS OF THE VISION

V. AN ASSESSMENT: Challenges and Pathways

Readings:

1. Panikkar, R.: The Cosmotheandric Insight. Emerging Religious Consciousness (New

York: Orbis Books, 1993)

2. Panikkar, R.: The Vedic Experience. Mantramanjari (Pondicherry: All India Books,

1989)

3. Anthony Savari Raj: A New Hermeneutic of Reality. Raimon Panikkar's Cosmotheandric

Vision (Peter Lang AG: Bern, Berlin,Frankfurt/M, New York, Paris, Wien, 1998)

SEMESTER II

H12025 SCIENTIFIC METHODS {4 1 0 5}

Course Description:

Science is the most important cognitive activity of modern society. What sets science apart

from the other epistemic enterprises of man is its distinctive method. The purpose of the

course is to familiarize the student with the modern philosophical debates on the method of

science.

Course Objectives:

1. To enable the student to critically examine the methods of science

2. To evaluate the cognitive claims made by modern science

3. To study the link between science and culture

Course Outline:

1 Introduction: nature of the relation between philosophy and science; philosophy of

science as a branch of epistemology

2 Theories and explanation: the nature and role of scientific theories; theories and laws;

explanation and prediction; types of explanation: deductive nomological explanation,

teleological explanation, functional explanation; explanation vs. understanding

3 Logical positivism and the method of science: induction as the method of science;

verifiability and demarcation between science and non-science; reduction and the status

of protocol sentences; rejection of metaphysics; difficulties with logical positivism: problem

of induction, theory'dependence of observation, irreducibility of theoretical statements

4 Falsificationism: falsitiability as Popper's principle of demarcation; hypothetico-

deductivism; falsification of singular statements and the problem of empirical basis;

verisimilitude and the progress of science; Lakatos' notion of research programme and

sophisticated falsificationism

5 Historical and sociological perspectives on science: Kuhnian perspective on science:

notion of paradigm, the distinction between pre-science and normal science, anomaly

and crisis, scientific revolution and the progress of science

Feyerabend's view on science: scientific theories as world pictures; scientific revolution

and radical changes; incommensurability and relativism; science and society

6 Science and truth: epistemic realism; instrumentalism; realist vs instrumentalist

controversy on the status of unobservables; theories of truth in relation to realism and

instrumentalism

7. The need to overcome hunter‟s epistemology through symbolic approach

Readings:

1. Sundar Sarukkai, What is Science? (New Delhi: National Book Trust, 2012).

2. Anthony O‟ Hear: Introduction to Philosophy of Science (Clarendon Press, 1937).

3. Carl G. Hempel: Philosophy of Natural Science (Prentice Hall, 1966).

4. Thomas Kuhn: Structure of Scientific Revolution (University of Chicago Press, 1996).

5. Karl Popper: Conjectures and Refutation: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge

(Routledge, 2002).

6. Karl Popper: The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Routledge, 2002).

7. George Couvalis: The Philosophy of Science. Science and Objectivity (Delhi: SAGE,

1997).

SEMESTER II

H12026 METAPHYSICS: INDIAN AND WESTERN {4 1 0 5}

Course Description:

The course offers a broad outline of the distinctive ideas of Indian metaphysics and a general

survey of the chief ideas, issues and debates in Western metaphysics.

Course Objectives:

1. To familiarize the student with the broad outlines of the distinctive ideas of

Indian and western metaphysics

2. To develop an awareness of problematic aspects of Indian and Western metaphysical

notions

Course Outline:

Indian Metaphysics:

1. Prameya and padartha; kinds of padartha accepted by different schools

2. Substance and process: the debate between Buddhists and non-Buddhists

3. Causality: arambhavada, parinamavada, vivartavada, pratityasamutpada vada

4. Universals: the Nyaya-Buddhist debate

5. Abhava

6. Special padarthas: visesa samavaya

7. The self

Western Metaphysics:

1. Metaphysics: its nature, necessity and methods

2. Substance and property

3. Idealism; materialism; dualism; monism; pluralism

4. Space and time 5. Causality 6 Mind-body relation

7 Freedom and determinism

8 Metaphysics of meaning

Readings:

1. Jadunath Sinha: Indian Realism (London: Kegan Paul, 1938).

2. P.K. Mukhopadhyaya: Indian Realism (Calcuta: K.P. Bagchi, 1984).

3. Darmendra Nath Sastri: Critique of Indian Realism (Agra: Agra University, 1964).

4. D.W. Hamlyn: Metaphysics (Cambridge University Press, 1964).

5. Richard Taylor: Metaphysics (Prentice Hall, 1992).

SEMESTER III

H13022 RECENT TRENDS IN WESTERN PHILOSOPHY {5 1 0 6}

Course Description:

The course proposes to make a critical presentation of the recent trends in western tradition such

as Language and Analytic Philosophy, Phenomenology, Existentialism, Hermeneutics and Post-

modernism.

Course Objectives:

1. To bring to awareness of the student the recent trends in western philosophy

2. To apprise the student of selected extracts from the major contemporary thinkers

Course Outline:

I. Language and Analytic Philosophy :

1. Introduction: the linguistic turn and the conception of philosophy

2. Issues and Problems: sense and reference; concept and objects; identity; negative

existentials; indirect speech; propositional attitudes; holistic and atomistic approach to

meaning

3. Theories of meaning

4. Speech acts

5. Descriptions: Russell; objections: failure of uniqueness; failure of existence: attributive

and referential;

Entity-invoking uses; Meaning: the classical truth-conditional theory; conceptual role

theories; the minimalist charges

II. Phenomenology:

1. Phenomenology: a movement of thought; a radical method of investigation; a

presuppositionless philosophy; a rigorous science

2. Edmund Husserl: development of his thought; the natural world thesis; essence and

essential intuition; phenomenological reductions and its stages; pure consciousness and

transcendental objectivity; intentionality of consciousness

3. Heidegger: being; dasein

4. Merleau-Ponty: phenomenology of perception

III. Existentialism:

1. Existentialism: its distinctive characteristics; varieties; common ground as

well as diversity among existentialists

2. Some recurring themes: existence preceding essence; man‟s being in-the-world; man‟s

being-in-the-body; man‟s being-with-others; man‟s being-in-feeling; man‟s being in

action

3. Freedom; decision and choice

4. The facticity of existence; death; temporality

5. Existence: authentic & inauthentic

IV.Hermeneutics:

1. Scheleiermacher: theory of interpretation of The Bible

2. Wilhelm Dilthey: theory of meaning and interpretation; cultural

products and the spirit of an age; the hermeneutic circle

3. Martin Heidegger: phenomenology as hermeneutics; the defining

capacity of Dasein as the interpretative understanding of its world;

theoretical understanding and interpretation in an action

4. Hans-Georg Gadamer: theory of fore-conceptions and

prejudices; consciousness as effective­historical;

l ived acquaintance with developing tradition; fusion of horizons

V.Post-modernism:

1. Lyotaard: The Postmodern condition

2. Micheal Foucault: Deconstruction, relation between power and knowledge

3. Derrida: Rejection of the metaphysics of presence; logocentrism; language: a species

of writing

Readings:

1. Edmund Husserl: Ideas: A General Introduction to Pure Phenemenology (Routledge,

2004).

2. Martin Heidegger: Being and Time (Blackwell, 1967).

3. J.L.Mehta: The Philosophy of Martin Heidegger (Harper & Row, 1972).

4. Walter Kaufmann (ed.): Existenialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre (New American

Library, 1975).

5. John Macquarrie: Existentialism (Westminster, 1972).

6. Michael Dummett: Frege: The Philosophy of Language (Gerald Duckworth & Co

Ltd., 1992).

7. Gadamer: Truth and Method (Continuum, 2004).

8. Jacques Derrida: Writing and Difference (Routledge, 2001).

9. Richard Rorty: Essays on Heidegger and others (Cambridge University Press, 1991).

SEMESTER III

H13023 A NEW KOSMOLOGY {5 1 0 6}

Course Description:

The incursions of philosophers have reached into sociological fields (Marxism is an example),

but more rarely into the technological realm. This course purports to look for hints of some

fundamental areas of change in our cosmovision.

Course Objectives:

1. To alert the student to the reductionistic and monocultural cosmology that is prevalent

in our times

2. To sensitize the student to the problems issuing from the conflict of cosmologies

3. To impart some dimensions of the new Kosmology

Course Outline:

A. A New Kosmology

1. Cosmology and Kosmology

2. The conflict of Cosmologies

3. The Metaphysical Problem

B. The Scientific Paradigm

1. Method

2. Monotheistic cosmology

3. The Scientific Story

C. Fragments of the New Story

Readings:

1. Panikkar, R: The Rhythm of Being (The Gifford Lectures) (New York: Orbis Books,

2010).

2. Berry, Thomas: The Dream of the Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988).

3. Berry, Thomas: The New Story (Chamberdburg, Pa.: Anima Books, 1978).

4. Hawking, Stephen: A Brief History of Time (Bantam Books, 1998).

5. Barrow, John D and Frank J. Tipler: The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 1988).

SEMESTER III

H13024 THE INTERCULTURAL FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS {5 1 0 6}

Course Description:

This course attempts to trace the intercultural foundations of the issue of human rights. It

highlights how the question of human rights is framed differently in various cultures. The course

also goes further to demonstrate points of contact, correction, and enhancement of the traditions,

in mutual criticism and dialogue.

Course Objectives:

1. To alert the student to the monocultural nature of the issue of human rights

2. To apprise the student of the diverse cultural understandings of human rights

3. To indicate some implications of an intercultural understanding of human rights for

Indian society

Course Outline:

1. The Context and Need of Interculturality

1.1 The Monocultural Contemporary Human Situation

1.2 The Need for an Intercultural Enterprise

2. Human Rights in an Intercultural Context

2.1 Some historical aspects of Human Rights

2.2 Political, philosophical and social aspects of Human Rights

2.3 Some aspects of the western nature of Human Rights

3. Human Rights in Non-western Social Cultures

3.1 Confucianist thinking: giri

3.2 animistic thinking: the movement of energies

3.3 The Indic world: dharma

3.4 The Islamic world: sharia

4. Inrercultural Implications for Indian Society

Readings:

1. Fred Dallmyr, Achieving Our World: Toward a Global and Plural Democracy, Rowman

& Littlefield, 2001.

2. R. Panikkar, “Is Human Rights a Western Concept?” Interculture, XVII: 1.82 (1984),

pp. 30-32.

3. R. Panikkar, Invisible Harmony. Essays on Contemplation and Responsibility, Fortress,

Minneapolis, 1995.

4. Aravind Sharma, Are Human Rights Western?: A Contribution to the Dialogue of

Civilizations, Oxford University Press, 2006.

SEMESTER III

H13025 MEDICINE AND RELIGION {5 1 0 6}

Course Description:

While the traditional religions claim to provide present and especially future spiritual happiness

or well-being for the individual and community, the field of medicine promises to give physical

happiness or well-being for the individual and the community. As religions and medicine, both

old and new, partake commonly in their salvific claims, a study on their mutual interaction,

challenge and criticism forms subject matter of this course.

Course Objectives:

1. To make the student recognize the close link between medicine and religion

2. To alert the student to the voice of medical and religious traditions in mutual criticism

and dialogue

Course Outline:

1. Introduction to the new interdisciplinary field “Medical Humanities”

2. The ontonomic relationship between medicine and religion

2.1 The non-healing of medicine without religion

2.2 The non-saving of religion without medicine

3. The voice of traditions

3.1 Eudokia: Wedding good will to wellbeing

3.2 Dharma: Joining the whole to the holy

4. Mutual fecundation: Heterostasis

4.1 Meditation-meditation-measure

4.2 Salvation-health-confidence

4.3 Religion – re-linking - re-election

Readings:

1. Kakar, Sudhir, Shamans, Mystics and Doctors, Beacon, Boston, 1982.

2. Illic, Ivan: Medical Nemesis, Calder and Boyars, London, 1975.

3. David, Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Routledge, 1981.

4. Dash, Bhagawan: Fundamentals of Ayurvedic Medicine, Bansal & Co, Delhi, 1984.

5. R. Panikkar, “Medicine and Religion,”Interculture, Vol XXVII, No.4, pp. 2-39.

6. Reid, Janice: Sorcerers and Healing Spirits, Continuity and Change in an Aboriginal

Medical System, Pergamon, Oxford, 1983.

SEMESTER IV

H14021 AESTHETICS: INDIAN AND WESTERN {4 1 0 5}

Course Description:

The course proposes to offer an introduction to the philosophy of beauty (Aesthetics) from the

Indian and Western philosophical traditions.

Course Objectives:

1. To introduce to the student some key concerns, issues and problems of the Indian and

western aestheticst

2. To sensitize the student to commonalities and differences in the aesthetic visions of

traditions

Course Outline:

Indian

1. Literary art (kavya) vis-à-vis other fine arts (kala) like painting (chitra), music (sangita),

sculpture (bhaskarya), etc.

2. Kavya-laksana (definition of poetry), kavya-hetu, their distinctive roles in poetic creation;

kavya prayojana (necessity or use of poetry)

3. Varieities of kavya: drsya and sravya; structural varieities of drsyakavya

4. Rasa and dhvani theories

Western

1. General introduction: conceptual analysis: basic philosophical concepts: sciences and the

humanities

2. Aesthetics and philosophical aesthetics: second-order aesthetics; the world of human

experience

3. Art and its definition: art as representation; art as expression: art as significant form

4. Art and emotion: the concept of emotion: the concept of fiction: fiction and emotion

5. Literary aesthetics, the concept of literature; metaphor; truth; meaning and interpretation

6. Art, society and morality: views of Tolstoy, Marx and Post-modernism

7. Art, design and technology

8. Aesthetics and mass-communication

Readings:

1. S. Kunjunni Raja, Indian Theories of Meaning, Adyar Library and Research Centre,

1963.

2. K. C. Pandey, Comparative Aesthetics, Chowkamba Sanskrit Series Office, Varanasi,

2008.

3. T.P. Ramachandran, The Philosophy of Beauty, University of Madras, 1979.

4. Peter Lamarque, Philosophy and Fiction: Essays in Literary Aesthetics, Aberdeen

University Press, 1987.

5. Olsen and Lamarque, Truth, Fiction and Literature, Clarendon Press, 1994.

6. Anne Shepperd, Aesthetics: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art, Oxford University

Press, 1987.

SEMESTER IV

H14022 ECOSOPHY {4 1 0 5}

Course Description:

The course pays special attention to the emerging ecosophical paradigm which indeed offers a

new and invigorating vision that may liberate us from the contemporary, technical, globalizing,

and self-destructive world-view.

Course Objectives:

1. To give the student an idea of the link between ecology and philosophy

2. To introduce some key concerns, issues and problems of ecosophy

3. To sensitize the student to environmental issues and initiate active participation in

ecojustice concerns

Course Outline:

I. ECOLOGY

A. The Ecological Crisis

B. The Ecological Context, Consciousness, Concepts and Responses

C. Ecology, Cultures and Religions

II. BEYOND ECOLOGY

A. The Need to Go Beyond Ecology

1. The Source of Ecological Crisis

2. The Revelation of Ecological Consciousness

3. Going Beyond Ecology

B. Ecology in a Holistic (Cosmotheandric) Vision

1. The Cosmotheandric Vision

2. Some Cosmotheandric Reflections and Implications

III. PHILOSOPHICAL AND ECOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES

A. A Change in our Perception of the Earth

1. Discovering the Life of the Earth

2. Discovering the Wisdom of the Earth

B. A Change in the Human's Self-understanding

1. A Re-vision in the Definition of Philosophy

2. A Re-vision of Time and Progress IV. ECOSOPHY OR ECOJUSTICE?: TOWARDS AN ECOSOPHICAL JUSTICE

A. The „Nature” of Ecosophical Justice: “Clarification”

1. The Primacy of Being

2. The Spontaneity of Doing

B. The „Heart‟ of Ecosophical Justice: “Renewal”

1. Foundations: “New Ears”

a. Sacred Secularity

b. Symbolic Understanding of Reality

c. Cosmotheandric Renewal and Solidarity

2. Implications: “New Eyes”

a. Political Innovation

b. Scientific Innovation

c. Philosophical Innovation

3. Implamentations: “New Hands”

a. Subverting Greed

b. Subserviating Money

c. Subjugating Poverty

d. Submerging Consumerism

e. Subventing Religion-Economics Conversation

f. Sublimating the People-Ecological Movements

g. Subscribing to the Feminine

h. Submitting to the Self

Readings:

1. Berry, Thomas. The Dream of the Earth, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1988.

2. Boff, Leonardo, Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor, Orbis Books, New York, 1997.

3. Devall, Bill and George Sessions, Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered, Peregrine

Smith Books, 1985.

4. Shiva, Vandana, Earth Democracy. Justice, Sustainability and Peace, Columbia

Unversity Press, 2005.

5. Anthony Savari Raj, A New Hermeneutic of Reality. R. Panikkar’s Cosmotheandric

Vision, Peter Lang AG: Bern, Berlin, Frankfurt/M, New York, Paris, Wien, 1998.

6. Anthony Savari Raj, Ecosophical Justice. Ecology, Justice and Raimon Panikkar,

Capuchin Publication Trust, Bangalore, 2010.

SEMESTER IV

H14023 RELIGION, TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN LIBERATION {5 1 0 6}

Course Description:

While traditional religions claim to liberate people from bondage, modern technology purports

also to free the human beings from the shackles of Nature. A study of the mutual relationship

and critical analysis of both claims forms the subject matter of this Course.

Course Objectives:

1. To apprise the student of the link between religion and technology in human

liberation

2. To familiarize the student with the problems, challenges and opportunities technology

is offering to our contemporary world

Course Outline:

Introduction: The Contemporary Scene: The Predominant (technocratic) Worldview

I. What is Human Liberation?

1. The Different Concepts of Salvation in the World Religions

2. „Religious‟ Liberation FROM and „Political‟ Liberation TO?

3. The Meaning of Human Liberation

II. The Nature of Technology

1. Technology and Culture

2. The Difference Between Techne and Technology (Art and Technology)

3. Some Special Traits of Technology

III. Liberation and Technology

1. The Technocratic Society

2. Liberation and Technology

3. Emancipation from Technology

Readings:

1. Ellul, J. The Technological System (New York: The Continuum Publishing Corporation,

1980)

2. Bebek, B. The Third City (London: Routledge, 1982)

3. Panikkar, R. Worship and Secular Man (London: Orbis Books, 1973)

4. Spengler, O. Man and Technics (Greenwood Press, 1976)

5. Skolimowski, H. Technology and Human Destiny (University of Madras, 1981)

6.Hawkin, David J, The Twenty-first Century Confronts Its Gods (New York: SUNY, 2004)

7. Anthony Savari Raj, “The Religion of the Future in Our Globalized World,” After

Globalization.Essays in Religion, Culture and Identity, Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2007, pp.

44-55.

H14024 Open Elective {2 1 0 3}

H14025 Dissertation {0 0 10 5}