Newsletter - Indian Council of Philosophical Research

the knowledge of ourselves and of the external world.
Therefore, Gandhian studies are among the thrust
areas, the ICPR is encouraging.
Another challenge before us is the extra-ordinary
diversity manifest in many ways in the country. It can
be a boon to build a colourful coalition of coexisting
identities and make India a showcase of sustainable
pluralism. Or it can bust the very integrity of the
nation. I believe, we philosophers can develop appropriate
models to analyze this complex situation and
find ways of moving in the desirable directions.
Ours is not merely a nation of wide diversities. It is
a country of great contrasts and deep paradoxes. We
have been living with them. Mr. Prime Minister, Sir,
if I may take the liberty to say so, you yourself is an
example of a striking paradox. You are not a politician
by instinct or training. Yet, you are the elected Prime
Minister of the largest democracy in the world. Again,
the country is arguably one that scores high on corruption.
Our integrity rating is said to be as low as 3.3 on a
scale of 10. The recently concluded Common Wealth
Games are a painful reminder. Yet, we have in you a
Prime Minister who is globally acclaimed for impeccable
integrity scoring 10 on 10. As Bill Burns so aptly
observed the other day, on the occasion of presenting
the best world statesman award to you, “there could
be no better choice, no better model of what integrity
and statesmanship are all about on the world stage.”
Behind the silky layer of your gentle demeanour and
rare humility, sometimes mistakenly taken as weakness,
lie your real strength, the steely determination,
long term vision and wisdom guided action.
I mention paradoxes here because paradoxes are the
play fields of philosophers. The history of philosophy
is itself a story of playing with paradoxes such as
seeking being in nonbeing, searching for permanence
in the midst of change, striving for knowledge and
bliss while seeing that we are situated in a state of ignorance
and suffering. Classical Indian philosophy is a
relentless pursuit to dissolve such paradoxes. Indeed,
it is a characteristic of Indian tradition to bring about
a magical synthesis of contraries.
Philosophy began as a search for the “really real”, to
learn about the reality behind appearances. Thus, it was
the mother of all sciences. At the time of Plato and
Aristotle physics was a part of philosophy. However,
with the emergence of specialized sciences, philosophy
finds itself empty and barren of subject areas
to study. Ontological metaphysics itself has come to
be seen increasingly, to quote the American philosopher,
C.S.Pierce, “either meaningless gibberish” or
else “downright absurd.” So, we find philosophers
move away from the search for the “really real” and
focus their attention on concepts and their meaning.
Finding conceptual confusions and clearing them have
become the subject-matter of philosophy. Philosophers
have become self-certified therapists to treat
confused minds and clear the congested cognitive
systems. This has served its purpose and the limitations
of this approach have now become all too
obvious. Philosophy is on the threshold of a new
evolutionary phase.
Philosophy deals with ideas and their legitimacy. There
are several criteria by which the legitimacy may be
assessed. What is “agreeable to reason” is just one of
them. Others include those that are (a) aesthetically
appealing, (b) emotionally satisfying, and (c) morally
imperative. All these are driven crucially by cultural
factors and not given a priori as unalterable and absolute
rules dictated by reason and logic. Man does not
live by reason alone. One’s thirst is not quenched by a
dose of logic, but a glass of water. Hunger is not overcome
by a rational understanding of its causes. A man
is not relieved of his grief by syllogistic reasoning but
by comforting counsel and empathy. The existential
conditions not only precipitate problems, philosophical
or otherwise, but also provide their plausible
solutions.
What are really real are not some eternal truths but
existential problems. These are more than semantic.
Philosophers need to go beyond linguistic analysis and
clearing conceptual confusions. They should address
the problems of life and living. Thoughts that are not