Does Philosophy Matter? An introduction to philosophy and philosophical traditions from across the world
What does one do when one undertakes the formal study of philosophy? Is philosophy merely the wistful reflection upon one’s current situation in life, or have philosophers done something more (and continue to!)? Moreover, if philosophical inquiry is considered one of the hallmarks of being human, has only Europe (starting with the Ancient Greeks – for instance, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) contributed to this intellectual endeavour? Or have there been other scholastic traditions elsewhere in the world as well, including in India? And finally, does philosophy (Anglo-European, Indian or otherwise) have any value in our increasingly practical, technology-riddled world today? In this talk, Professor Shishir Saxena, a scholar of Indian Philosophy and Sanskrit, will reflect on these questions and thereby on the general decline in the scholastic study of philosophy in particular and in the humanities more broadly (in India and across the world), and discuss also the related study of history and languages in modern academia.
Speaker: Professor Shishir Saxena
Date: Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Time: 5:30 PM
