How to understand corruption?
[Transcript appeared in pp 206-8 “Classical Indian Thought and the English Language” edited by Mullick, et al] Let us take the word ‘duty’ for the moment. Conflict in duties does…
Read moreSwacch Bharat, Public Interest and Corruption
[Transcribed from Balu’s talk at World Hindu Congress Dec 2014 ] Chairman Sir, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Morning. Actually I’m the odd man out. We have success stories. We have…
Read moreWhat is normative about Corruption being a hindrance to development?
While translating Russell L. Ackoff, you say that such a translation is “not a moral judgment now, but a statement about the state of the economy”. But your claim, according…
Read moreLogic of normative ethics: Immorality
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…
Read moreEthically Bad Action vs. Corruption—S.N.Balagangadhara
1. 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…
Read moreNormative assumptions and Corruption
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…
Read moreNormative Ethics: Moral Dilemmas and Imperfect World
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…
Read moreColonial Consciousness: Burden of Proof
1. 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…
Read moreColonial Consciousness: The Logic of “India is Corrupt”
(A) Consider the following sequence of sentences: 1. All Indians are perfectly and fully moral. 2. All westerners are perfectly fully moral. 3. All Indians are immoral. 4. All westerners…
Read moreOn Colonial Experience and the Indian Renaissance: A prolegomenon to a Project—S.N. Balagangadhara
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…
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