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…
Read moreIs Normative Ethics Richer?
1. 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…
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 moreIs the division between the West and East Orientalist in nature?
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…
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 moreCriticism: you are essentializing cultures!
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…
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…
Read moreColonial Experience: Normative Ethics I
1. 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…
Read more