Your formula for Philosophy, de Fontenelle
'Curiosity plus Myopia'- fits too well
The jouissance of Lewis elite aporia
Love's Liebnizian ontic dysphoria.
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Saturday, 30 March 2013
Truth is Cheap
In the struggle for non-existence, defeat entails
Lewis elite eligibility or of but Saints the praise
Close to thy throne the, of necessity, few
Bulk so large as to obscure us from view
Thursday, 28 March 2013
Spivak on the clitoris.
Prof. Vagina Dentata Choothopadhyay has, once again, critiqued Gayatri Spivak's old fashioned, unreconstructed, Nineteenth Century, Ecologically unenlightened, focus on Production and Practice- as evidenced by her infamous apophthegm "the clitoris is a shorthand for women's excess in all areas of production and practice"- by pointing to the far greater value added by the incompossible cold chain of Homi Bhaba's Waitrose-grade radish up-the-butt. It is in the latter context that Manmohan Singh's sponsorship of f.d.i in Retail should be understood.
And, no, pace Spivak, the clitoris is not a small penis otherwise I'd be knee deep in Lesbian muff.
And, no, pace Spivak, the clitoris is not a small penis otherwise I'd be knee deep in Lesbian muff.
Sunday, 24 March 2013
Vikram Seth's 'A suitable girl'- first review
In keeping with this blog's long-standing commitment to passing judgement on tomes it hasn't read, we take pleasure in bringing you our review of Vikram Seth's latest book fresh from the redoubtable pen of Prof. Vagina Dentata Choothopadhayay, dipped, we need hardly add, in her own copious menstrual blood.
In consideration of our readers' tender sensibilities, we have taken the liberty of excising certain four letter words and acrimonious references to the size of our genitals from Prof. Choothopahdyay's article. Since nothing was then left to publish, our Senior Editor has very kindly supplied the following.
Vikram Seth, like Jane Austen, takes his subject matter from the Sense vs. Sensibility dilemma facing Female Mate Choice. He gives a sort of Feminist tinge to his project by forbidding his Heroines the right to sacrifice themselves so as to keep an otherwise Unsuitable Boy functional as opposed to turning into a monumental fuck-up. However, in so doing, he cuts off his project from 'Greatness' because though a Utilitarian 'Heart vs Head' dilemma is Universal, it is not Fundamental and carries no Soteriological or Existential flavor in the manner that the subject matter of truly Great Literature does.
True, Jane Austen doesn't deal with the case of women sacrificing themselves for their Mates- but it is very evident that they sacrifice their own prejudices or proclivities in the interest of Marriage-as-partnership- albeit Sleeping Partnership because women in her age were second class citizens to start off with. Married women had no rights over their own property. She herself, for Socio-Economic reasons was doomed to Spinsterhood. Rudyard Kipling's 'the Janeites', which only makes us cringe because we have not tears enough to cry, offers a collective act of reparation such that our tears wipe away the ink of a hundred years of English Literature and Jane marries her suitor up in Heaven with Sir Walter Scott doing the honors. In other words, there is something outside Austen's texts which makes them Great- there is a vishodhana purgation whereby, at least for Kipling's readers- the Literature to which Austen so signally contributed, or which she incarnated, precisely by a consideration of what both elide, gains the Jordan of our heart-felt tears from which to arise in the bridal vestments of a Gangetic dawn. At least, hopeless and hereditary Babu that I am, such is my Babuish judgement.
For Seth's heroines, Self-sacrifice isn't on the menu. Thus, the arena in which they judiciously exercise Mate Choice is one from which any higher type of Love than can be captured by Revealed Preference is rigorously ruled out. Thus, though 'Universal', this Mate-Choice remains confined to the trivial plane and can give rise to no tragedy save adventitiously or under the rubric of 'there but for the Grace of God.'
Seth's subject matter and style are not deficient- the milieus he describes and the powers of language that he commands militate rather for than against the invocation of the grand literary precursors of amor fati or doomed romance to whom he, in the very same texts, pays tribute. Nor is it the case that by forbidding a particular type of sacrifice- that of a woman for a man- is its theo-ontic Terror and/or Necessity axiomatically excluded from the scope of a text, yet for Seth, this is what transpires.
Why?
Jealousy is so like not cool dude.
True, in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, Sacrifice is linked to Jealousy- Jehovah is a jealous God, Cain is jealous of Abel, Caiaphas is pissed off coz Judas got a bigger dick (what? Ask your Rabbi why don't you?)- and, at the heart of things, Rene Girard tells us, is the drama of mimetic desire- envy and the necessity of a scapegoat, a pharmakos, a korban, to inoculate Society against internecine Violence.
But, Seth isn't Jewish, he isn't Christian. His is an Indo-Islamic culture to which has been grafted on a Victorian belief in Progress. His 'A suitable boy' may be dismissed as wishful thinking in that he shows India in 1951 as being the same as in 1991. All that is needed is a bit of 'know-how' and bilateral good will for all the problems bequeathed by History to simply disappear. The fact is Kabir or Amit or even Haresh won't lose anything very substantial if Lata turns them down. Their 'transfer earnings' are zero. Lata possesses no Economic Rent. Thus Choice is benign simply. There are no Essences- Strategic or otherwise- there is no hysteresis- Historicist or otherwise- and since nothing matters very much, fine, let there be free Choice because after all only Matter exists, nothing immaterial supervenes, the very notion of Sacrifice is otiose.
I haven't read 'A suitable girl'- I've no doubt it will be readable enough and present some points of interest or virtuoso passages which more than justify the price of the book. However, what it will lack is a sense of the Fundamental, as opposed to merely Universal, Horizon of Human Life, which is Death, which is Sacrifice, which, in so far as it is chosen, is the after-Life of Love nobody chooses and of which we can only despairing say, Yea, at the limit, such becomes the Choice of God.
In consideration of our readers' tender sensibilities, we have taken the liberty of excising certain four letter words and acrimonious references to the size of our genitals from Prof. Choothopahdyay's article. Since nothing was then left to publish, our Senior Editor has very kindly supplied the following.
Vikram Seth, like Jane Austen, takes his subject matter from the Sense vs. Sensibility dilemma facing Female Mate Choice. He gives a sort of Feminist tinge to his project by forbidding his Heroines the right to sacrifice themselves so as to keep an otherwise Unsuitable Boy functional as opposed to turning into a monumental fuck-up. However, in so doing, he cuts off his project from 'Greatness' because though a Utilitarian 'Heart vs Head' dilemma is Universal, it is not Fundamental and carries no Soteriological or Existential flavor in the manner that the subject matter of truly Great Literature does.
True, Jane Austen doesn't deal with the case of women sacrificing themselves for their Mates- but it is very evident that they sacrifice their own prejudices or proclivities in the interest of Marriage-as-partnership- albeit Sleeping Partnership because women in her age were second class citizens to start off with. Married women had no rights over their own property. She herself, for Socio-Economic reasons was doomed to Spinsterhood. Rudyard Kipling's 'the Janeites', which only makes us cringe because we have not tears enough to cry, offers a collective act of reparation such that our tears wipe away the ink of a hundred years of English Literature and Jane marries her suitor up in Heaven with Sir Walter Scott doing the honors. In other words, there is something outside Austen's texts which makes them Great- there is a vishodhana purgation whereby, at least for Kipling's readers- the Literature to which Austen so signally contributed, or which she incarnated, precisely by a consideration of what both elide, gains the Jordan of our heart-felt tears from which to arise in the bridal vestments of a Gangetic dawn. At least, hopeless and hereditary Babu that I am, such is my Babuish judgement.
For Seth's heroines, Self-sacrifice isn't on the menu. Thus, the arena in which they judiciously exercise Mate Choice is one from which any higher type of Love than can be captured by Revealed Preference is rigorously ruled out. Thus, though 'Universal', this Mate-Choice remains confined to the trivial plane and can give rise to no tragedy save adventitiously or under the rubric of 'there but for the Grace of God.'
Seth's subject matter and style are not deficient- the milieus he describes and the powers of language that he commands militate rather for than against the invocation of the grand literary precursors of amor fati or doomed romance to whom he, in the very same texts, pays tribute. Nor is it the case that by forbidding a particular type of sacrifice- that of a woman for a man- is its theo-ontic Terror and/or Necessity axiomatically excluded from the scope of a text, yet for Seth, this is what transpires.
Why?
Jealousy is so like not cool dude.
True, in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, Sacrifice is linked to Jealousy- Jehovah is a jealous God, Cain is jealous of Abel, Caiaphas is pissed off coz Judas got a bigger dick (what? Ask your Rabbi why don't you?)- and, at the heart of things, Rene Girard tells us, is the drama of mimetic desire- envy and the necessity of a scapegoat, a pharmakos, a korban, to inoculate Society against internecine Violence.
But, Seth isn't Jewish, he isn't Christian. His is an Indo-Islamic culture to which has been grafted on a Victorian belief in Progress. His 'A suitable boy' may be dismissed as wishful thinking in that he shows India in 1951 as being the same as in 1991. All that is needed is a bit of 'know-how' and bilateral good will for all the problems bequeathed by History to simply disappear. The fact is Kabir or Amit or even Haresh won't lose anything very substantial if Lata turns them down. Their 'transfer earnings' are zero. Lata possesses no Economic Rent. Thus Choice is benign simply. There are no Essences- Strategic or otherwise- there is no hysteresis- Historicist or otherwise- and since nothing matters very much, fine, let there be free Choice because after all only Matter exists, nothing immaterial supervenes, the very notion of Sacrifice is otiose.
I haven't read 'A suitable girl'- I've no doubt it will be readable enough and present some points of interest or virtuoso passages which more than justify the price of the book. However, what it will lack is a sense of the Fundamental, as opposed to merely Universal, Horizon of Human Life, which is Death, which is Sacrifice, which, in so far as it is chosen, is the after-Life of Love nobody chooses and of which we can only despairing say, Yea, at the limit, such becomes the Choice of God.
Friday, 22 March 2013
Italy returned the Marines- fuck do I feel stupid.
I've spent the last week explaining how defying the Law of Nations, re. diplomatic immunity, highlighted the idiocy of the Indian Supreme Court's rampant judicial activism and endangered National Securiy, while shrilly giving tongue to the oft voiced lament that this activism had only arisen in the context of the spinelessness, rent-seeking avarice, and/or senile ataraxia of the present Administration.
Boy, was I wrong. Fuck, do I feel stupid.
Italy's humiliating volte face in returning its murder-charge Marines to India is an unprecedented and paradigm shifting event in the annals of International Diplomacy.
But what does it import?
There are two possible, perhaps complementary rather than competing, explanations-
1) India is way more powerful than might appear. The soon to be concluded Indian Free Trade Agreement with Europe is of far greater strategic value to the latter- but this means India can be tougher w.r.t tilting the interpretation of Intellectual Property Rights in favour of the Developing rather than the Developed World. Three or four years ago, Italy defied America- re. export of sensitive technology- by persisting with its tie-up with India for Satellite launching. Perhaps, Europe sees India as a long-term and equal partner in Knowledge based Industries and is prepared to face American wrath precisely so as to secure a degree of autonomy from the Global Hegemon. The fact that the issue on which the Italians crumbled had to do with the Navy suggests that India's international standing is tied up with its proper development of Naval force projection.
2) Italy and India are friends. True Friendship can only develop on the basis of Truth and Justice. Friendships are long-term, open-ended, and non zero-sum with positive externalities for third parties. If I collude with you to help you get away with injuring a weaker third party- what I've done is show loyalty, not to a True Friend, but a mere Tactical Ally. A true friend has to have the guts to say- what you've done is morally wrong. I'll go halves with you on making restitution and expiating the crime. What I won't do is connive to cover things up such that, short-term, you get away with it. This is because, in the Moral Universe where words like Friendship have meaning, actions have ethical consequences- they literally change your ethos- what you are to yourself and those that love you. Sure, I can help you cover up a crime. I'd do that for an enemy if it were expedient for me. But if you are my friend, I care about what you are to yourself. I want you to be a stand up guy, not a 'got away with a crime, goodfella' .
That's what's happened between Italy and India today. India could have said 'thanks for giving me an alibi by spitting in my soup. Now no one will suspect we're in this together' and Italy replies 'Yeah, but you owe me big time coz it's me wot looks bad' and India says 'what? I let you dip your beak on the helicopter deal; waddyawant? the submarines? BTW your li'l daughter is getting to look kinda cute. If there's grass on the filed- get my drift?'
That's not Friendship- it's Perversion.
Two Italian Marines, who could have gone running to the European Court of Human Rights, showed they were stand up guys by returning to India. Is the Govt. of Italy a similarly 'stand up guy'? What if Sonia Gandhi had given an interview to Italian TV on this topic? The ordinary Italians would have been given a chance to compare and contrast Sonia with their corrupt Berlusconis and egg-head Montis. Sonia is a woman who has behaved with old fashioned dignity and virtue all her life. Her husband was killed and she begged for clemency towards a woman- a poor dark skinned woman- who would otherwise been hanged from her neck till all life had departed from her scrawny, undernourished, body. Justice is not Revenge. Neither India not Italy are defined by the Mafias that operate within their body politic. Justice is Justice and is based on the Truth. Italy lied. The Supreme Court- not in very prolix, high falutin', judicial language but in succinct and emotionally overwrought demotic language which betrayed an understandable sense of hurt and disappointment- said 'our relationship with you is on the basis of Truth and Justice not Diplomacy and Immunity'. Two fishermen have been slain. Justice for them is more important than this so called 'Law of the Nations'. Why? Before there are Nations, there are Human Beings. Be Human! We constrain you and hold you prisoner to THAT!'
MY GRATUITOUS PURGATION OF CONTEMPT OF THE INDIAN SUPREME COURT
Yo, Supreme Court dudes- I fucking take my hat off to you- you fucking darker complexioned than even me, more underpaid than even me, more non-Queen's English speaking than even me, you supremely fucking Indian Supreme Court Judges of India, you- you saw that SECURING JUSTICE FOR two unlawfully slain fishermen, both belonging to 'minority' communities as defined by the Constitution of India, was MORE IMPORTANT than the National Security of India or the Noetic Swamp that is the Law of Nations.
Govt. of Italy agreed with you. The two Italian Marines agreed with you. Has Italy been humiliated? Has their soldiery been shown to be cowardly?
No. It is never a humiliation to do the right thing. Has India's prestige been enhanced? No. Because it is such a big country- though no country is big, only Courage is big & only Truth 'enbiggens'- THE PRESTIGE OF THE INDIAN STATE, by this, rather tends to DECLINE.
Why?
It seems the Indian Judiciary, Executive and Legislature- not to mention the masses- are no respecters of such artificial personages as States, Corporations or, indeed, mere 'Concrete Universals' such as, to-corrupt-command, mortal allegiances- but are content to consign their particular destinies to the Diktat of something Higher and Finer- viz. ineffable notions of Friendship, Truth & Justice.
Boy, was I wrong. Fuck, do I feel stupid.
Italy's humiliating volte face in returning its murder-charge Marines to India is an unprecedented and paradigm shifting event in the annals of International Diplomacy.
But what does it import?
There are two possible, perhaps complementary rather than competing, explanations-
1) India is way more powerful than might appear. The soon to be concluded Indian Free Trade Agreement with Europe is of far greater strategic value to the latter- but this means India can be tougher w.r.t tilting the interpretation of Intellectual Property Rights in favour of the Developing rather than the Developed World. Three or four years ago, Italy defied America- re. export of sensitive technology- by persisting with its tie-up with India for Satellite launching. Perhaps, Europe sees India as a long-term and equal partner in Knowledge based Industries and is prepared to face American wrath precisely so as to secure a degree of autonomy from the Global Hegemon. The fact that the issue on which the Italians crumbled had to do with the Navy suggests that India's international standing is tied up with its proper development of Naval force projection.
2) Italy and India are friends. True Friendship can only develop on the basis of Truth and Justice. Friendships are long-term, open-ended, and non zero-sum with positive externalities for third parties. If I collude with you to help you get away with injuring a weaker third party- what I've done is show loyalty, not to a True Friend, but a mere Tactical Ally. A true friend has to have the guts to say- what you've done is morally wrong. I'll go halves with you on making restitution and expiating the crime. What I won't do is connive to cover things up such that, short-term, you get away with it. This is because, in the Moral Universe where words like Friendship have meaning, actions have ethical consequences- they literally change your ethos- what you are to yourself and those that love you. Sure, I can help you cover up a crime. I'd do that for an enemy if it were expedient for me. But if you are my friend, I care about what you are to yourself. I want you to be a stand up guy, not a 'got away with a crime, goodfella' .
That's what's happened between Italy and India today. India could have said 'thanks for giving me an alibi by spitting in my soup. Now no one will suspect we're in this together' and Italy replies 'Yeah, but you owe me big time coz it's me wot looks bad' and India says 'what? I let you dip your beak on the helicopter deal; waddyawant? the submarines? BTW your li'l daughter is getting to look kinda cute. If there's grass on the filed- get my drift?'
That's not Friendship- it's Perversion.
Two Italian Marines, who could have gone running to the European Court of Human Rights, showed they were stand up guys by returning to India. Is the Govt. of Italy a similarly 'stand up guy'? What if Sonia Gandhi had given an interview to Italian TV on this topic? The ordinary Italians would have been given a chance to compare and contrast Sonia with their corrupt Berlusconis and egg-head Montis. Sonia is a woman who has behaved with old fashioned dignity and virtue all her life. Her husband was killed and she begged for clemency towards a woman- a poor dark skinned woman- who would otherwise been hanged from her neck till all life had departed from her scrawny, undernourished, body. Justice is not Revenge. Neither India not Italy are defined by the Mafias that operate within their body politic. Justice is Justice and is based on the Truth. Italy lied. The Supreme Court- not in very prolix, high falutin', judicial language but in succinct and emotionally overwrought demotic language which betrayed an understandable sense of hurt and disappointment- said 'our relationship with you is on the basis of Truth and Justice not Diplomacy and Immunity'. Two fishermen have been slain. Justice for them is more important than this so called 'Law of the Nations'. Why? Before there are Nations, there are Human Beings. Be Human! We constrain you and hold you prisoner to THAT!'
MY GRATUITOUS PURGATION OF CONTEMPT OF THE INDIAN SUPREME COURT
Yo, Supreme Court dudes- I fucking take my hat off to you- you fucking darker complexioned than even me, more underpaid than even me, more non-Queen's English speaking than even me, you supremely fucking Indian Supreme Court Judges of India, you- you saw that SECURING JUSTICE FOR two unlawfully slain fishermen, both belonging to 'minority' communities as defined by the Constitution of India, was MORE IMPORTANT than the National Security of India or the Noetic Swamp that is the Law of Nations.
Govt. of Italy agreed with you. The two Italian Marines agreed with you. Has Italy been humiliated? Has their soldiery been shown to be cowardly?
No. It is never a humiliation to do the right thing. Has India's prestige been enhanced? No. Because it is such a big country- though no country is big, only Courage is big & only Truth 'enbiggens'- THE PRESTIGE OF THE INDIAN STATE, by this, rather tends to DECLINE.
Why?
It seems the Indian Judiciary, Executive and Legislature- not to mention the masses- are no respecters of such artificial personages as States, Corporations or, indeed, mere 'Concrete Universals' such as, to-corrupt-command, mortal allegiances- but are content to consign their particular destinies to the Diktat of something Higher and Finer- viz. ineffable notions of Friendship, Truth & Justice.
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Open Season on Indian Diplomats
The Supreme Court of India, with the support of the Attorney General, has declared that Diplomats have no diplomatic immunity from arrest for Contempt of Court. Since Diplomatic privileges are not granted unilaterally but on the basis of reciprocity, it follows that Indian diplomats abroad can be arrested for Contempt of Court. Anyone can now bring an action against any Indian diplomat for any reason at all. The Indian diplomats will either
a) refuse to appear on grounds of diplomatic immunity in which case the Court can decide to hold them in Contempt and order their arrest
b) appear in Court and be forced to truthfully answer questions prejudicial to Indian Security and National Interest on penalty of being held in contempt or jailed for perjury.
Clearly, National Security would dictate that no person with sensitive information be posted abroad by India. Foreign powers would in any case wish to downgrade relations with India because of its egregious and senseless breach of Diplomatic immunity. A good thing surely? However, things wouldn't stop there. India would be downgraded as a place to Invest, do business, or permit to have jurisdiction over contracts. Fine, if India had a Balance of Payments surplus, was self sufficient in Defense Technology and had the backing of a large number of nations (for example on the basis of common Religion, language or ethnicity) in the U.N. But this patently is not the case.
Still, prosecuting Indian Diplomats should be good fun. Try it next time the Visa clerk doesn't sing Jana Gana Mana as he stamps your passport.
a) refuse to appear on grounds of diplomatic immunity in which case the Court can decide to hold them in Contempt and order their arrest
b) appear in Court and be forced to truthfully answer questions prejudicial to Indian Security and National Interest on penalty of being held in contempt or jailed for perjury.
Clearly, National Security would dictate that no person with sensitive information be posted abroad by India. Foreign powers would in any case wish to downgrade relations with India because of its egregious and senseless breach of Diplomatic immunity. A good thing surely? However, things wouldn't stop there. India would be downgraded as a place to Invest, do business, or permit to have jurisdiction over contracts. Fine, if India had a Balance of Payments surplus, was self sufficient in Defense Technology and had the backing of a large number of nations (for example on the basis of common Religion, language or ethnicity) in the U.N. But this patently is not the case.
Still, prosecuting Indian Diplomats should be good fun. Try it next time the Visa clerk doesn't sing Jana Gana Mana as he stamps your passport.
What is Hinduism?
Well, Hinduism is a word- we can all agree on that- but what does it signify? There are several approaches to answering this question
1) Philosophical- these breakdown into three broad categories
a) Essentialist- Hinduism has an essence of some sort. Where this essence is properly cognized then the use of the word 'Hinduism' has a canonical connotation such that some process of philosophical debate will always return categorical answers to questions like ' Under what set of circumstances does True Hinduism permit or enjoin the sodomization of one's male ancestors?'. This follows from the requirement that an Essence exist in all possible worlds including ones where deontics is a dick in a phase space composed entirely of ancestral assholes. More generally, there must be some possible world where any 'ism' X permits or enjoins some totally batshit crazy Y. Now an investigation into Hinduism, on this basis- i.e. stipulating which possible worlds match with any given normative batshit crazy Y- might well reveal that Hinduism is, in essence, ontologically dysphoric- i.e. fugitive from Essentialist definition.
b) Epistemological- What do words refer to and how can we come to have certain knowledge as to their connotation? The virtue of this approach is that it enables us to say that questions of the type- 'When must a Hindu sodomize his ancestors?'- are strictly meaningless. However, any departure from this salutary stricture involves us in all manner of absurdities, such that, for example, under an 'evidentiary decision theory' approach some future act of a dead ancestor may enjoin your having to bugger him. Indeed, the same problem arises under any consistent, finitely specified, 'justified true belief' type Epistemology. This is because so long as an action can be meaningfully enjoined and so long as there is some gap between what is subjectively known and the facts of the case (absent which Epistemology is empty) there can be no certainty that some uncontroversially normative act is not, in fact, some totally batshit crazy Y, like sodomizing a dead ancestor by reason of some future action of his.
This is because any probabilistic approach is going to face the well known backward causation problem in Evidential decision theory and the same problem arises- by reason of the impossibility of establishing an entropic arrow of Time in Lewis Stalnaker counter-factual possible worlds- for any non-empty Justified True Belief type theory.
c) Instrumentalist, in the specific sense of being Soteriological, such that the purpose of any human inquiry is the salvation of the soul. Thus the question re. when to sodomize an ancestor is worthy of consideration only to the extent that it causes a re-examination of Scripture which results in some 'apurvata' (i.e. unprecedented or novel fact or normative statement) being discovered therein which in turn has the effect of burning up a fetter of ignorance arising, it may be, in the karmic apurva (i.e. effect which has not yet come to pass). The virtue of this approach, which is also its chief defect, is that it involves us in Hermeneutics- that branch of Philosophical Inquiry which most undermines the very faculty by which it progresses- like attending a wine-tasting and forgetting to spit out the wine- such that judgement is impeached by its own mode of operation.
2) Legalist/Historicist.
Here, it initially appears, we are on safe ground. Hinduism has a legal definition, at least for Indian citizens, and has been instrumentalized for various Political and Social purposes by the actions of the State, the Judiciary and various other public and private bodies. However, this Legalistic approach is fatally tainted with Historicism of a particularly pernicious type such that no non-circular, unique or canonical answer can exist to the question ' What is Hinduism?' In other words, this approach begs the question and, for that reason, must be dismissed- save as a source of hilarity- from such august ratocination as characterizes this blog.
3) Scholarly- i.e. Socio-Anthropological, or some other such portmanteau term for Wonkish wanking.
It might be argued that 'Public Discourse'- even such puerile and cartoonish discourse as is practised by preening Indologists & Indian origin savants prancing farther forth into Senility or Schizophrenia - nevertheless reflects some shifting and fuzzy set corresponding to a sort of Communis Opinio which itself may not be expressible in language. The problem here is that there is no radical disjunction between this Communis Opinio and the subject we are concerned with- viz. what is Hinduism?
In other words, absent some means of demarcating such propositions as express truths about the Communis Opinio and other propositions relating to Hinduism specifically, this approach is self-vitiating and circular in a manner as mischievous as the Legalist/Historicist.
4) Subjective/Authoritarian.
Babaji says the true Hindu only sodomizes his ancestors if and when it makes money for Babaji and I really like Babaji coz my name is Sanjeev Sabhlok and I have a CORE IDEA which proves that Hitler DID NOT believe the same thing as Swami Vivekananda because Hitler was actually a Socialist and though Vivekananda said he was a Socialist too, still my CORE IDEA is that States are very bad. Only Capitalism is good. That is why I've been a bureaucrat all my working life. Anyway, I'm not a Hindu- I said to Babaji's audience 'First you people get rid of Caste System! Then I'll say I'm a Hindu.' Babaji is so nice. He cured my piles just by looking at my face- which I use for defecation because that is my CORE IDEA. Kindly read Arthashastra & Vivekananda- who was a Capitalist and not a follower of Hitler at all. My God, you desis are so ignorant! I have explained all this in my book- 'Nehru was very bad'.
1) Philosophical- these breakdown into three broad categories
a) Essentialist- Hinduism has an essence of some sort. Where this essence is properly cognized then the use of the word 'Hinduism' has a canonical connotation such that some process of philosophical debate will always return categorical answers to questions like ' Under what set of circumstances does True Hinduism permit or enjoin the sodomization of one's male ancestors?'. This follows from the requirement that an Essence exist in all possible worlds including ones where deontics is a dick in a phase space composed entirely of ancestral assholes. More generally, there must be some possible world where any 'ism' X permits or enjoins some totally batshit crazy Y. Now an investigation into Hinduism, on this basis- i.e. stipulating which possible worlds match with any given normative batshit crazy Y- might well reveal that Hinduism is, in essence, ontologically dysphoric- i.e. fugitive from Essentialist definition.
b) Epistemological- What do words refer to and how can we come to have certain knowledge as to their connotation? The virtue of this approach is that it enables us to say that questions of the type- 'When must a Hindu sodomize his ancestors?'- are strictly meaningless. However, any departure from this salutary stricture involves us in all manner of absurdities, such that, for example, under an 'evidentiary decision theory' approach some future act of a dead ancestor may enjoin your having to bugger him. Indeed, the same problem arises under any consistent, finitely specified, 'justified true belief' type Epistemology. This is because so long as an action can be meaningfully enjoined and so long as there is some gap between what is subjectively known and the facts of the case (absent which Epistemology is empty) there can be no certainty that some uncontroversially normative act is not, in fact, some totally batshit crazy Y, like sodomizing a dead ancestor by reason of some future action of his.
This is because any probabilistic approach is going to face the well known backward causation problem in Evidential decision theory and the same problem arises- by reason of the impossibility of establishing an entropic arrow of Time in Lewis Stalnaker counter-factual possible worlds- for any non-empty Justified True Belief type theory.
c) Instrumentalist, in the specific sense of being Soteriological, such that the purpose of any human inquiry is the salvation of the soul. Thus the question re. when to sodomize an ancestor is worthy of consideration only to the extent that it causes a re-examination of Scripture which results in some 'apurvata' (i.e. unprecedented or novel fact or normative statement) being discovered therein which in turn has the effect of burning up a fetter of ignorance arising, it may be, in the karmic apurva (i.e. effect which has not yet come to pass). The virtue of this approach, which is also its chief defect, is that it involves us in Hermeneutics- that branch of Philosophical Inquiry which most undermines the very faculty by which it progresses- like attending a wine-tasting and forgetting to spit out the wine- such that judgement is impeached by its own mode of operation.
2) Legalist/Historicist.
Here, it initially appears, we are on safe ground. Hinduism has a legal definition, at least for Indian citizens, and has been instrumentalized for various Political and Social purposes by the actions of the State, the Judiciary and various other public and private bodies. However, this Legalistic approach is fatally tainted with Historicism of a particularly pernicious type such that no non-circular, unique or canonical answer can exist to the question ' What is Hinduism?' In other words, this approach begs the question and, for that reason, must be dismissed- save as a source of hilarity- from such august ratocination as characterizes this blog.
3) Scholarly- i.e. Socio-Anthropological, or some other such portmanteau term for Wonkish wanking.
It might be argued that 'Public Discourse'- even such puerile and cartoonish discourse as is practised by preening Indologists & Indian origin savants prancing farther forth into Senility or Schizophrenia - nevertheless reflects some shifting and fuzzy set corresponding to a sort of Communis Opinio which itself may not be expressible in language. The problem here is that there is no radical disjunction between this Communis Opinio and the subject we are concerned with- viz. what is Hinduism?
In other words, absent some means of demarcating such propositions as express truths about the Communis Opinio and other propositions relating to Hinduism specifically, this approach is self-vitiating and circular in a manner as mischievous as the Legalist/Historicist.
4) Subjective/Authoritarian.
Babaji says the true Hindu only sodomizes his ancestors if and when it makes money for Babaji and I really like Babaji coz my name is Sanjeev Sabhlok and I have a CORE IDEA which proves that Hitler DID NOT believe the same thing as Swami Vivekananda because Hitler was actually a Socialist and though Vivekananda said he was a Socialist too, still my CORE IDEA is that States are very bad. Only Capitalism is good. That is why I've been a bureaucrat all my working life. Anyway, I'm not a Hindu- I said to Babaji's audience 'First you people get rid of Caste System! Then I'll say I'm a Hindu.' Babaji is so nice. He cured my piles just by looking at my face- which I use for defecation because that is my CORE IDEA. Kindly read Arthashastra & Vivekananda- who was a Capitalist and not a follower of Hitler at all. My God, you desis are so ignorant! I have explained all this in my book- 'Nehru was very bad'.
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