Totally there are 16 papers, a graduate seminar and a thesis in this course. The papers are in the form of themes which will draw upon many disciplines and will thus exemplify what interdisciplinarity means. All the papers in this course will have a strong theoretical basis drawn from philosophy and other intellectual traditions, both from the Indian and the non-Indian perspectives. They will engage with seminal texts in these areas. All the courses will require written essays for purposes of grading. Students are expected to read from an extensive reading list.

Total Credits: 90
Participation in Workshops, Conferences and Outreach Assignments – 10 Credits

List of Courses with sample topics:

MA in Philosophy

First Year

Reading and Writing
• History and Theories of reading and writing from philosophy and literature studies
• Orality and Literacy
• Phenomenology of reading and writing
• Art and writing

Thinking, Imagination
• Indian and Western philosophical perspectives on the nature of thinking, thought and imagination
• Varieties of thinking such as critical and creative thinking
• Varieties of imagination such as the artistic
• literary and scientific imagination
• Fiction and imagination
• Thinking and language
• Originality

Reason and the Senses
• The nature of the senses
• Phenomenology of the senses
• The description of the mind
• Theories of reason and rationality
• Introduction to Indian and Western logic
• Types of reason such as reason in science and arts
• Critique of reason and rationality
• Reason and tradition


Truth and Knowledge
• Indian and Western epistemology
• Theories of truth
• Literature, art and truth
• Varieties of truth and knowledge in social and natural sciences
• Politics of truth and knowledge

Language
• Sanskrit

Individual-Self
• Historical and conceptual ideas of self from Indian and Western traditions
• Notions of individual and person
• Cultural constructions of self
• Self and Identity

Collective-Social
• On collection and group
• Nature of the social
• Science of the social and the creation of social sciences
• Social and the political
• Social and the individual
• Understanding other cultures
• Society as universal category
• Understanding Indian society

Language and Reality
• Philosophy of language drawn from Indian and Western traditions
• Realism, idealism and other varieties
• Relation between language and reality
• Different modes of reality such as social, literary, artistic and scientific
• Languages of social and natural reality

Time and Narrative
• Nature of time in various traditions
• The problems of time
• Time and history
• Theory of narrative
• Relation between time and narrative
• Individual time and social time
• The dynamics of time, narrative and reality



Second Year

Natural Science, Literature, Performance
• Introduction to science studies – history, philosophy and sociology of natural science
• Literary theories
• Relationship between science and literature
• Theories of performance, science and performance
• Nature of mathematics including Indian mathematics

Embodiment and the Social
• Introduction to history and philosophy of social science
• Communities and the Individual
• Philosophy of action, Individual and social action,
• Agency and action, theories of social action
• Understanding societies, rules and norms
• Exclusion and Gender
• Labour, production and knowledge

Ethics and Social Justice
• Theories of ethics from different cultures
• Ethics in different contexts
• Ethics of the individual and the Social
• Conceptualising social justice
• Gandhian thought and ethics
• Minority, the marginalized and social justice
• Poverty and justice
• Inequality, inequity and society

Health and Culture
• Defining health
• Describing culture
• Health, biology and culture
• Sociology of food and health
• Health and the idea of medicine
• Health and its relation to the natural and social sciences
• Environment and health
• Gender and health






Nature and Environmental Humanities
• Conceptualizing nature in Indian, Western and other traditions
• Views of nature for natural science, social science and arts
• Describing nature and intervening in nature
• The place of the human within nature, Ecofeminism
• Philosophy of conservation and sustainability
• The relation between society and nature
• Environmental Sociology, collective movements and issues


Art, Aesthetics and Technology
• Arts and society
• Art and the individual, Creating, performing and communicating art
• Art forms and theories of art in different cultures
• Introduction to philosophy of art from Indian and Western philosophical traditions
• Cultures of mathematics and art
• Introduction to technology studies
• Humans, technology and nature
• Art, Design and technology