Philosophy तत्वज्ञान

Quick summary

This chapter is about metaphysics, the part of philosophy that asks "what is ultimately real?". Philosophers asked two questions about the ultimate reality (Sat): how many fundamental elements are there (one, two or many?) and what is their nature (material, spiritual or both?). The chapter shows the answers of Indian darshanas, Western philosophers and modern science.

Key points

• The ultimate reality is that which exists by itself, is not created, and is the root of everything we experience. Like the hidden roots of a tree, it is not always visible.
• Answers about number give three theories: monism (one), dualism (two) and pluralism (many).
• Answers about nature give three theories: materialism (reality is material), idealism (reality is spiritual/conscious) and realism (both material and spiritual exist).
• Indian tradition speaks of five basic elements (panchamahabhuta): earth, water, fire, air and ether. Charvaka accepts only four and rejects ether.
• Charvaka: the only materialist darshana; the universe is made of four material elements; consciousness arises from their special combination, so "the body itself is the soul".
• Jaina: pluralist; everything is jiva (living) or ajiva (non-living). Matter (pudgala) is made of atoms; motion, rest, time and space are also accepted. The soul is different from the body.
• Bauddha: the theory of Pratityasamutpada (dependent origination) says everything exists only on conditions. From it comes the theory of impermanence, so Buddhism rejects any permanent soul, substance or God.
• Vaisheshika: pluralist and realist; gave the idea of atoms (paramanu); accepts nine substances – earth, water, fire, air, ether, space, time, mind and soul – and also discusses abhava (non-being).
• Sankhya: dualism; Purusha (consciousness, inactive) and Prakriti (matter, made of three gunas – sattva, rajas, tamas). When the balance of gunas is disturbed, the world evolves: mahat (buddhi), ahankara, manas, sense-organs, motor organs, tanmatras, mahabhutas.
• Advaita Vedanta (Shankaracharya): monism; Brahman alone is real, attributeless and formless. Three levels of reality: Pratibhasika (dream), Vyavaharika (waking/empirical), Paramarthika (ultimate, knowledge of Brahman).
• Western: Pre-Socratic monists (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Parmenides, Heraclitus). Parmenides: reality is one, permanent, unchanging. Heraclitus: change is the nature of reality ("no one can step into the same river twice"). Empedocles: four elements joined and separated by attraction and repulsion. Democritus and Leucippus: materialist atomism.
• Plato: two worlds – the changing visible world depends on the eternal world of forms. Aristotle rejected a separate world of forms; substance is his central concept, with ten categories.
• Modern: Descartes – dualism of mind and body ("I think, therefore I am"); Spinoza – one substance, "God or nature" (pantheism); Leibniz – many monads; Hegel – the Absolute, which evolves through dialectics.
• Science today answers "what is" through particles, forces and energy; the meaning of old terms like "atom" has changed.

Important terms

• Metaphysics – branch of philosophy that studies the nature of reality.
• Substance (Dravya) – that which has qualities and exists in itself; the substratum of qualities.
• Monism / Dualism / Pluralism – one / two / many ultimate realities.
• Pratityasamutpada – everything arises depending on conditions.
• Monad – Leibniz's indivisible unit with a basic level of consciousness.
• Dialectics – Hegel's idea that a better principle comes out of the conflict of two opposites.
• Pantheism – God and nature are one (Spinoza).

Key facts

5 important questions

Q1. What is meant by ultimate reality?

The ultimate reality is what exists by itself, is not created and does not depend on anything else. Everything we experience comes from it, so its elements are called fundamental elements.

Q2. Explain Shankaracharya's three levels of reality.

Pratibhasika Sat is what we see in dreams; Vyavaharika Sat is the world of waking experience; Paramarthika Sat is Brahman, the highest reality, known through Brahmadnyana. Only Paramarthika never proves unreal.

Q3. Explain Sankhya dualism.

Sankhya accepts two independent principles: Purusha (consciousness, inactive) and Prakriti (matter, with three gunas). When the gunas lose balance, the world evolves from Prakriti, from subtle to gross, and merges back into it at dissolution.

Q4. Compare Parmenides and Heraclitus.

Both are monists. Parmenides says the real is one, permanent and changeless; change belongs to non-being. Heraclitus says change itself is the nature of reality; there is continuity but no permanence.

Q5. Explain the views of Spinoza and Leibniz.

Spinoza: only one substance, called God or nature, with infinite attributes – pantheism. Leibniz: reality is made of countless monads, indivisible units that are not material and have some consciousness.

Exam tip

Make a table of each school's number and nature of reality; matching and "give reasons" questions come straight from it.

Quick summary

We use the word "cause" every day, but philosophy asks what exactly it means. A cause is that due to which a change happens; what comes out of the change is the effect. This chapter explains Indian theories of causation (satkaryavada and asatkaryavada), Aristotle's four causes, David Hume's empiricist analysis, and how modern science looks at cause.

Key points

• The concept of cause is important in metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. Ideas like karma and its fruit also depend on it.
• Indian schools (except Charvaka) accept rebirth and see ignorance about the self and the world as the root cause of suffering. Liberation is called moksha, mukti, kaivalya, apavarga or nirvana.
• Indian tradition names two main causes: material cause (that in which change occurs) and efficient cause (that which starts the change). Both are needed for an effect.
• Satkaryavada (Sankhya): the effect already exists in its material cause in a hidden (latent) form. Proverb: "Not in a pail unless in the well." Cause and effect are the latent and manifest states of the same thing. Prakriti is the first cause of the world.
• Sankhya's satkaryavada is called Parinamvada: the cause really transforms into the effect (like milk into curd).
• Advaita Vedanta's satkaryavada is called Vivartavada: the change of cause into effect is only an appearance, an illusion (maya).
• Asatkaryavada (Nyaya): the effect does not exist before it is produced; it is a new beginning, so it is called Arambhavada. Atoms of earth, water, fire and air are the material cause and God is the efficient cause of the world.
• Early Greek thought (cosmology) asked about basic elements, change and motion. Plato gave little importance to change because the world of forms does not change.
• Aristotle held a teleological view: changes in nature have a purpose. Four types of change: qualitative, quantitative, spatial and substantial.
• Aristotle's four causes: material (stone of a statue), formal (the idea in the sculptor's mind), efficient (the sculptor), final (the purpose of the statue).
• To avoid infinite regress, Aristotle called God the Unmoved Mover. Living beings have psyche; the inner force of growth is entelechy.
• Modern science replaced the teleological view with a mechanical view: events occur by laws of nature.
• David Hume (empiricist): "A causes B" implies (1) nearness in space and time, (2) A comes before B, (3) regular association, (4) necessary connection. The first three come from experience; necessity is not experienced. It is only a habit of mind formed by repeated association, so the causal relation is not necessary.
• Modern science speaks of cause in terms of probability; e.g. the probability that the Sun will rise tomorrow is so high that it looks certain.

Important terms

• Cause / Effect – the reason for a change / the result of the change.
• Satkaryavada – the effect pre-exists in the cause.
• Asatkaryavada (Arambhavada) – the effect is new and did not exist in the cause.
• Parinamvada – real transformation of cause into effect (Sankhya).
• Vivartavada – apparent, illusory transformation (Advaita Vedanta).
• Teleology – the view that nature works for a purpose.
• Unmoved Mover – Aristotle's God, who moves everything without moving.
• Infinite regress – a chain of causes going back without end.

Key facts

5 important questions

Q1. Why is Sankhya's satkaryavada called Parinamvada?

Because Sankhya holds that the material cause actually transforms (parinama) into the effect, as milk turns into curd. The effect was already present in the cause in hidden form.

Q2. Why is Advaita Vedanta's satkaryavada called Vivartavada?

Advaita also says the effect is in the cause, but the change is only apparent, like a rope seen as a snake. The transformation is an illusion (maya), so it is called vivarta.

Q3. Explain Aristotle's four-fold theory of causation.

Material cause – the stuff (stone). Formal cause – the idea or design in the mind. Efficient cause – the agent who shapes it (sculptor). Final cause – the purpose for which it is made. All four together explain why the object exists.

Q4. Explain Hume's view of causation.

Hume finds four ideas in "A causes B": contiguity, priority, regular association and necessary connection. The first three come from experience; necessity never does. We only see regular association and form a habit of expecting B after A. So the cause-effect relation is not necessary.

Q5. Distinguish between satkaryavada and asatkaryavada.

Satkaryavada (Sankhya): effect exists in the cause before production; cause and effect are not different in essence. Asatkaryavada (Nyaya): effect does not exist before production; it is a new creation (arambha) from causes.

Exam tip

Learn the pairs: Sankhya–Parinamvada, Advaita–Vivartavada, Nyaya–Arambhavada. Hume's four conditions are a favourite 4-mark question.

Quick summary

Everyone says "I", and each person's "I" is unique. But philosophy asks about the "I" common to all human beings: Am I only a body, a soul, or a mix of both? This chapter gives the answers of Indian darshanas (Charvaka, Jaina, Bauddha, Sankhya, Advaita Vedanta), Western philosophers (Pythagoras, Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, medieval thinkers, Descartes, Hume) and modern science.

Key points

• Our sense of "I" is our distinctness from others. A formal identity (name, ID card) is not enough to answer "Who am I?" (कोऽहम्).
• The answer to "Who am I?" affects other branches like epistemology, ethics and aesthetics.
• Charvaka: the conscious living body itself is the self – "Chaitanya vishishta deha eva atma". Consciousness is a by-product of matter. This is Dehatmavada / Bhutchaitanyavada. No immortal soul, heaven, hell or rebirth.
• Jaina: realists; every living being = material body (made of pudgala) + soul (jiva). Even plants and earth particles have souls, with different levels of awareness. Jivas are liberated or transmigrating; transmigrating jivas are immobile (one-sensed: earth, water, fire, air, plant bodied) or mobile (two- to five-sensed). Right faith, knowledge and character lead to liberation, where the soul has infinite knowledge, faith, power and bliss.
• Bauddha: no permanent soul. The "self" is only a name for a collection of five aggregates (panchaskandha): rupa (body), vedana (feelings), sandnya (perception/naming), sanskara (impressions) and vidnyana (consciousness). Nagasena's chariot example to King Milinda: "chariot" is only a name for its parts.
• Sankhya: the true self is Purusha – pure, immortal consciousness. Body, mind, intellect, ego, pleasure and pain belong to prakriti. Identifying with the body is ignorance.
• Advaita Vedanta: idealist; the soul is Brahman itself. Answer to "Who am I?" – "I am Brahman".
• Pythagoras saw philosophy as a way of life; believed in an immortal soul. Democritus (materialist): the soul is made of soft, round atoms of fire.
• Plato: body and soul are separate; the soul has three parts – reason, spirit (emotion) and appetite – and reason must control the others.
• Aristotle: the form within each living being is its soul; all living beings have a soul.
• Medieval Christian thought: man = perishable body + immortal soul created by God; no rebirth.
• Descartes: mind and body are two separate substances that interact (interactionism). This raised the mind-body problem.
• Hume: we never experience a permanent self; we find only a changing flow of thoughts, feelings and sensations, which memory links into a sense of continuity.
• Science: evolutionary biology and neuroscience study the self; the brain, awareness, social behaviour and artificial intelligence shape today's thinking.

Important terms

• Dehatmavada – the body itself is the self (Charvaka).
• Pudgala – Jaina term for matter made of combinable atoms.
• Panchaskandha – the five aggregates of Buddhism.
• Purusha – the conscious, inactive self in Sankhya.
• Interactionism – mind and body act on each other (Descartes).
• Tripartite soul – Plato's reason, spirit and appetite.

Key facts

5 important questions

Q1. What is Dehatmavada?

It is Charvaka's view that the conscious living body is the self. Consciousness arises from a special mix of the four material elements, so nothing survives death.

Q2. What is the nature of soul according to Democritus?

Democritus, a materialist, held that the soul is material, made of soft, round atoms of fire.

Q3. Explain the Buddhist concept of self with the chariot example.

Buddhism denies a permanent soul. Nagasena tells King Milinda that a chariot is not its wheels or axle; "chariot" is just a name for the parts together. Likewise "self" is a name for the five aggregates – body, feelings, perception, impressions and consciousness – which keep changing.

Q4. Explain Plato's theory of the tripartite soul.

For Plato the soul is separate from the body. The embodied soul has reason, spirit and appetite. A good life needs balance, with reason controlling passions and desires.

Q5. Explain Hume's view of the self.

As an empiricist, Hume accepts only what is experienced. Looking inward we find only changing thoughts, feelings and sensations, never a permanent soul. Memory connects them and gives a feeling of the same "I".

Exam tip

Compare views in pairs (Charvaka vs Sankhya, Buddhism vs Advaita, Plato vs Hume). Learn the mind-body theory table for matching questions.

Quick summary

This chapter is about epistemology, the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge. It explains the Indian ideas of prama and pramana (especially the Nyaya theory of four pramanas and the two extra pramanas of Mimamsa), and the Western ideas: knowledge as justified true belief, the three theories of truth, rationalism, empiricism and Kant's synthesis.

Key points

• Humans not only know; they know that they know. So "knowledge" itself can be studied.
• Dnyana is whatever we understand, true or false. Knowledge tested and found true is prama; wrong knowledge is aprama.
• Pramata = the knower; prameya = the object known; pramana = the means of valid knowledge. For Jaina and Bauddha, a pramana is also a type of prama.
• Nyaya: the soul knows through the chain object → sense-organ → mind. Knowledge lights up objects like a lamp. Four pramanas: perception (pratyaksha), inference (anumana), comparison (upamana) and testimony (shabda).
• Pratyaksha is accepted by all darshanas. It is ordinary (laukika: five senses and mind) or extraordinary (alaukika: samanyalakshana, dnyanalakshana and yogaja pratyasatti).
• Anumana = knowledge that follows other knowledge. "There is smoke on the hill, so there is fire." Parts: paksha (hill), hetu (smoke), sadhya (fire). Vyapti = invariable relation "wherever there is smoke, there is fire".
• Svarthanumana is inference for oneself; Pararthanumana is inference for others, in five steps: pratidnya, hetu, udaharana, upanaya, nigamana.
• Upamana: knowledge through similarity, linking a word to the object it names.
• Shabda: the statement of an apta, a knowledgeable and trustworthy person. Very important in the age of social media.
• A sentence is meaningful only with four conditions: akanksha (expectancy), yogyata (fitness), sannidhi (nearness) and tatparya (intention of the speaker).
• Mimamsa adds two pramanas: arthapatti (postulation, removing a conflict between two known facts) and anupalabdhi (knowing absence).
• Greek Sophists were sceptics and relativists; Protagoras said "Man is the measure of all things."
• Plato: knowledge is not mere perception or opinion; it is justified true belief – belief + truth + justification.
• Three theories of truth: correspondence (matches facts – "Gangtok is the capital of Sikkim"), coherence (consistent with other accepted statements), pragmatic (an action based on it succeeds). Each has weaknesses.
• A priori knowledge comes before experience; a posteriori knowledge comes from experience.
• Rationalism (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz): knowledge comes mainly from reason; innate ideas; method of mathematics. Descartes: clear and distinct ideas, "I think, therefore I am".
• Empiricism (Locke, Berkeley, Hume): all knowledge comes from sense-experience. Locke: mind at birth is a tabula rasa; primary and secondary qualities. Berkeley rejects anything not experienced. Hume: relations of ideas (necessary, certain – maths) and matters of fact (probable – science).
• Kant: reason gives the form of knowledge and experience gives the content; both are needed.

Important terms

• Prama / Pramana – valid knowledge / means of valid knowledge.
• Vyapti – invariable concomitance between hetu and sadhya.
• Apta – a reliable, knowledgeable person.
• Justified true belief – Plato's definition of knowledge.
• Tabula rasa – the mind as a blank slate (Locke).
• Innate ideas – ideas present in the mind without experience (Descartes).

Key facts

5 important questions

Q1. Distinguish between dnyana and prama.

Dnyana is any knowledge, true or false. Prama is knowledge that has been examined and found true; it knows the object as it is.

Q2. What is vyapti?

Vyapti is the invariable relation between hetu and sadhya, e.g. "wherever there is smoke, there is fire". Inference depends on it.

Q3. Explain the five steps of pararthanumana.

1. Pratidnya – There is fire on the hill. 2. Hetu – Because there is smoke. 3. Udaharana – Wherever there is smoke, there is fire, as in a kitchen. 4. Upanaya – This hill has smoke. 5. Nigamana – So there is fire on the hill.

Q4. Explain the three theories of truth.

Correspondence: true if it matches facts. Coherence: true if consistent with other accepted propositions, as in maths. Pragmatic: true if action based on it succeeds. Each has a flaw, e.g. pragmatic truth becomes relative to persons.

Q5. Distinguish between rationalism and empiricism.

Rationalism: reason is the main source; innate ideas; a priori, certain knowledge (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz). Empiricism: experience is the only source; mind is a blank slate; empirical knowledge is probable (Locke, Berkeley, Hume). Kant combined both.

Exam tip

Learn the five-step inference and the four conditions of a meaningful sentence by heart; they are asked as short notes.

Quick summary

This chapter is about ethics: how do we decide what we should do, and why? We judge actions by two main criteria – the intention behind them and their consequences. The chapter explains Indian ideas (Ruta, Runa, law of karma, purusharthas, Jaina, Buddhist and Charvaka ethics) and two Western theories: Kant's deontology and the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill. It ends with how evolution and brain science now study moral behaviour.

Key points

• Moral laws guide us, but sometimes exceptions are right, or two laws demand opposite actions. Ethics teaches us how to think while deciding.
• Ruta: the order in nature and also a moral order in human actions and their results. It leads to the law of karma.
• Runa (debt): Deva runa (to deities), Rishi runa (to sages/teachers), Pitru runa (to ancestors). It teaches gratitude; today we can add a debt to nature.
• Law of karma: every voluntary action has fruits (karmaphala) that the doer must enjoy or suffer ("as you sow, so shall you reap"). It extends cause-effect to human life. The two motives of action are raga (attraction) and dvesha (aversion).
• Karma is linked to rebirth. Types: sanchita (stored past actions), prarabdha (fruits being experienced now) and kriyamana/sanchiyamana (actions being done now). Nishkama karma (Gita) – action without desire for fruit – does not bind.
• Every school except Charvaka accepts karma and rebirth; liberation (moksha / nirvana) is the highest goal (parampurushartha).
• Purusharthas: dharma, artha, kama (trivarga); later moksha was added (chaturvarga). Artha has instrumental value; kama is desire; dharma (from "dhru" – to hold) holds everything together and regulates artha and kama. Sadharana dharma is duty for all; vishesha dharma depends on varna and ashrama.
• Jaina ethics: triratnas – right faith, right knowledge, right conduct. Five vows: ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya, aparigraha – anuvratas for lay people, mahavratas for monks and nuns. Samvara stops the inflow (asrava) of karma matter; nirjara removes it. Goal: four-fold perfection.
• Buddhist ethics: four noble truths and the eightfold path (ashtangika marga), panchasheela, and nirvana – the end of suffering and rebirth.
• Charvaka ethics: "I am my body", so bodily pleasure is the goal. Only two purusharthas – artha and kama. This is hedonism.
• Western ethics has two main theories: deontology (intention/duty matters) and teleology/consequentialism (results matter).
• Kant: rejected Hume's view that "reason is the slave of passions", since ethics must be universal. Only a good will is good without condition. Hypothetical imperatives are "if-then"; the categorical imperative is unconditional: act only on a maxim you can will as a universal law; treat humanity never merely as a means but as an end.
• Utilitarianism: an action is right if it gives "the greatest happiness of the greatest number". Hedonism can be egoistic, altruistic or universalistic.
• Bentham: pleasure and pain are our two masters; pleasures differ only in quantity; the hedonistic calculus measures pleasure by intensity, duration, certainty, nearness, productivity, purity and extent. Animals also feel pleasure and pain – a base for animal rights.
• J. S. Mill: pleasures differ in quality too – "better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied."

Important terms

• Ruta – natural and moral order.
• Runa – debt owed to those who gave us life and knowledge.
• Purushartha – a goal of human life.
• Nishkama karma – duty done without desire for its fruit.
• Categorical imperative – an unconditional moral command (Kant).
• Utilitarianism – morality judged by the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

Key facts

5 important questions

Q1. What is Runa? Name its three types.

Runa means debt. We owe our life and its gifts to others. The three are Deva runa, Rishi runa and Pitru runa. The idea builds gratitude.

Q2. Why is the law of karma associated with rebirth?

Some joys and sufferings have no cause in this life. To keep the karma-fruit link, they are explained as fruits of past lives, and fruits not yet enjoyed lead to future births.

Q3. Explain the four purusharthas.

Dharma – duty and moral order that holds society together; artha – wealth, the means for desires; kama – desires and pleasures; moksha – liberation from rebirth, the highest goal. Artha and kama must follow dharma.

Q4. Explain Kant's categorical imperative.

A hypothetical imperative depends on a wish ("if you want marks, study"). A categorical imperative binds everyone. Act only on a rule you can will as universal law (breaking promises fails this test), and treat every person as an end, never merely as a means.

Q5. Compare the hedonism of Bentham and Mill.

Both say right actions give the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Bentham: pleasures differ only in quantity, measured by seven criteria. Mill: pleasures also differ in quality; intellectual pleasures are higher.

Exam tip

Write Jaina vows, the eightfold path and Bentham's criteria as neat lists. For Kant, always give the promise-breaking example.

Quick summary

This chapter introduces aesthetics, now usually called the philosophy of art. It explains the aesthetic perspective on the world, Kant's idea of "disinterested delight", the debate on whether beauty is objective or subjective, what makes something a work of art, kinds of art, Western theories of art (Plato, expressionism, Croce, Tolstoy) and Indian aesthetics (Bharata's rasa theory, alankara, riti, dhvani). It ends with the evolutionary roots of art.

Key points

• The German philosopher Baumgarten first used the word "aesthetics" (from the Greek for sensory experience) for the study of aesthetic experience.
• We relate to the world in three ways: the cognitive perspective (as knowers, the way of science and philosophy), the utilitarian perspective (objects as tools and resources) and the aesthetic perspective (enjoying things in their uniqueness).
• The aesthetic view helps us look beyond a human-centred, "resource" view of nature.
• Kant called aesthetic experience disinterested delight: the joy does not depend on an object's practical, utilitarian or moral value.
• Can beauty be defined? A definition names a quality common to all cases (like a triangle's). Many thinkers say beauty cannot be defined, because ideas of beauty differ and art forms are very diverse.
• Greek and medieval thinkers held beauty to be objective: harmony, balance, proportion, symmetry and rhythm. David Hume said it is subjective – it lies in the mind of the viewer ("Laila is beautiful only in Majnu's eyes"). Later thinkers said it is both.
• A work of art must be man-made, but being man-made is not enough – old tools are not called art.
• Fine arts are made mainly for appreciation, not use (architecture is an exception). Folk arts are as valuable as classical arts; things like mehendi and rangoli are often called crafts.
• Kinds of art: visual arts (seen, e.g. painting), music as temporal art, literature as symbolic art (words are symbols), and drama/dance/film as spatio-temporal arts.
• Plato: art is imitation – the natural world copies the world of forms and art copies nature, so art is a copy of a copy. For ethical reasons he kept art out of the philosopher king's education.
• After the Renaissance, art was seen as the expression of the artist's inner emotions (expressionism). Croce: art is intuition. Tolstoy: art communicates emotions and values and can create a global society; beauty is not its central concept.
• Indian aesthetics: Bharata (Natyashastra) gave the theory of rasa and bhava. Eight rasas: shringara, karuna, hasya, veera, bhayanaka, raudra, bibhatsa, adbhuta; Abhinavagupta added the ninth, shanta. Obstacles to aesthetic experience are rasa vighna.
• Bhamaha and Dandi – alankara (ornaments of literature); Wamana – riti (style), content and form equally important; Anandavardhana – dhvani (suggested meaning); poet Magha used "ramaniya" for beauty.
• Science sees art and the artistic instinct as products of evolution (e.g. most people like a landscape with water).

Important terms

• Aesthetics – study of aesthetic experience, art and beauty.
• Disinterested delight – joy free of practical interest (Kant).
• Fine arts – arts made mainly for appreciation.
• Imitation (mimesis) – Plato's view that art copies nature.
• Rasa – the aesthetic relish the viewer enjoys.
• Dhvani – suggested meaning in poetry.

Key facts

5 important questions

Q1. What does Kant mean by disinterested delight?

Kant says aesthetic joy is not linked to any use, gain or moral value of the object. We enjoy the object for itself.

Q2. Who added the ninth rasa?

Bharata gave eight rasas. Abhinavagupta added the ninth, shanta rasa.

Q3. Is beauty objective or subjective? Explain.

Greek and medieval thinkers saw beauty as objective – harmony, proportion, symmetry and rhythm in the object. Hume said beauty lies in the mind of the viewer, so it differs from person to person. Later thinkers said it is both. This debate also makes beauty hard to define.

Q4. Explain the three perspectives of our relation to the world.

Cognitive: we want to know how things are and what laws govern them. Utilitarian: we treat objects as tools. Aesthetic: we enjoy things in their own unique form, without thinking of use.

Q5. Explain Plato's and Tolstoy's views of art.

Plato: art imitates nature, which already imitates the world of forms, so art is two steps from truth and may mislead. Tolstoy: art is communication; the artist passes on feelings and values that can unite humanity.

Exam tip

Learn the list of nine rasas and the "thinker – view" table; they are asked in fill-in-the-blanks and matching questions.

Quick summary

Science studies the laws of nature, and technology uses those laws to process materials for human needs. This chapter looks at the human-nature relationship through three philosophical views (anthropocentrism, biocentrism, ecocentrism), gives a short history of technology from the stone age to the computer age, explains why every process creates waste (entropy), and raises ethical questions about information technology and biotechnology.

Key points

• Humans believe they have something other animals lack: awareness of awareness. This helped us build technology but also made us feel superior to nature.
• Anthropocentrism – all of nature exists for the sake of human beings.
• Biocentrism – other living beings also have sentience and an equal right to life; we should avoid harming them.
• Ecocentrism – humans are only a part of nature, not separate or superior; any interference with nature must be done with great care.
• Three views of the human-nature relationship:
• Religions and traditions reflect these views; many once forbade uncontrolled exploitation of nature.
• Technology means processing, and every process has losses: by-products we cannot use become waste. Claims of "zero waste" or a perpetual motion machine go against the laws of nature.
• Law of entropy: the energy put into a process is always greater than the useful energy we get out. Even in farming, the energy invested is more than the energy in the yield.
• Objective reality does not change because someone disbelieves it. Lysenko rejected Mendel's genetics and tried to "train" wheat for cold; the result was a disaster.
• History of technology: stone tools, fire and language (itself a technology), farming, ownership of land and animals, division of labour (in Maharashtra, the Bara Balutedari system), the metal ages, the industrial age and the computer age. Ownership also led to the treatment of women as property in some societies.
• Present problems: climate change, global warming, desertification, pollution, and people becoming isolated behind screens (the Charlie Chaplin image in "Modern Times").
• Humans are "carbon life"; computers are "silicon life". Computers beat humans at storing and processing data, which raises new questions about intelligence and jobs.
• Biotechnology applies biological knowledge to change living bodies. Along with information technology it raises issues: the search for immortality, rising gaps between haves and have-nots, and who benefits from the resources spent.
• The Panchatantra story of the learned men who brought a lion back to life warns that knowledge without wisdom is dangerous.
• Philosophy helps us think across subjects and see a coherent picture, so that science and technology are used wisely.

Important terms

• Anthropocentrism – human-centred view of nature.
• Biocentrism – all living beings have equal value and right to life.
• Ecocentrism – humans are one part of the whole of nature.
• Entropy – the law that every process loses usable energy.
• Biotechnology – using biological processes and organisms for practical purposes.
• Awareness of awareness – being conscious of one's own consciousness.

Key facts

5 important questions

Q1. What is anthropocentrism?

It is the view that all of nature exists for human beings and may be used for their needs and pleasure.

Q2. Why is a perpetual motion machine impossible?

According to the law of entropy, every process loses some usable energy, so no machine can keep running on its own energy for ever.

Q3. Distinguish biocentrism and ecocentrism.

Biocentrism says other living beings are sentient and have an equal right to life, so we must not harm them. Ecocentrism sees humans as one part of the whole of nature, living and non-living, and asks us to interfere with nature only with great care.

Q4. "Technology inevitably means processing." Explain.

Technology changes materials for human use. Every such process produces by-products; the unwanted ones become waste. Energy put in is always more than useful energy out, so "zero waste" claims are misleading.

Q5. What ethical issues does biotechnology raise?

It lets us change living bodies and may chase immortality. It can widen the gap between rich and poor, it uses huge resources, and it affects future generations. Society must ask for whom and for what these resources are spent.

Exam tip

Learn the three views with one example each, and remember the Lysenko story as an example of ignoring objective reality.