No Controversies Please: We Are All Gentlemen! (Essays in Honour of Prof. Bhuvan Chandel)

This commemorative volume, No Controversies Please: We are All Gentlemen! Essays in Honour of Professor Bhuvan Chandel serves as a comprehensive Festschrift honoring the intellectual legacy of Professor Chandel. Moving beyond a mere retrospective of her career, the collected essays advance a provocative thesis: that philosophy must transcend the traditional confines of pedagogical instruction to establish itself as a “New Humanist Discipline.” The central theoretical contribution of this volume lies in its rigorous demarcation between institutionalized academic philosophy (which has a tendency of being both feudal and patriarchal) and “philosophy proper.”While the former often dwells in abstract theorization and caught up in the gaze of the male philosopher often appearing as the academic overlord, the contributors argue that “philosophy proper” necessitates a rethinking of this form of academic feudalism and a consequent transition into the praxis of the human condition. By re contextualizing the classical triumvirate of truth, morality, and beauty, the volume positions these concepts as the foundational elements for a scientific and ethical study of human existence. The volume addresses the exigency of a philosophical framework capable of responding to contemporary global crises.It reflects on the ideas of human freedom,communicative rationality and education that cultivates “subtle feelings” such that philosophy can reflect on not only the classical philosophical questions of logic, epistemology and ontology, but on patriarchy and caste, poverty and oppression, as also on Climate Change and the havoc that humanity has unleashed both on itself and on Planet Earth. Murzban Jal is an Indian author and thinker who writes on the humanist and historicist traditions in social and political philosophy. He has authored a number of books. He has worked with Prof.D.P.Chattopadhyaya at the Centre for Studies in Civilizations, New Delhi, as Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla, Senior Fellow, Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi and Professor and Director, Centre for Educational Studies, Indian Institute of Education, Pune. Bhagat Oinam is an Indian thinker who has been exploring Indian indigenous thought as well as European philosophy, especially the philosophy of existentialism. Currently he is Professor at Centre for Philosophy and Concurrent Faculty at Special Centre for the Study of North East India (SCSNEI), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) New Delhi. He served as Director, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study at JNU. His areas of specialization are philosophical anthropology, continental philosophy, ethics and aesthetics. He has edited two books and several scholarly articles in reputed journals and anthologies.