Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS)

Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B)

Autumn Semester, 2022

HS-301: PHILOSOPHY
Time: Monday: 10:35-11:30
Tuesday: 11:35-12:30
Thursday: 08:30-09:25

Instructor: Mrinal Kaul -- <mrinal.kaul@iitb.ac.in>

Teaching Assistants: Amarkant Thakur <20n080002@iitb.ac.in>

Rutwij Nakhwa <rutwij@iitb.ac.in>
Jonathan Fanai <20n080010@iitb.ac.in>
Arundhati Dubey <20n080004@iitb.ac.in>
Sarnali Chatterjee <20n080003@iitb.ac.in>

Office Phone: 022-2576-5349 Extn: 5349

Office hours: by appointment
Location: LA 001

Course Description:

This course is designed to introduce the B.Tech students, who have no previous exposure to
philosophy, to the discipline of philosophy. Through a tour of the history of philosophy, both
Eastern and Western, it aims to help students to develop critical insights into the process of
thinking. It is through philosophical thinking that we develop critical tools of rationality,
argumentation, discussion and debate that leads to healthy intellectual practices. Philosophy
teaches us to rationalize, to problematize and to question. This art of reasoning is learned
and practiced by carefully studying the philosophical works that are available to us today. It
is through these readings that we expect learn how to ‘think through’.

Instruction begins: 27.07.2022 (Wednesday)

Mid-semester exam: 14.09.2022 (Wednesday) – 20.09.2022 (Tuesday)
Last date of instruction: 09.11.2022 (Wednesday)
End-semester examination: 11.11.2022 (Friday) - 21.11.2022 (Monday)

Grading Rubric and Evaluation:

Class Quizzes: 10% (2 quizzes 5% each)

Mid-semester exam: 30%
End-semester examination: 50%
Attendance: 10%

1
Outline of Topics:

1. Introduction: What is Philosophy?

2. Upaniṣads and Śaṅkara
3. Buddhism and its Schools
4. Six Orthodox Schools
5. Indian Skepticism
6. Socrates
7. Plato
8. Aristotle
9. Augustine

Basic Readings (compulsory):

Adamson, Peter and Ganeri, Jonardon (2020). Classical Indian Philosophy: A History of
Philosophy without any gaps, OUP, New Delhi.
Melchert, Norman. (2002) The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy, OUP,
New York.

Additional Readings:
Bartley, Christopher. (2018) An Introduction to Indian Philosophy: Hindu and Buddhist Ideas from
Original Sources. Bloomsbury, India.
Grayling, A.C. (ed.) (1995) Philosophy 1: A Guide Through the Subject, OUP, London
Gupta, Bina. An Introduction to Indian Philosophy: Perspectives on Reality, Knowledge, and
Freedom. New York: Routledge, 2012.
King, Richard. (1999) Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu and Buddhist Thought,
Edinburg University Press, Edinburg.

Additional Recommendations (not compulsory):

Bhushan, N. and D. Raveh (eds), 2011, Contrary Thinking: Selected Essays of Daya Krishna, New
York: Oxford University Press.
Bhushan, N. and J.L. Garfield, 2017, Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance,
New York: Oxford University Press.
Edelglass, William and Jay Garfield. Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2009.
Grayling, A.C. (2020) The History of Philosophy: Three Millennia of Thought from the West and
Beyond, Penguin, India.
Krishna, Daya. (1991) Indian Philosophy - A Counter Perspective, OUP, New Delhi.
Mohanty, J. N. Classical Indian Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Perrett, Roy W., 2016, An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Russell, Bertrand. (1984) A History of Western Philosophy, Unwin Paperbacks, London.