tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24763881861167741842024-03-08T14:12:42.004+05:30Abhinav PhilosopherTo train young minds in rational philosophy - for the Philosophy Olympiad, and moreover for Life. My notes and discussions on various topics from Philosophy, Education, Astronomy, Physics & Programming as means to the above-stated end.Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-37635390911931531502022-11-23T11:32:00.005+05:302022-11-23T11:33:40.240+05:30How to decide What is Good (or Right)? Or can you? <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-ZRy_haOFkIwr9YKIhc8clv2aW0ff5_6tVokC-bv9qPkNBF9ymhrPB5wMLyRpEgit-vGq7jNaD8-0lJgR8o_kjydjWrcDpXl6Aa5IVjF021TKEnOCPZoCAfHRhreiCAj6ytBFW7qtpJO17CKMbF7-1DUM1pzBbfMvz4VXbnbyw6eOiI2DTH7fvZ2d" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="766" data-original-width="1092" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-ZRy_haOFkIwr9YKIhc8clv2aW0ff5_6tVokC-bv9qPkNBF9ymhrPB5wMLyRpEgit-vGq7jNaD8-0lJgR8o_kjydjWrcDpXl6Aa5IVjF021TKEnOCPZoCAfHRhreiCAj6ytBFW7qtpJO17CKMbF7-1DUM1pzBbfMvz4VXbnbyw6eOiI2DTH7fvZ2d=w640-h450" width="640" /></a></div><p style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">I came across this chart I had made about 10 years ago while teaching students for the philosophy olympiad. This is a rather simplistic view of the idea of Good and my understanding has evolved a little after this. This doesn't directly address the question in the title. However, this chart tells the uninitiated, the following:</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></p><ol><li>There is no ONE concept of Good or consequently, Evil. It is a matter of perspective.</li><li>There is therefore no easy way to claim that something is EVIL without hesitation. For instance, consumption of drugs or alcohol can be considered as Good according to Hedonism.</li></ol>So, when a philosophy student wants to determine if X is good, (or write an essay) his program has to be as follows: <br /><ol><li>Determine the root axioms of your philosophy, i.e. the fundamental principle upon which you will build your reasoning</li><li>Gather evidence in support as well as opposition of X being good</li><li>Apply your principle to X and construct an argument just like a mathematical proof</li><li>Finally and above all, keep in mind that another principle or philosophy can prove your conclusion wrong. That, there may be many principles which are equally useful at arriving at the truth and that they may give different answers.</li><li>HENCE, try to:</li><ol><li>Counter all other principles which could be against your conclusion. i.e. try to show why they are not valid</li><li>If the above is not entirely possible, then try to create doubt regarding the other principles or philosophies, i.e. point our flaws in them</li><li>Finally, give a solid reasoning as to why your chosen principle or philosophy is the best applicable to determine if X is good</li><li>Hence give your conclusion</li></ol></ol><p></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">This applies equally so in personal life. If knowing the goodness of something is really important, one must follow these steps as critically as one can to arrive at the conclusion. You may ask, what if we apply the wrong principle or make some mistake in our reasoning. Yes, this is always possible. Even with great philosophers. Hence, they follow a method of dialog between them and other equally competent minds. You could discuss with other intelligent people yourselves. And if such is not possible, then you should rest your mind by realizing that this is the best thing you could do ... reason your way to the truth. Hence, if you are proven wrong you need not repent.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Hope some of you try this.</div><br /> <p></p>Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-1818883471386252462022-11-23T10:54:00.000+05:302022-11-23T10:54:03.600+05:30<p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;"> <span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">For those who may be confused with stating that time doesn't exist: Time as in a physical parameter may not have any actual existence unlike mass or charge. However the concept of time does exist. We perceive it through the change that happens within us and around us. The change is largely unidirectional, meaning that we cannot undo what happens. This is the sense of entropy - the idea of order reducing and disorderliness increasing in everything in this universe. </span></span></p><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;">Entropy has a tangible form. We can observe it and measure it. We grow from a zygote into a full blown adult, who has cells being created and destroyed all the time in randomly different parts of their body. There is no unique pattern in this. </span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;">Mountains crumble even if a tiny bit in many years; stars shine out their light; galaxies move apart on large scales. Even the human mind which desperately tries to fight to secure order in the "world" of that person, cannot but digress and diffuse eventually. </span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;">Time is the perception of entropy and not a physical quantity in its own right. </span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><p style="animation-name: none; text-align: left; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;">But then, should we even measure it? Well ... That's for another time.</span></p></div>Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-72138004985632290452022-03-26T12:31:00.003+05:302022-05-24T14:35:06.279+05:30Study Skills Workshop<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a brief guide for teachers planning Study skills workshops and parents who may want to help their children study better. We need to use the following resources to begin with. So please try to read carefully through them. Also, there are certain tests which are appropriate only for certain ages and which tell us where the child stands. These tests are only an indication and the child’s preferences or attitudes will change somewhat over time. SO they are not to be taken as final. You should test the child in this and use the scores to guide the child.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-1c639409-7fff-1481-6429-706a043f4910"><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please note that teaching kids to learn is a highly specialized field and not the same as teaching them a subject. However, with effort every teacher can attempt to better the child’s life.</span></p><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Methodology</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Will add soon</span></p><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resources</span></h2><ol style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is Effective Learning? (My Presentation)</span></p></li><ol style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://abhinav.ac.in/DoL/StudySkills/LearningForLife-TheCase.mht" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The case for learning to learn for Life</span></a></p></li><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://abhinav.ac.in/DoL/StudySkills/LearningForLife-EffectiveLearning.mht" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is Effective Learning</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">?</span></p></li><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://abhinav.ac.in/DoL/StudySkills/LearningForLife-KnowingYourself.mht" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Knowing Yourself</span></a></p></li></ol><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://vark-learn.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is VARK </span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and why should teachers, parents and students know this?</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What are </span><a href="https://vark-learn.com/strategies/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">VARK study strategies</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for students?</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How to find your VARK Mode of Learning? </span></p></li><ol style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/the-vark-questionnaire-for-younger-people/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For Std 5 to 8</span></a></p></li><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For Std 9 to 12</span></a></p></li></ol><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is </span><a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/multiple-intelligences.html#:~:text=Howard%20Gardner's%20theory%20of%20multiple,only%20focuses%20on%20cognitive%20abilities" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Multiple Intelligence</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">? How does it affect one’s study and career goals?</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How to find your Multiple Intelligence? - </span></p></li><ol style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://vijaybhoomi.edu.in/mi-test.php" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For Std 5 to 8</span></a></p></li><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.literacynet.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For Std 9 to 12</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p></li></ol><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is the </span><a href="https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Myers-Briggs Temperament</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Indicator? How can it help determine a career?</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How to know your Personality type from Myers-Briggs Test? (</span><a href="https://www.16personalities.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For Std 9 to 12</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How to plan a career? (</span><a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/06/how-to-choose-career.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My Article for Std 9 above</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QW3jGgwBpxTw0WSccdNGC3MpTAmrM0ky/view?usp=sharing" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Learning Strategies</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Steps in learning; How to preview; How to read; How to make notes; How to ask questions; etc. (My Notes)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://human.libretexts.org/Courses/City_College_of_San_Francisco/Writing_Reading_and_College_Success%3A_A_First-Year_Composition_Course_for_All_Learners_(Kashyap_and_Dyquisto)/03%3A_The_Reading-Writing_Connection/3.03%3A_Reading_Strategies_-_Previewing" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Previewing Medthods</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="https://learning.ucmerced.edu/sites/learning.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/previewing.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Strategy</span></a></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reading Strategies - </span><a href="https://owl.excelsior.edu/orc/introduction/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Online Reading Lab</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Excellent tutorials and samples), </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Note Making - </span><a href="https://thinkinsights.net/consulting/cornell-method-great-notes/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Cornell Method</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T-pDS75xrUf7Xu43CgqMh2h2ZOaVN9Us/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114873987445484584167&rtpof=true&sd=true" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cornell Method Template</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Also use - Outlining, Mind-Maps, Annotations (</span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QW3jGgwBpxTw0WSccdNGC3MpTAmrM0ky/view?usp=sharing" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Look here</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></p></li></ol><br></span>Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-54495921008935738822021-01-07T07:41:00.002+05:302022-01-17T09:43:13.778+05:30 Why am I shutting down the Indian Philosophy Olympiad?<h1 style="text-align: left;"> Why am I shutting down the Indian Philosophy Olympiad?</h1><h2 style="text-align: left;">The Journey</h2><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">I started this endeavour in November 2007 to give a shape to my creativity and to do something for my country, a path I knew I would have to walk solo. Since then it has been hundreds of hours of planning, coding and administration and over ten thousand hours of teaching students who were utter novices in Philosophy and about 15 lakh rupees from my pocket to sustain this endeavour. </div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The result was that until 2 years ago, India ranked among the top 5 nations out of 45, consistently for over 5 years. Both students who participated each year got medals, and always at least one silver. The gold somehow always eluded me. Maybe I now know why.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The aside was a host of wonderful experiences with people from dozens of nations and most of who, I thought, were like family.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Did I achieve my goals? Creativity was on an all time high with setting up a unique way (from what I gathered from other teams) to select and train young minds into rational thought. However, I failed to get the media to recognize what the country was getting out of this, in terms of medals. I had hoped to go on until the end of my time and establish the Indian Philosophy Olympiad as my legacy to the nation. </p></blockquote><h2 style="text-align: left;">The Termination </h2><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">In my enthusiasm, and what a loving friend puts as my child-like qualities, I failed to notice the simmering discontent among some of the senior members of the International Philosophy Olympiad. I failed to see them distancing themselves from me. And I totally failed to counter what can only be called as internal politics. I am actually pretty bad at that.</div></blockquote></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><p>Suddenly in 2018 some of these members tried to bring about a rule that non-philosophy graduates cannot be a part of the IPO. I am an astronomy graduate. I was prevented from jurying that year, which after a lot of arguing, I could manage to do. </p></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The next year, May 2019, just a few days before the IPO, and after all my travel plans and my team had been prepared, I was told that I cannot be a part of the IPO delegation, because I had misbehaved in front of my students. I haven't been given any details yet. </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">I tried to argue my case over emails, in vain. Every sincere point met with a flurry of irrational accusations and mockery. I asked each of my students, especially the females, if I had ever given them reason to feel offended and none of them had a clue about these accusations,</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Almost the entire committee of delegates which rules the IPO (There is no higher body) was somehow convinced that I was "evil". Even though some sane voices among them tried to convince them otherwise, I was declared a persona non grata at the IPO. </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">What followed was only anguish and denial on my part that this was clearly an attempt to remove me from the picture, solely because of the success of the Indian delegation over the years. What followed was bouts of bad health and cynicism towards everything, especially TEACHING. And teaching is what I live for.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Now, I am out of resources and out of wits and the only way I can keep myself alive and working is to forget the IPO and everything that ever happened these past 13 years.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">I sincerely apologise to the hundreds of hopefuls who apply every month for the Indian selection process. I hope you can use your creativity elsewhere. And I hope that others learn from my mistakes and never try to go solo in any public endeavor, however righteous the cause.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Finally, I sincerely apologise to my friends at the IPO who urged me to persevere.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><p> </p></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div></blockquote></div>Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-77536547502483745232016-05-22T20:20:00.001+05:302016-09-19T13:26:36.081+05:30Ninth award in nine years ... fifth silver in a row<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/DoxF8gQ7xVkBvEbgX0NTlOvjN4VIjSOjOcSXzCcB3cstUE88ESFozc9FZPvipSRumDDXiJva1kqbksolrDZU7FujIRcOK4eJUJYWY_UgftWf-RGZauoyjqN_PIU5EPRcu-FIXuQs" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6oWgw0DJfD_m4fpcqhhIADwxApjBg400GSKCnpQ4FhycnJstN49_NJJzmXs_5tVurKmYtFM266U6sITISsBkPokPtpSOMBRDpC3foeIBPnlpfMf4N8ehr37MkuRSnHIvW-vRzVuz" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a><br />
<a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/DoxF8gQ7xVkBvEbgX0NTlOvjN4VIjSOjOcSXzCcB3cstUE88ESFozc9FZPvipSRumDDXiJva1kqbksolrDZU7FujIRcOK4eJUJYWY_UgftWf-RGZauoyjqN_PIU5EPRcu-FIXuQs" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/DoxF8gQ7xVkBvEbgX0NTlOvjN4VIjSOjOcSXzCcB3cstUE88ESFozc9FZPvipSRumDDXiJva1kqbksolrDZU7FujIRcOK4eJUJYWY_UgftWf-RGZauoyjqN_PIU5EPRcu-FIXuQs" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6oWgw0DJfD_m4fpcqhhIADwxApjBg400GSKCnpQ4FhycnJstN49_NJJzmXs_5tVurKmYtFM266U6sITISsBkPokPtpSOMBRDpC3foeIBPnlpfMf4N8ehr37MkuRSnHIvW-vRzVuz" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="IPO2016-356" border="0" height="260" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6oWgw0DJfD_m4fpcqhhIADwxApjBg400GSKCnpQ4FhycnJstN49_NJJzmXs_5tVurKmYtFM266U6sITISsBkPokPtpSOMBRDpC3foeIBPnlpfMf4N8ehr37MkuRSnHIvW-vRzVuz" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38;">India participated at the 24th International Philosophy Olympiad, held from 12th to 15th May at Ghent, Belgium. A total of 90 students from 44 countries participated of which India secured an overall third place. Drishtti Rawat (17 uo, Noida) won a Silver medal while Tathagat Bhatia (17 yo, Lucknow) won a Honorable Mention. (<a href="http://www.ipo2016.be/results">www.ipo2016.be/results</a>) This is India's 6th medal (5 Silvers, 1 Bronze) and 3rd HM till date. This is especially significant since our students do not learn philosophy at school level and are only trained in the few months preceding the IPO. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38;">The Indian P</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38;">hilosophy Olympiad, which is the official selection process of the Indian team, is held every December (since 2007) through online tests conducted via Facebook, Twitter, and the competition’s official website (philo.abhinav.ac.in). This year about 250 students participated in Stage I, out of which about 40 students were selected for the next stage. Stage II consisted of a series of tutorials and tasks which lasted for a week. Finally, the top two students were selected to represent India. A training camp was held at Abhinav Vidyalay, Dom</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38;">bivli in the month of April to prepare the team for the competition through extensive workshops and lectures. Like each year, Pooja Bilimogga(member of the international jury) assisted with the training and selection-and was joined by the ex-olympians. The Indian Philosophy Olympiad does not receive any funding and the costs are borne by the team members individually.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">“It was a brilliant experience, and certainly one to last a lifetime. Students from all over the world not only provided me an opportunity to look at Philosophy from the eyes of different cultures, but also to understand the cultures themselves. India at the IPO has always proved its excellence, and we are very glad to be able to continue this legacy. I would like to thank our teacher Kedar Sir who has put many efforts through the workshops, lectures and late night conference, along with Miss Pooja, my family and friends who supported me throughout. I hope I have made my family and friends, Kedar Sir, and most importantly- the nation, proud.” said Drishtti.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">“The entire IPO experience is life-altering and mind opening; meeting people from diverse cultures and making new friends, discovering the things we share and respecting our differences, and enjoying the beautiful city of Ghent are definitely the highlights of my trip to Belgium. I This has been, truly, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me and I am very thankful to all my teachers, especially Kedar Sir and Pooja, my family and my friends for their constant support” said Tathagat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Kedar Soni: “Year after year the IPO is a meeting of minds and a celebration of international camaraderie. This year’s theme - War & Peace - was on the backdrop of the centenary remembrance of the First World War. On this background and the background of the Brussels attacks, the stage was set for an intense discussion around the state of world affairs and concerns of refugees and immigration. It was inspiring to see the friendship between America and Japan and Serbia and Croatia and many such nations who were bitter enemies at some time. The IPO is always a homecoming for me with warm hugs and great laughs with one and all of the teachers and organizers. It is also a great place to mingle with bright young minds from all over the world - young and old - and to be able to influence the thought of the Gen X.”</span></div>
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Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-27633754668629193862015-12-28T11:54:00.000+05:302016-10-19T18:56:56.415+05:30InPO 2015 Stage II - Different Strokes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Different Strokes</h2>
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The Stage I of the Indian Philosophy Olympiad 2015 was conducted between 19th and 22nd Dec with students attempting an online test with SCQ, MCQ and some grid-response questions. The form was available online to all and there was no time constraint or other checks. Students were expected to research on the internet to answer the questions. Out of the 220+ people who enrolled we got about 170+ responses with many students in the top 20 percentile. These <a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/InPOResults.htm" target="_blank">31 students</a> were chosen to the next level.</div>
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At the <a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/InPOStage2.htm" target="_blank">Indian Philosophy Olympiad Stage II</a> which ran through 25th - 27th Dec 2015, we tried a new way of testing students. The usual manner was to conduct an essay round like the <a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/IPO.htm" target="_blank">IPO</a> or the <a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/PhiloDay.htm" target="_blank">Baltic Sea Essay Event</a>. What we had seen over the past many years of asking students to write philosophical essays, especially when they were uninitiated into philosophy, was that even the best of them wrote an ineffective argument. Arguing from different points of view and comprehending the author's argument are key to writing a good essay. </div>
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Hence, we chose to present the students with various tasks, each one taking them through a certain steps of learning (like a tutorial) and then posing them questions to complete their learning. These tasks built up to the point where students should be able to elaborate their thoughts into an essay. So rather than writing essays, we got them to first grasp the issues involved in the arguments and then the problems with the arguments presented. Finally they reached the point where they had to critically examine and comprehend the author's argument.</div>
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I write this to enthuse those who attempted the <a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/InPOStages.htm" target="_blank">first stage</a> but fell short of crossing over to the next one. To these students I say - Well done and a good show - and to them I owe a little training, so they make it better the coming year. And, even if they may not participate in the Olympiad, they would really benefit from some critical thinking. Hence and also for the sake of record, I present the outline of the tasks for Stage II here with links to the tutorials.<br />
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Task 1 - Classifying Issues</h3>
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One of the first things we need to learn before proceeding with discussing philosophical quotes is to sort out the context of the quote. In that, we need to realize what branch does the issue discussed in a quote belongs to and hence if and does it have a bounded context. Also, the author may be arguing from a certain 'ism' (point of view) and hence again it may narrow down the scope of the author's argument. This thinking will later benefit you in being able to counter-argue.</div>
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Thus we have described in the posts below as to what things you need to be aware of and learn to whatever extent possible in order to categorize thoughts in philosophy. The discussions in the posts are examples of thinking done by previous teams and as such you may ignore particulars like how the training camp will proceed etc. and focus on the concepts and tips. The task was to go through each of the statements given in the questions and try to classify as to which area / branch of philosophy they belong to as specifically as possible. Through this round we observed sense of language, general awareness of philosophy and the world in general and the capacity to differentiate between various ideas. </div>
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1. <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/01/about-preparing-for-olympiad.html">http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/01/about-preparing-for-olympiad.html</a></div>
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2. <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/01/developing-little-intuition-about.html">http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/01/developing-little-intuition-about.html</a></div>
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3. <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/01/solutions-to-intuiting-about-philosophy.html">http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/01/solutions-to-intuiting-about-philosophy.html</a></div>
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4. <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/01/solutions-to-intuiting-about-philosophy_31.html">http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/01/solutions-to-intuiting-about-philosophy_31.html</a><br />
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Task 2 - Grasping Reason</h3>
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Now, before one can analyse the opponents argument comprehensively and hence construct one's own point of view, one must be able to spot the reason or the absence of it in his opponent's words. Thus arguments can be:</div>
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1. Valid: Conclusions follow unambiguously from the premises</div>
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2. Sound: It's valid and it's premises are true</div>
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3. Persuasive: It makes complete sense to you. i.e. there is no other way this issue can be looked at</div>
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Read the following posts and the connected links (especially Jim Pryor's page) before moving further:</div>
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1. <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/02/structuring-our-intuitions.html">http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/02/structuring-our-intuitions.html</a></div>
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2. <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/04/solutions-to-structuring-our-intuitions.html">http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/04/solutions-to-structuring-our-intuitions.html</a></div>
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3. <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/12/continuing-from-previous.html">http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/12/continuing-from-previous.html</a></div>
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Now read the little chit chat between our dear Pooja and Abhishek and try to put things into perspective for yourself. Then try to spot in each chunk / part of the argument whether the argument put forward by either speakers is Valid, Sound and Persuasive. If it is not one of these for some reason, specify so and explain your reasons. Each question allows space to write about one chunk of the argument, do not mix them together. You may give the context or reference of another chunk while discussing the problem with a particular one, but your examination should be restricted to the given chunk.</div>
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Abhishek and Pooja are reading an article about the Syrian refugee crisis. They have the following discussion while sipping on tea comfortably in their homes in India.</div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>Abhishek</b>: <span style="color: blue;">Hey Pooja, do you know that countless Syrians are being displaced by the ongoing civil war? They have lost their homes, families and property. Even so, European countries are reluctant to accept the fleeing refugees into their countries. Isn’t that abhorable?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><b>Pooja:</b> <span style="color: #cc0000;">That’s not true. Many European countries are opening their doors to the refugees, even though they have no obligation to do so. They are doing their bit.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>Abhishek:</b> <span style="color: blue;">But why don’t they all think from a humanitarian point of view? These rich countries have more than enough money to take care of these refugees. So don’t you think that it is their duty to do so?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><b>Pooja:</b> <span style="color: #cc0000;">Hmm… yes, you are right. Of course it is.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>Abhishek:</b> <span style="color: blue;">The European countries (especially the NATO members) have this duty because they are largely responsible for the political instability in the Middle East. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><b>Pooja:</b> <span style="color: #cc0000;">However what do you think will happen if these European countries begin to take in refugees indiscriminately? Most of the refugees are Muslims. Do you think they will be able to assimilate with the predominantly Christian societies in these countries? There might be a clash of cultural values, leading to unrest, followed by riots and perhaps even civil war. Do really think that they should take such a risk? </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>Abhishek:</b> <span style="color: blue;">Don’t be so harsh on them. I have family friends who live in Germany. They have temporarily opened up their home to a pregnant refugee, who they say is the sweetest woman in the world. I think it’s impossible that these refugees could ever be so ungrateful to the people who are doing so much for them.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><b>Pooja:</b> <span style="color: #cc0000;">Well I don’t know... All I can say is that some countries like Germany could accept refugees. Not out of the goodness of their heart, but rather because they have a valid reason to do so : countering their own rapidly aging and shrinking demographic.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>Abhishek:</b> <span style="color: blue;">What!? So are you saying that European countries should accept refugees only for their own selfish and pragmatic reasons?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><b>Pooja:</b> <span style="color: #cc0000;">So you think it is wrong for countries to think about their own good, but it is their moral duty to help other people? How hypocritical!</span></span></blockquote>
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Then they both go to have a chilled ice-cream, at the nearest Baskin & Robbins.<br />
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Task 3 - Interpreting Quotes</h3>
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So far you have tried to understand what an argument talks about and if it has flaws. Now we turn to arguments made by professional philosophers which are usually quite valid and sound (there are exceptions). However, they may not be persuasive due to some or the other fallacy or limitation of perspectives. This is where philosophical research lies. And this is where the IPO expects the student to be able to form opinions, which are after a due consideration of the argument made by the philosopher in question.</div>
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So we turn to interpreting quotes of various authors. The first thing here is that you are not expected to know exactly what the author meant and in what context did he say that. You are not even expected to have read a lot of philosophical texts of the 'ism' of the author or for that matter any texts at all. What is expected however is that you are able to coherently interpret the argument presented in the quote and hence argue in support or opposition. For this task you are required to only interpret the author's argument. There should be no attempt to express your point of view or present a counter argument. </div>
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So how do you proceed? Read up the links below which are takes on different quotes. The first parts of these discussions are what we think is the argument of the author - i.e. what premises must he have had in mind (or rather in the full text of his work from which this is taken) and how must he have connected them towards the conclusion. The intention is to comprehend the author's reasoning with justice to his point of view and not to deliberately introduce fallacies in his (perceived) argument so that we can later hammer it down.</div>
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The manner in which you write this down can be (preferably) as points (premises, connecting statements / hidden premises and conclusion) as shown in most of the examples. Or, you could write a para or two to explain the author's context. You will have to read between the lines and try to explore what each clause /phrase in the quote means and how it connects to the other. You will have to use your knowledge and understanding of the world and how it works to fill in the missing pieces of logic, keeping in mind that you cannot put words in the author's mouth. </div>
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1. <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2015/05/criem-and-collective.html">http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2015/05/criem-and-collective.html</a></div>
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2. <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2015/04/analysing-agnosticism.html">http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2015/04/analysing-agnosticism.html</a> (Only read up to Piekoff's argument as the further part is not relevant to today's task)</div>
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3. <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2012/05/hobbes-on-need-of-government.html">http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2012/05/hobbes-on-need-of-government.html</a> (Focus only on my take of Hobbes' argument)</div>
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4. <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2012/05/assignment-on-love-moral-law.html#gpluscomments">http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2012/05/assignment-on-love-moral-law.html#gpluscomments</a> (This gives another style in which you could present an argument)</div>
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<i>All these tasks were put up on Google forms and space for answers was provided.</i></div>
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Though we are still processing the answers, a quick glimpse indicates that many students did exceedingly well compared to previous years. We have many really detailed arguments in the answers, which could indicate that the method worked. i.e. Students seemed to have learnt philosophizing while giving their first test in philosophy.</div>
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Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-64590653285599210382015-11-30T22:42:00.001+05:302015-12-01T09:35:15.143+05:30Announcing InPO 2016 (Marathi News Brief)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
नमस्कार !<br />
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मी, केदार सोनी, एक शाळा संचालक असून, गेले ८ वर्षांपासून एक उपक्रम राबवत आहे आणि ही माहिती ह्या उपक्रमाला विविध माध्यमातून भारतीय तरुण शाळकरी मुलांपर्यंत पोहोचाव्ण्याकरिता आहे. इंडिअन फिलोसोफी ओल्य्म्पीयाड (InPO) हि चळवळ ९वि ते १२वि च्या मुलांना आंतरराष्ट्रीय तत्वज्ञान स्पर्धेत (IPO) उतरवण्याची पहिली पायरी आहे. हि आंतरराष्ट्रीय स्पर्धा गेले २३ वर्षे चालत असून, त्यात ४० पेक्षा जास्त देश सहभाग घेतात व त्याला UNESCO ची स्पॉन्सर्शिप देखील आहे. ह्या स्पर्धेचे लक्ष्य विद्यार्थ्यांमध्ये तत्त्वज्ञानाचा प्रसार करणे व तरुण पिढीला आजच्या जगातील किचकट आणि गंभीर प्रश्णांचा विचार, आणि जमल्यास उपाय, करण्याची मानसिकता देणे असा आहे.<br />
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ह्याकरिता तत्वज्ञानाची सखोल माहिती असणे तितकेसे गरजेचे नाही पण तर्कशुद्ध विचार क्षमता आणि सारासार विचार करण्याची सवय आवश्यक आहे. ह्या उद्धीष्टांनी भारतामध्ये ही चळवळ रुजव्ण्याकरिता गेले ८ वर्ष माझा प्रयास चालू आहे. सुरुवात माझ्या शाळेच्या २ विद्यार्थिनींनी झाली व हळू हळू दर वर्षी देशातील जवळ जवळ २०० विद्यार्थ्यांचा सहभाग होऊ लागला. InPO मधील पहिल्या फेरीत मुलांची तर्क व भाषा प्रभुत्व य्हाची चाचणी होते. ही फेरी online असून हे प्रश्न ३-४ दिवस इंटरनेट वर जाहीर केले जातात. य्हाचे कारण असे कि मुलांना त्यांच्या अभ्यास व क्लास्सेसच्या चक्रातून वेळ काढून हे करता यावे. इथे उत्तरे इंटरनेट वरून किंवा कोणाला विचारून शोधता येत नाहीत, कारण प्रश्ण नुसत्या माहितीवर आधारित नसून गंभीर विचार करून स्वतःचे मत मांडावे लागेल असे अस्तत.<br />
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पहिल्या फेरीतून साधारण १०% मुलांना दुसर्या फेरीत नेले जाते येथे त्यांना IPO प्रमाणे ४ वेगवेगळ्या विचारवंतांची वक्तव्ये दिली जातात. त्यांना त्यापैकी एकावर आपला विचार लेख-स्वरुपात मांडायचा असतो. हे लेख शाळेच्या सामान्य लेखनापेक्षा वेगळे असे कि त्यात त्या विचारवंताच्या बाजूने किंवा त्याच्या विरुद्ध तर्क व पुरावा मांडायचा असतो. २०१६ च्या InPO मध्ये मी आणि माझी साथ देणारे माजी विद्यार्थी एक नवीन प्रयोग करू पाहतोय. दुसर्या फेरीत नुस्त लेख लिहिण्या ऐवजी, निवडलेल्या मुलांशी ब्लॉगच्या माध्यमातून काही दिवस चर्चा केली जाईल व प्रत्येकाला एखाद्या मुद्यावर आपला वाद इतरांसोबत मांडावा लागेल. अश्या चर्चेतून सगळ्यात समर्थ युक्तिवाद मांडणाऱ्या २ मुलांना भारताच्या वतीने IPO मध्ये शामिल होण्यास निमंत्रण दिले जाईल.<br />
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आंतरराष्ट्रीय स्पर्धा दर वर्षी वेगवेगळ्या देशात होत अस्ते. २०१४ साली Lithuania तर २०१५ साली Estonia येथे हि स्पर्धा झाली. येत्या वर्षी हि बेल्जियम च्या घेण्ट ह्या शहरात होणार आहे (http://www.ipo2016.be). हि स्पर्धा दर वर्षी May महिन्यात ४ दिवस चालत असून, २ शिस्क्षक व २ विद्यार्थी य्हांचा सर्व खर्च यजमान देश करीत असतो. भारतातील ह्या चळवळीला कोणाचे आर्थिक सहाय्य नसल्याने प्रवासखर्च प्रत्येकाला स्वतः करावा लागतो. भारतीय संघाची तयारी करून घेण्यास किंवा InPO च्या कोणत्याही फेरीस बसण्यास फी आकारली जात नाही. हे काम मी आणि माझी माजी विद्यार्थिनी पूजा बिलीमोग्गा स्वेच्छेने करितो. पूजा २००९ साली फिनलंड मध्ये स्पर्धक म्हणून तर २०१४ ला शिक्षिका म्हणून सहभागी झाली होती.<br />
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IPO मध्ये भारताला आजपर्यंत ४ सिल्व्हर, १ ब्राँझ व ३ हॉनेरेब्ल मेन्शन मिळाले आहेत. २०१६ च्या संघाची निवड करण्याची पहिली फेरी १९ डिसेंबर २०१५ ला सुरु होईल व त्याचा पेपर आमच्या संकेत स्थळावर असून, २१ डिसेंबर पर्यंत त्याची उत्तर्ण्याची मुदत राहील. ह्या काळात भारतातील ९वि ते १२वि ह्या वर्गातील कोणत्याही बोर्डातील व कोणत्याही शाखेतील विद्यार्थी प्रविष्ट होऊ शकतो. ह्याची संपूर्ण माहिती आमच्या ह्या संकेतस्थळावर उपलब्ध आहे - <a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/InPO.htm">http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/InPO.htm</a>. नोंदणीकरिता ह्या लीन्क्वरचा फोर्म भरावा - <a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/Enrollments.htm">http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/Enrollments.htm</a>.<br />
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For article about last year's Olympiad please <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2015/05/another-silver-for-india-another-ipo-to.html" target="_blank">read our post</a> </div>
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For past training <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/search/label/Assignment" target="_blank">assignments see our posts</a>.</div>
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Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-84950162178351486012015-05-29T09:44:00.000+05:302015-05-29T09:44:06.067+05:30Another Silver for India ... Another IPO to be treasured <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #4c1130;">Silver, yet again, at the 23rd Int'l Philosophy Olympiad</span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyTlymGE1NqMQ6YFyFO1mthxIuwZE5fSGnpAQo1xU7HFDjiUez1P7HhEraP8wxYEuJP3SpOjv9n2haOikrki6dgDWQK5YP3wPaBoOqNRtobhJJf36kMznm-GrL_w089DPN6pCFlBYVtts/s1600/11164598_1119206381429439_3418625801628531246_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyTlymGE1NqMQ6YFyFO1mthxIuwZE5fSGnpAQo1xU7HFDjiUez1P7HhEraP8wxYEuJP3SpOjv9n2haOikrki6dgDWQK5YP3wPaBoOqNRtobhJJf36kMznm-GrL_w089DPN6pCFlBYVtts/s1600/11164598_1119206381429439_3418625801628531246_n.jpg" /></a>I am very happy to announce that India has won yet another silver medal at the 23rd <a href="http://philosophy-olympiad.org/" target="_blank">International Philosophy Olympiad</a> held at Tartu, Estonia (Results of <a href="http://ipo2015.ee/results.php" target="_blank">IPO - Estonia</a>). This was also Abhishek Dedhe's second silver in two years of participation. This year about 40 countries participated in the Olympiad which included Japan, Korea, Bangladesh and India from the Asian continent. There were countries from all over Europe and the Americas as well. About 90 high school students battled to demonstrate their power of intellect and argumentation and to present a coherent understanding of philosophy. Please read further to know what we experienced between the 14th to the 18th of May, 2015, in Tartu.<br />
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The competition</h3>
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Like every year the students were given topics from different areas of philosophy. The topics are quotes / questions posed by philosophers from different parts of the world. Students are expected to choose one out of four topics to write an essay upon in about 4 hrs. The essay should give a coherent interpretation of issue that the author is presenting, without having to know anything about the author otherwise. The essay should then give a convincing argument as to why the student agrees with or disagrees with the author. More stress is put on the students maturity in presenting logical arguments and his/her understanding of the different philosophical aspects covered by the quote.<br />
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The team</h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidttbtwV6WWduvlWoHRepztfoumbWfGBZApGFfnyYUWUABYUieJvE8j1r6ayuup79pY2BsDquvisqNYVBbdNeEZAMcMIS6UCbKRMvbXkTMC7pmtgWOzmGISet7NKqpkinRShGFFg0k4_w/s1600/IMG_20150514_194712048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidttbtwV6WWduvlWoHRepztfoumbWfGBZApGFfnyYUWUABYUieJvE8j1r6ayuup79pY2BsDquvisqNYVBbdNeEZAMcMIS6UCbKRMvbXkTMC7pmtgWOzmGISet7NKqpkinRShGFFg0k4_w/s320/IMG_20150514_194712048.jpg" width="320" /></a>Nihar Kulkarni (Ahmednagar) and Abhishek Dedhe (Pune) were selected from two rigorous rounds at the <a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/InPO.htm" target="_blank">Indian Philosophy Olympiad</a>. Abhishek had previously been to the IPO in Lithuania (2014) and won a silver medal. Nihar and Abhishek were then trained online (through hangouts and blog) and in the month of April, brought together for a camp at <a href="http://abhinav.ac.in/" target="_blank">Abhinav Vidyalay, Dombivli</a> for a period of about 2 weeks. The training was exhaustive discussions in Ethics, Epistemology, Aesthetics and Praxeology with some time also spent doing Metaphysics. It used to be a daily 14 hour grind in analyzing and discussing quotes and different philosophical positions. (isms) It was indeed a steep learning curve for these two and the other students who are preparing for the next Olympiad. Even the teachers - me and Pooja Bilimogga - felt totally exhausted at the end of the day.<br />
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The IPO Experience</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0f_7lRCz8vs7ycR4Omv_I72sKu8vs6moGgKErMxklnJ4lcPKJ5acDBYMZ2lV9TjbseiKbRU7tZKHhESAAa9F5RpzyFkYLKV85GuCcORmgqWvVPMV_OSpd_IAD3-xYxmK-JuvZT3JSg9A/s1600/11295643_1119100508106693_2692046844467489033_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0f_7lRCz8vs7ycR4Omv_I72sKu8vs6moGgKErMxklnJ4lcPKJ5acDBYMZ2lV9TjbseiKbRU7tZKHhESAAa9F5RpzyFkYLKV85GuCcORmgqWvVPMV_OSpd_IAD3-xYxmK-JuvZT3JSg9A/s320/11295643_1119100508106693_2692046844467489033_n.jpg" width="320" /></a>We journeyed from Riga (a port in Latvia) to Tartu (Estonia) on the 13th of May, 2015. While in Riga we spent some time at the Natural History Museum which was an immensely fulfilling experience as both Nihar and Abhishek are avid nature enthusiasts. From hundreds of species of butterflies and other insects to all sorts of birds and animals to fossils of extinct species ... we saw it all. </div>
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Once at Tartu the pressure of the competition started showing. The weather was beautiful and the people very helpful and jovial. The other teams had started arriving and our students were soon making friends with the Bangladeshi's and the Estonian's and the Germans and so on... And yet the aura of the exam remained. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh3i4NjaerTweQeJwqaskwOsFTLL7MIGS0S6B3GkWuKQxN9eUnybbS_CgQ3-B1WqfACpoWn1nlzsBw-vvefpaoo8GW5Moz6andu5Xa7Kj2kOahaNs_4Aj6oz19-TUyZEQ0vyENprE1UM0/s1600/11267888_476889932461444_3751264905165754155_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh3i4NjaerTweQeJwqaskwOsFTLL7MIGS0S6B3GkWuKQxN9eUnybbS_CgQ3-B1WqfACpoWn1nlzsBw-vvefpaoo8GW5Moz6andu5Xa7Kj2kOahaNs_4Aj6oz19-TUyZEQ0vyENprE1UM0/s200/11267888_476889932461444_3751264905165754155_o.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Liisi Voll - Estonian student <br />
- wearing Nihar's Bindi</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The 23rd IPO was formally inaugurated with much pomp and splendor at the University of Tartu with dance and music and very inspiring talks by some senior philosophers and the minister of education among others. This was followed by partying late into the night. Time is difficult to guess since its daylight until almost 10 pm. Needless to say most students went back to their rooms to prepare for the next day. The next day the competition went smoothly although the topics were rather tricky this time, There were topics from each major area - Aesthetics, Ethics, Epistemology and Metaphysics. The students were finally done with their job and free to go on tours around the city and participate in various discussions and seminars based on the theme - Disagreements. (<a href="http://ipo2015.ee/topic.php" target="_blank">read more here</a>)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_8zZsyQMsh6ns5CvrNxpjTjYqmI4HoVRHSE71L6WC-ng0WOajjG-4wBOI1wcPvrOIK4qs90A640Cft7CjEz1kYWDGzfM6DmSqoZNWxOAV8i9sSQgqy10kC3w_eBQoHz7-yGtneK3EYlQ/s1600/IMG_0403-ANIMATION.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_8zZsyQMsh6ns5CvrNxpjTjYqmI4HoVRHSE71L6WC-ng0WOajjG-4wBOI1wcPvrOIK4qs90A640Cft7CjEz1kYWDGzfM6DmSqoZNWxOAV8i9sSQgqy10kC3w_eBQoHz7-yGtneK3EYlQ/s320/IMG_0403-ANIMATION.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
After the competition was done, the true colors of the IPO came to the fore. The IPO is more of a meeting of minds then a mere competition. Students and teachers of different nationalities gelled together like they were the best of friends, although most of them had met for the first and probably for the last time. There was good-hearted banter on one hand and intense discussions on the other. There was laughter and games and exchange of thoughts and gifts and addresses. Above all there was a strong vibrancy in the air. Each year it is interesting to watch this from the corner (if you can afford to stay in one for long) as if it is one large creature engaged an exquisite and enthralling dance.<br />
<h3>
The Jury Work</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</div>
While the students were enjoying the activities, we the teachers were busy evaluating their essays. The international jury comprises of the teachers from different participating countries who are competent to read philosophical essays in at least one of the official languages - English, French, German or Spanish. There were about 75 of us. The jury split into groups of four with each group comprising of two senior (read experienced) members and two members who are new to the IPO experience. Each group gets 5-7 essays to read. Each member of the group then reads a common essay and then discusses what he or she thinks about it. This way, if one of us has missed some relevant point, it can be brought into notice by the other three. After a good discussion each member is free to retain his / her point of view and then mark the essay. No teacher is given to read the essays of their own students.<br />
One thing I must make clear here, is that in Philosophy there is no single "correct answer". Philosophy is about the viewpoints and about reasoning as to why one's point of view is better to explain a certain phenomenon or to understand a certain idea. The teachers are also from different traditions of doing philosophy from different parts of the world. Hence there is a natural bias in their evaluation. The idea of four people evaluating it independently is helpful in reducing this bias. Also, the discussion in groups helps everyone get a more complete perspective of what the topic is and also what the student is trying to say.<br />
If there is a difference of more than 3 marks, then a 5th assessor is involved. The students whose average mark hence is above 7.5 are considered for the next level. Here again two different assessors go over the paper and a final average is taken. Finally the international jury comes together to see the result of these two rounds.<br />
Those who have received above 7.5 marks are chosen to be sent to the steering board to be evaluated for a medal. Those who may have just missed the bus are recommended by the jury for an honorable mention. The steering board which is made of three <a href="http://www.fisp.org/" target="_blank">FISP</a> members and two members from among the teachers, choose which medal should a particular essay receive. The steering board usually works late into the night so as to give the organizers time enough to prepare the awards.<br />
<h3>
The Awards</h3>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOzWrHhPz650zaIDOhOMMwDEirLiClmSMXpUyoeqh43aPqP6D819ZFXyBNCkT52S3thrztvkDPTNHDV2Fn2sdafHa5v_yYyCq0yupvSyKb7EyKnAnp3WykCGpJpAjoWdPi8ahJwVb1Np8/s1600/11167795_1119116631438414_3251966875030606676_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOzWrHhPz650zaIDOhOMMwDEirLiClmSMXpUyoeqh43aPqP6D819ZFXyBNCkT52S3thrztvkDPTNHDV2Fn2sdafHa5v_yYyCq0yupvSyKb7EyKnAnp3WykCGpJpAjoWdPi8ahJwVb1Np8/s320/11167795_1119116631438414_3251966875030606676_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Silver Medalists - IPO 2015</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
And then the day arrived that all had been waiting for. All teams were dressed up and ready for the final ceremony which began with a nice talk about the possibility of Uralic-Altaic philosophy and proceeded to a few songs by a local choir. When we thought that the next announcement will be for the medals, the organizer Leo Luks would treat us to another beautiful song instead. Finally the medal announcements began. First were the honorable mentions and there were 19 in all. As each student got up to receive the award, everyone clapped loudly. It did not matter whether the person was from the same delegation or not. Everyone knew everyone else. Even as teachers we had often interacted with the students from other countries, often intensely. Then again the cheering was louder for the more popular students as is always the case. Then came the bronzes. </div>
<div>
(The number of medals awarded changes every year depending upon how the performance of the students changes. This year there were 6 Bronze, 8 Silver and 2 Gold's awarded.)</div>
<div>
As each announcement was made, I am sure every student (and probably a few teachers as well) felt the nervousness. Maybe the next name will be mine (or my students's) ... and if not, then maybe my name will be in the next category ... and so on. But as the categories advance you can sense a little dejection in the air. Nevertheless, the applause builds up to a crescendo right up to the last gold. This after all is the proper spirit of competition. This after all is what the students learn as an essential life-skill. </div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85RgOhlnmdliCaCnU-0W2STT_2c12T-vxRFWm4kNZ9Hg1kQVGSP2suQZcpUFRzNsoXukTFymKAjaHvBRAMXtCJ4j-DNNRq3tInu2EaOpa5t5AUySGLIeag06Ee6xAzAlrGb3lxEah_ao/s1600/UT150517AT550.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85RgOhlnmdliCaCnU-0W2STT_2c12T-vxRFWm4kNZ9Hg1kQVGSP2suQZcpUFRzNsoXukTFymKAjaHvBRAMXtCJ4j-DNNRq3tInu2EaOpa5t5AUySGLIeag06Ee6xAzAlrGb3lxEah_ao/s320/UT150517AT550.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Abhishek expressing respect in the <br />
traditional Indian way to <br />
Prof. William McBride (FISP)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
And thus the ceremony was over - Abhishek won a silver. For a moment and a moment only, I looked at Nihar's face expecting dejection and expecting to feel depressed myself. But, Nihar is a different mind entirely. Maybe there was a fleeting sadness in there somewhere, and there should rightfully be. But she not only cheered me up, but also back to her flamboyant self in no time. And one would expect Abhishek to be on cloud nine, but he was, and is, a very grounded person; always rational; always sensible.</div>
<div>
There were many pats on the back and photos taken and soon the farewell dinner began. Within no time, everyone had forgotten all about the results and who won the medals and all that, and everyone was happily dining and chatting, singing and dancing until the night almost turned into day. I remember laughing like crazy after a long time, though I don't really remember what we all laughed about.</div>
<h3>
Happy Minds ... Heavy Hearts!</h3>
<div>
The next day was pretty hard to wake up to ... and not so because of the hangovers ( ;) ) ... but rather because we would be bidding goodbyes to each other. Some teams had to leave immediately after the ceremony, while some soon the day after. I remember the Finnish teacher and my dear friend (Juha Savolainen) telling me that one of his students had to give his IB boards' final exam the day after the IPO. </div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVb-hG3Zb39QPoqNfH5Xw_BmsHMy61CMr8slGooP2FDMhczixcSAoI8s4mj3jai3Reu3Lyoa7S9TbY27JDgigAipLkK7SRSwfBei6QDqiWOuVF9AeWD2Aa5aOBnErUQgx8QW_rpVqRFBw/s1600/IMG_20150519_165138614.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVb-hG3Zb39QPoqNfH5Xw_BmsHMy61CMr8slGooP2FDMhczixcSAoI8s4mj3jai3Reu3Lyoa7S9TbY27JDgigAipLkK7SRSwfBei6QDqiWOuVF9AeWD2Aa5aOBnErUQgx8QW_rpVqRFBw/s320/IMG_20150519_165138614.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The longest serving submarine in <br />
the world at Lenussadaam, Tallinn</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
The Indian team however had a couple of days to spend in Tartu and then Tallinn (the capital of Estonia). We visited the AAAHA science center and saw and did a lot of wonderful things there. Then we peeked at the Astronomy Observatory and then some shopping. In Tallinn the most interesting things we saw were a hot-air balloon ride and a fantastic sea-plane museum which housed a real soviet era submarine, the oldest relic (ship) found, some sea-planes, tanks and anti-aircraft guns among other things. These were sights to make one go crazy ... I know ... I did.</div>
<div>
We watched the sunset over the harbor and discussed how marine trade led to some very important discoveries on mankind. The next day we were on a flight back ... With happy minds and heavy hearts ... as THIS is the IPO feeling.</div>
</div>
</div>
Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-37488396679996149492015-05-06T09:50:00.002+05:302015-05-06T09:50:31.009+05:30When philosophers become kings ... <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Yet another essay to write team 2015 ...<br />This quote by Marcus Aurelius should take you on a tour of personal ethics, politics, human rights and self-interest. Post your essay today itself as a comment to this blog-post and not in the Facebook page.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Different things delight different people. But it is my delight to keep the ruling faculty sound without turning away either from any man or from any of the things which happen to men, but by looking at and receiving all with welcome eyes and using everything according to its value.</h4>
<i>Marcus Aurelius, 121-180 AD, Roman emperor and philosopher in "Ta eis heauton" (The things you say to yourself), VIII, 43</i></div>
Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-55448070016778774812015-05-05T14:02:00.000+05:302015-12-27T17:24:15.556+05:30Crime and the Collective<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="quotation" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #383838; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;">
Analyse this quote and present your point of view in brief (as a comment)</div>
<div class="quotation" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #383838; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="quotation" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #383838; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;">
When all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of culprits, and the very magnitude of the crime the best excuse for doing nothing.</div>
<div class="attribution" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #567843; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;">
HANNAH ARENDT, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Crises of the Republic</em><br />
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></em>
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Abhishek on What Arendt may be saying:</em><br />
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></em>
<div class="tG QF" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px; position: absolute; width: 0px;">
</div>
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"></em><br />
<div class="Ct" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">
Key ideas -<br />Culprit - one who commits the crime<br />Guilty - one who bears responsibility for the crime<br /><br />Arendt’s argument<br /><br />A - Only the culprit ought to be be held guilty<br />B - In a society where A is not applicable, the entire collective may be considered guilty for the crimes of an individual culprit. This is equivalent to saying that no specific culprit is considered guilty<br />C - The magnitude of the crime ought to determine the magnitude of the penalty<br />D - In the societies that where A is applicable, the penalty applies only to the culprit<br />E1 - In a society where A is not applicable, the penalty would apply not just to the culprit but to entire collective (which is guilty)<br />E2 - Therefore, a crime of greater magnitude would lead to a penalty of greater magnitude applicable to the entire collective<br />F - E2 would be against the interest of the collective and thus the collective would avoid implementing the penalty<br />G (follows from F) - A greater magnitude of the penalty (stemming from a greater magnitude of the crime) would increase the chances of the collective not implementing the penalty<br /><br />Arendt’s position - Societies ought to be such that A & D are applicable, and B & G are avoided</div>
<div class="Ct" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Ct" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">
(Look for Abhishek's supporting argument in the comments)</div>
</div>
</div>
Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-25262843085184667902015-04-24T23:18:00.002+05:302015-04-29T06:05:01.218+05:30Analysing Agnosticism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hey Team 2015!<br />
<br />
Take the next quote analysis assignment on a scathing remark made by Peikoff on agnosticism. Analyse the author's point of view, her argument and hence construct your arguments in favor and/or opposition. To view previous quote analyses read <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/search/label/Quote%20Analysis" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;">"<span style="color: #442222; font-family: 'Calibri W01 Regular 904604'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.1999988555908px;">The agnostic miscalculates. He thinks he is avoiding any position that will antagonize anybody. In fact, he is taking a position which is much more irrational than that of a man who takes a definite but mistaken stand on a given issue, because the agnostic treats arbitrary claims as meriting cognitive consideration and epistemological respect. He treats the arbitrary as on a par with the rational and evidentially supported. So he is the ultimate epistemological egalitarian: he equates the groundless and the proved. As such, he is an epistemological destroyer. The agnostic thinks that he is not taking any stand at all and therefore that he is safe, secure, invulnerable to attack. The fact is that his view is one of the falsest—and most cowardly—stands there can be.</span>" </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #442222; font-family: 'Calibri W01 Regular 904604'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.1999988555908px;">- Leonard Peikoff, </span><a href="https://estore.aynrand.org/p/6/the-philosophy-of-objectivism-mp3-download" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #aa0000; font-family: 'Calibri W01 Regular 904604'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.1999988555908px;"><cite style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Calibri W01 Italic 904613'; font-style: normal;">The Philosophy of Objectivism</cite> lecture series</a><span style="color: #442222; font-family: 'Calibri W01 Regular 904604'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.1999988555908px;">, Lecture 6</span></span><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #442222; font-family: 'Calibri W01 Regular 904604'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.1999988555908px;">Analysis by Nihar Kulkarni & Abhishek Dedhe</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-IN">Note-</span></b><span lang="EN-IN"> *no. assigned to arguments, (*no.)
denotes to what argument the current argument is opposing., ...for supporting a
pt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span lang="EN-IN">Argument
of Peikoff:</span></u></h4>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">P1- Acceptance of Agnosticism is to
avoid being antagonistic toward any belief.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">P2- Considering 2 antagonistic claims
equal involves allotting equal possibility of being true to the false
proposition as well.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">P3-Considering 2 contradictory
propositions simultaneously true is irrational</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">C1-Agnoscicism is irrational.(
P1+P2+P3)</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">P4-Agnosticism a concept in
epistemology as it is defining a limit to epistemological reach i.e. impossible
to `know` whether the god exists or not.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">P5-Epistemology exists to reach a valid
& sound conclusion through reasoning & available evidence.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">P6-Agnostics consider to reach a
conclusion to be impossible.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">P7-Agnostics deny certainty of
available evidence.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">C2-Agnostics harm epistemology.
(P4+P5+P6+P7)</span></li>
</ul>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><br />
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span lang="EN-IN"> Counter Argument:</span></u></h4>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Assumption wrong – P1.*1</span></li>
<li>Currently
person – Diff of support for any 1 claim=negligible(P4)</li>
<li>Waiting
for more evidence for one.(P5)</li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Rationally chosen indecision.*2</span></li>
<li>Can
the result of a rational method be irrational? (C1)</li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Agnosticism, Atheism & Theism are
related with an individual.*3</span></li>
<li>Allotting
values to different claims depends on that individual.</li>
<li>No
right to any other individual to judge the allotting. (P2)</li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Why not aim of epistemology Search for
a conclusion rather than reach it?*4</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Also, as the assumption P1 is wrong the
quote is wrong.*5</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">As agnosticism allows theism &
atheism i.e high level of tolerance of both.</span></li>
<li>Wouldn’t
world be more peaceful if more people were agnostics?*6</li>
</ul>
<h4>
<ul>
<li><u><span lang="EN-IN">Counter to counter arguments:</span></u></li>
</ul>
</h4>
<ul>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">If the claim is that there may be
something you do not know, how do you know that that something exists.</span></li>
<li>Rational
stand is to have a conclusion from what you know.*7</li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Is the stand to reject changing the
beliefs for the sake of individuality correct?</span></li>
<li>Growth
of individual & society hampered.</li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Result of rational method applied to a
consideration starting from an irrational claim can be irrational.*8</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">In reality 2 kinds of agnostics-</span></li>
<li>A)<u>Temporary
Agnostics</u>-Confusion whether to choose theism or atheism, but they do choose
at some point of time.</li>
<li>B)<u>Permanent
Agnostics</u>-They choose not to arrive at any conclusion.</li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Every person consciously choosing a
belief system was a temporary agnostic at some point.</span></li>
<li><b><span lang="EN-IN">Opposition is to permanent agnostics</span></b><span lang="EN-IN">
for the reasons mentioned in *7 & *8.....*9.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Plenty of reasoning for Atheism &
no reasoning nor evidence for theism.</span></li>
<li>Pt
of negligible diff for any claim meaningless.(*1)</li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Once you decide to reach no conclusion
at all despite evidence & reasoning, no longer the decision is rational *9.
(*2)....C1</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Different isms exist because every
belief tries to portrait reality in the way they see.</span></li>
<li>The
picture of their reality could only be complete & absolute truth when
others do not hold any other contradictory reality to be true.</li>
<li>Involving
others in our beliefs a fundamental part of any ism.</li>
<li>So
existence of uninfluenced individual beliefs unrealistic.(*3)</li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Also, if the agnostics become powerful
enough they may start opposing theists & atheists.</span></li>
<li>The
basic claim is that it is impossible to know the existence of god.</li>
<li>The
people claiming possible in opp to them. (*6)</li>
<li><span lang="EN-IN" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The aim of all kinds of sciences
including philosophy is to reach certainty at the fundamental level possible.</span></li>
<li>Epistemological
methods are a mean to do so.</li>
<li>Though
searching for a more fundamental certainty an inseparable part of epistemology,</li>
<li>the
search for next fundamental certainty starts by holding the current one as
basis.</li>
<li>i.e.
at each step, you have to choose one most rationally reasoned & evidential
possibility by eliminating others.</li>
<li>Not
choosing one means not being antagonistic with any other...P1,(*1)</li>
<li>Agnostics
refuse to do so i.e. they <b>do not apply
epistemological methods,</b></li>
<li><b><span lang="EN-IN">though limit the reach of epistemology</span></b><span lang="EN-IN">.</span></li>
<li>This
stance is misleading & harm the epistemological reasoning of the
individuals who hold Agnosticism to be a righteous epistemological stance...C2. </li>
</ul>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span lang="EN-IN">Chosen
Side –<b>Supporting Peikoff. <o:p></o:p></b></span></u></div>
</div>
Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-11521307217068963312015-02-06T12:12:00.001+05:302015-02-06T12:51:02.889+05:30On Education and its Quality: Purpose of education<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For the past three decades, Abhinav has been working to establish quality education. This has lead us to first question - What is education about?, What are the benchmarks of its quality?, How can we achieve it? It has not been an easy path to find answers so that they may be actually applied in the field. And then the mindset one needs to comprehend this and apply it is very much opposite to the thinking prevalent in the society around us. However, we believe that this is the mindset one has to acquire before one gets concerned with education - either as an occupation, or a profession, or even simply as a parent. So, in a series of articles I will try to bring out the idea in the hope that even the young ones may understand.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There are many text-book definitions and philosophies that one could write here, but allow me to take an easier path. To be educated is a state in which a person reaches after a certain deliberate effort, partly by him/her and partly by the people around such as parents, teachers, etc. This effort, like any other, has a purpose, and once we understand it, we achieve it. Would you take the effort of cooking food if it were not to satisfy your hunger, or to buy good clothes if it were not to improve your self-image? Would you buy a house if you did not require a sense of stability? Would you raise a child if you were not to get the feeling of being loved and at the same time of being accomplished in certain way?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Getting educated <u>has a purpose</u> ...<br />
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
How learning may have evolved</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Lets take a little detour into how we evolved as intelligent creatures. Man evolved superior only due to his brain being different than other creatures. What may have led to this being so? Darwin answers - survival. To elaborate - Man had to learn to survive; survive from dangers of nature, survive from lack of food, survive from loneliness, etc. To this end, he had to figure out new and better ways to do things - find food or grow it, fight tigers with spears instead of stones, find others like him so they can hunt together, protect each other, and so much more. While this was happening, his brain was also developing, making his mind better.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Better ... in what way? Would Man be better off if he could not figure out that sharp objects can kill better than blunt ones? Would Man be better off if did not see the practical benefits of living in a group? Would he be better off, if he did not study his adversary before he attacked? ...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Each task required Man to use and sharpen his faculty for abstract thinking, i.e., his faculty to connect the reality of the senses to the ideas in his mind - ideas formed by selectively choosing what aspects of reality to focus on. When he saw a wild elephant, he had to judge the distance that he must maintain to remain safe, and the shape of color of the ears was not important. When forming a society, it was important to name the relations for what benefits they give you and the specific nature of every person in that relation did not matter so much; a grocer is someone you deal with for groceries, regardless of his looks or dental hygiene.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thus every act of learning was broadly to grasp the properties and behavior of certain objects (living or not) around you, pick the ones you think are important for your survival/betterment, store them in memory and later connect them with similar or dissimilar observations of other objects. Most of this process is automatic in that we get used to it in early childhood. What is never automatic and therefore needs constant adjustment and focus, is the part where we connect the different things together. </div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
Reality, Reason and the Mind</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Would the ancient Man know that a larger creature like the elephant cant run for too long (because of its weight/size) without having observed many different creatures and their speeds? Can the modern Man create lighter alloys for making aircraft without first knowing the properties of different elements and then figuring out a way of combining them? Can a poet create a lasting poem without having observed the deepest desires and tribulations of men and having woven these observations together in a meaningful way to ask some of the most difficult questions? Can an educator proceed to educate, without having connected the various kinds of learning that Man does throughout his life, with the objective of such learning? And, can the educator, profess a method without truly judging the outcomes of such a method of learning?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One can connect different observations in many ways, some of these are logical, others are not. Even in logic, one can find different ways of using the facts (with different interpretations) and hence arriving at different results. So how does one know which is the right path? ... or the right answer? </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Correspondence with Reality ... That is how we know the right answer ... The path which leads is to this correspondence, is the right path.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Let's imagine the ancient Man who encounters a wild elephant for the first time; He can ...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<ol>
<li>imagine it to be a divine creature and worship it, probably ending up squashed under its feet</li>
<li>reason out that it is huge and so like cows (which are larger than deer) it cant run fast enough</li>
<li>reason out that it has strong legs and so like a lion, can outrun him quickly</li>
</ol>
<div>
The last kind of thinking is the one which will surely save him and he would know so only once he sees the consequences of his thought. He will possibly lose his life, but the other men around him will observe and learn and save theirs. Thomas Alva Edison tried about 2000 ways of making a light bulb and when all failed, he famously said that he found 2000 ways of NOT making one. Since then mankind has made billions of bulbs using the technique that worked.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Of what use is our learning, if the decisions it leads us to make, do not give us returns? How can our decisions and actions give us returns if they are based on unreal assumptions or wrong expectations? The acid test of ALL learning is whether it gives results. Results are a certain effect upon society around us and also the return-effect upon us. These effects are governed by the laws / standards of morality as also the principles of economics, politics and science, which ensure that individuals and, in turn, the society survives. These laws define our reality for us.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thus, Reason is the means of connecting observed facts together so as to form the truest impression of the world, so as to decide our course of actions, to get the best possible outcomes. It may not work the first time, so we do it again and again, with different approaches, until we get it right. This is the process of learning. This is the training of the mind.<br />
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
... and so the Purpose of education</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To be educated is to train our mind to think in correspondence with reality. The purpose of education is therefore simply to enable Man to deal with the world around him. More critically, education trains the mind to gather facts, analyse situations, solve problems and hence analyse the results / consequences which in turn is used to fine tune our mind further. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A worrying trend in our society today is that we either completely or partially ignore the analyses of the consequences of our thoughts and actions. We do so because its difficult to analyse the consequences each time, especially when there are more pressing deadlines to be met. Consequently, we end up saying "... So What!!!" often and pretend to ignore our mistakes. We can only do so because society is more flexible today than it was for the ancient Man. We can commit small mistakes every now and then and people will tolerate. But, what about the bigger ones? What about mistakes in deciding our careers, or marriage or how to spend our wealth, etc.?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now, here's where we either resort to social norms and customs or the advise of the elders. This by itself is not wrong, however, circumstances change with each passing day. What was true for the tree-dweller was not true for the cave-man; and what was true for the cave-man does not work for the civilized man. Likewise advises and customs can be only correct some of the times.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hence, more critically the purpose of education is not only to train the mind to think rationally and critically in some circumstances (e.g. those that may be arranged in a school environment) but also to temper the mind to operate this way for each problem on one hand, while on the other, to be capable of doing so efficiently in terms of time and resources.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Please stay tuned for the next article on how this may be achieved.</div>
</div>
Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-79178299952147135142014-12-28T06:44:00.003+05:302014-12-28T06:44:41.830+05:30InPO Stage 2 - Essay Writing (Rules)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="justify" style="background-color: white; color: #57420a; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The student should follow the general instructions given below while appearing for this round.</span></div>
<ol style="background-color: white; color: #57420a; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The competition begins at a specific date & time. (as is informed to the students chosen, via email / text message) The student should connect to the internet at his home / school / cyber cafe at least 15 min before this time.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The student gets 3 hrs to write the essay and 15 min more to submit the same by email. Student must ensure that there is no power outage in this period or if there is then he/she can resume their work within a few minutes of the outage.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Given the power fluctuations or random reasons why the PC may crash, student must keep saving the essay every few minutes.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The essay topics will be emailed to the students selected from Stage 1.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: left;">The essay should be submitted by email to </span><a href="mailto:director@abhinav.ac.in" style="color: #cc9900; font-size: small; text-align: left;">director@abhinav.ac.in</a><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: left;">. </span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">If a student is unable to write the essay on the PC, he/she may write on paper in a neat handwriting, then either photograph or scan the pages with good resolution and send the images via email.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The student may use the internet or dictionaries during the exam to read about or understand certain issues / terms. However, directly copying content from the net or inserting quotes of other philosophers verbatim (which the student is not likely to know before hand) would be grounds for disqualification.</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<h4 align="justify" style="background-color: white; color: #57420a; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>About The Essay</b></span></h4>
<div align="justify" style="background-color: white; color: #57420a; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Writing an essay is the key test of a philosophical thinker, since most deep thoughts cannot be conveyed easily by verbalization and the arguments needed to convince the "audience" are usually intricate. Here are some guidelines about how to write an essay especially for the Olympiads.</span></div>
<ol style="background-color: white; color: #57420a; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Philosophy progresses via debates. These debates not spoken, but penned down by philosophers to argue and counter-argue about the work of other philosophers. Thus the primary aim of writing the essay is to discuss the thoughts of the philosopher presented in the topic, with the view to either approve or disapprove of them. Hence the student must first try to explain the philosophers point of view and then put in their own perspectives.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The student is free to disagree with the topic, however, agreement or disagreement should be rational and clear reasoning <u>and</u> examples should be presented for either point of view.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The criteria of evaluation are:</span></div>
<ol>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Relevance to the topic</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Philosophical understanding of the topic</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Persuasive power of argumentation</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Coherence</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Originality</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Students are expected to:</span></div>
<ol>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">present an argument in an organized way</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">use clear, precise and appropriate language</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">identify any assumptions in the topic</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">develop a clear and focused argument</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">identify the strengths and weaknesses of their argument</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">identify counter-arguments and address them if possible</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">provide relevant supporting material, illustrations and/or examples where appropriate</span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="justify" style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-indent: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">conclude by making a clear, concise and philosophically informed personal response</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-24786376739031223612014-12-21T04:53:00.001+05:302014-12-23T18:02:49.334+05:30Link to the online tasks for InPO Stage 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hi All,<br />
<br />
The stage 1 tasks are online at <a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/InPOStage1_Tasks.htm">http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/InPOStage1_Tasks.htm</a>.<br />
<br />
You can give them anytime on Sunday, 21st Dec. 2014 until midnight.<br />
<br />
If you cannot see the form please use the alternative link <a href="http://goo.gl/forms/FooJlv8ZxQ">http://goo.gl/forms/FooJlv8ZxQ</a> or <a href="http://goo.gl/forms/DbbelxkCP2">http://goo.gl/forms/DbbelxkCP2</a><br />
<br />
For either link you would need a Gmail login.</div>
Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-48414826051925071512014-12-13T22:15:00.000+05:302015-12-28T22:07:07.176+05:30Indian Philosophy Olympiad 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hello dear friends of wisdom,<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I am pleased to announce the start of the <a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/inpo.htm" target="_blank">Indian Philosophy Olympiad</a> - 2015. This is an online competition for Indian high school students of any stream (Std IX to XII). This is also a selection and training process for the forthcoming <a href="http://www.ipo2015.ee/" target="_blank">International Philosophy Olympiad</a> to be held in May 2015 in Estonia. Please <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDxq5jiFoGW8HnvmjD92LpRrQ6dOa6DhmqgOqdiEbjfAOgOiTMAsrTrg0EBZu-FBGkisdD9GIS7LeSqIcFOm9O7Im5m_OMuWJAYrLKHtrvy9OTKTOS0MzNYuhGSv8Z1PkyP40RAmqLgck/s1600/Poster2014.jpg" target="_blank">see the poster</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The InPO selection rounds will proceed in two stages - 21st Dec and 28th Dec 2014 - both Sundays. The rounds will be online with the first stage having objective and subjective questions will be an open paper to be solved throughout the day (should not take more than 1.5 hours, ideally). The second stage is an essay test for those selected from the first stage. This will be time bound to be finished within a stipulated time. For more details on the selection process please <a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/InPOStages.htm" target="_blank">visit our website</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/enrollments.htm" target="_blank">To enroll please fill up the form here</a></b>. There are no entry fees.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
(<u>Those who already intimated me during the Baltic Sea Event, please fill the form again as I have some trouble getting the data</u>)<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/InPOStage1_Tasks.htm" target="_blank">task sheet for Stage 1</a> will be activated at the scheduled time. The tasks for Stage 2 will be emailed separately to the finalists.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>To prepare for stage 1</b></span> here is the previous years <a href="http://philo.abhinav.ac.in/exams/AbhinavPhilosopher2013.pdf" target="_blank">question paper</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Some of these discussions with the previous participants may help you get some perspective on what sort of thinking you are expected to do, especially during the training. (Please read in the order given) </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/01/about-preparing-for-olympiad.html" target="_blank">About preparing for the Olympiad</a></li>
<li><a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/01/developing-little-intuition-about.html" target="_blank">Developing a little intuition about philosophy</a></li>
<li>Solutions to developing intuition ... <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/01/solutions-to-intuiting-about-philosophy.html" target="_blank">Part I</a> & <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/01/solutions-to-intuiting-about-philosophy_31.html" target="_blank">part II</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/02/structuring-our-intuitions.html" target="_blank">Structuring our intuitions</a></li>
<li>Solutions to structuring ... <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/04/solutions-to-structuring-our-intuitions.html" target="_blank">Part I</a> & <a href="http://reason.abhinav.ac.in/2014/12/continuing-from-previous.html" target="_blank">Part II</a></li>
</ol>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">For stage 2 prep</span></b>, you could see the essays of the past years winners of the Int'l Olympiad at <a href="http://www.philosophy-olympiad.org/">http://www.philosophy-olympiad.org/</a> by scrolling down to see the medalists names and the "text" link besides them. Also, you could see the Baltic Sea Essay Event winning essays at <a href="http://feto.fi/in_english.htm">http://feto.fi/in_english.htm</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For any other information, please mail me at <a href="mailto:soni.kedar@gmail.com">soni.kedar@gmail.com</a>. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-55243125388609221052014-12-13T21:59:00.000+05:302014-12-13T21:59:03.882+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://abhinavphilosopher.blogspot.in/2014/04/solutions-to-structuring-our-intuitions.html" target="_blank">Continuing from the previous ...</a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>3. <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px; text-align: left;">Most educated Indians wish that Modi becomes the prime minister. Thus Modi is the ideal choice.</span></b></span></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="color: blue;">Abhishek</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">: </span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">3A. Restructuring the argument</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">Premise 1 - Most educated Indians wish that Modi becomes the prime minister.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">Conclusion 1 - Modi is the ideal choice for the post of prime minister.</span></div>
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<u><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">Unspoken premise - </span></u></div>
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<u><u><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">Premise 3 - The choice of educated Indians is the ideal choice.</span></u></u></div>
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</u><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">3B. Saying "most educated Indians" is an example of a "hasty generalization" type of fallacy. (Though not as extreme as saying "all educated Indians") Instead of saying that, the writer could have said - according to ABC Survey, XYZ % of educated Indians wish that Modi becomes the prime minister. This would increase the credibility of the argument by citation of a source and avoid hasty generalization.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">3C. If Premise 3 is assumed, the argument would be valid. But in order for the argument to be a sound one, there would have to be clarification about the truth value of Premise 3. Premise 3 does not answer the question - "Why is the choice of educated Indians an ideal choice?" Indeed, such a claim is controversial and debatable in itself, as it is establishing the superiority of the choices of educated Indians over those of uneducated Indians. Thus, this premise is an example of "begging the question" type of fallacy. Also, saying that Modi is an ideal choice for the post of prime minister just because most educated Indians think that he is the ideal choice for the post of prime minister is an example of the "ad populum" type of fallacy.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">3D. Thus, if we assume Premise 3, the argument would be valid. But it would not be sound or persuasive</span></div>
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<b style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">4. The following is an argument between a Democratic Statist (D) and an Anarchist (A):</span></b></div>
<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">* Note - In order to analyze the statements, they have been numbered as follows</span></b></span></div>
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<b><div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">D1: Humans can't be trusted to self-govern!</span></b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">A1: If you can't trust the people with freedom, how can you trust the people in power?</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">D2: Because they were elected!</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">A2: But they are also one of the people (who can't be trusted), are elected by the people (who can't be trusted) and represent the people (who can't be trusted). Why should I trust the system? Is the system run by people made of a finer clay than the rest of humankind?</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">D3: The system is based on a "social contract" and represents the "will of the people"...</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">A3: show me the contract and my signatures on it!</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">D4: "We the people of India....."</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">A4: Hey! Those aren't my signatures!</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">D5: Are you not part of the people of India? Do you wish to be exiled from the nation?</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">A5: I'm part of the people of India, and no, I do not wish to be exiled, but those aren't my signatures. I could create a similar contract and write "We the people of Earth..." on it. Does that mean everyone on Earth, including the future generations to be born on Earth have consented to it?</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">D6: Did you vote?</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">A6: No.</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">D7: Then you cannot complain.</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">A7: show me the contract and my signatures on it!</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">D8: "We the people of India....."</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">A8: Hey! Those aren't my signatures!</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">D9: Are you not part of the people of India? Do you wish to be exiled from the nation?</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">A9: I'm part of the people of India, and no, I do not wish to be exiled, but those aren't my signatures. I could create a similar contract and write "We the people of Earth..." on it. Does that mean everyone on Earth, including the future generations to be born on Earth have consented to it?</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">D10: Did you vote?</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">A10: No.</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;">D11: Then you cannot complain.</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">4A. D1 and A1</span></div>
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4A - I. D1 is a hasty generalization. It would have been better to say that some humans cannot be trusted to self govern in some aspects. That would be a more modest statement. Also, D1 is does not answer questions like "Why can't humans be trusted to self govern?" Thus, D1 begs the question. </div>
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4A - II. A1 - If one cannot trust people with freedom, then one cannot trust people in power.</div>
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Restatement - Premise 1- One cannot trust people with freedom. (P1) or A1 Part 1</div>
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Conclusion 1- One cannot trust people in power. (C1) or A1 Part 2</div>
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Basically, the anarchist (A) is saying that if P1, then C1. Therefore, if not C1, then not P1. A is applying reductio ad absurdum. According to A, the democratic (D) is saying C1, along with not P1. This is not logical according to A.</div>
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Assumptions made by A - </div>
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That D does not trust people with freedom arises naturally from A1. That is,</div>
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Premise 2 - Humans can't be trusted to self govern. (D1)</div>
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Conclusion 2 - Humans can't trust people with freedom. (A1 Part 1)</div>
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D does not answer the question "Why can't humans trust people with freedom if humans can't be trusted to self-govern". Thus D begs the question here. </div>
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4A - III. "Can't trust people with freedom" has two possible meanings. One meaning is - "people can't be entrusted with freedom or people can't be trusted to use freedom properly". The second meaning is - "people having/ possessing freedom, i.e. - people who are free cannot be trusted". The second meaning seems unlikely as it would lead to the conclusion - "people who are not free can be trusted" which does not seem to be relevant to the discussion. Thus, the first meaning can be taken to be true. However, as no clarification about the second meaning has been given, we can't completely discard it and thus this seems to be a form of equivocation. Also, I do not wan to present a false dichotomy here. It is possible that there may be more possible meanings than those that I have discussed. It's just that I haven't thought of them.</div>
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4A - III. The issue raised by D is "not trusting people with self-governance". The response given to it by A lead us to the issue "whether or not to trust people in power". A has raised a side issue. Thus is could be an example of the "red herring" type of fallacy. Then again, I am assuming that the issue raised by A is a side issue and I am not answering the question "Why do you consider the issue raised by A as a side issue?" Thus, I could be considered to be begging the question. </div>
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4A - IV. A1 Part 2 is about whether to trust people in power. The areas in which the people in power are to be trusted or not, are not specified. It would be better to question whether to trust people in power regarding xyz issue, thus avoiding a hasty generalization. Also, instead of generalizing about all people in power, it would be better to talk about trusting abc people who are in power regarding xyz issue. "Trust" can have two meanings. One is comparatively straight forward - regarding specific issues like "I trust abc to develop better transportation". The second is broader, as in "I trust abc will be change our country". Thus, this could be considered as an example of equivocation.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">4B. A1 Part 2 and D2</span></div>
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4B - I. Restatement - People in power can be trusted because they are elected. </div>
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Premise 1 - People who are elected can be trusted.</div>
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Conclusion 1 - People are in power can be trusted.</div>
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The unspoken premises are:</div>
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Premise 2 - People who are in power are elected. </div>
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4B - II. Premise 2 seems to be reasonable on a broad scale, as we are talking about democracy which consists of electing the people who are in power. But if we delve into specifics, we can question whether we are talking about direct elections, indirect elections, and other such details.</div>
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4B - III. Premise 1 does not answer the question - "Why can people who are elected be trusted?" and thus begs the question. As discussed above, it also makes a hasty generalization. It would have been better to say that "Some people who are elected can be trusted in some issues". </div>
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4B - IV. It is possible to accept Premise 1 if the question - "Why can people who are elected be trusted?" is answered satisfactorily. However, once Premise 1 is established, another question arises. Is "being elected" a necessary condition in order to trust someone. Or is it a necessary and sufficient condition? These questions would probably need to be addressed too.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">4C. A2 </span></div>
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A2 Part 1 - But they are also one of the people (who can't be trusted), are elected by the people (who can't be trusted) and represent the people (who can't be trusted). </div>
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A2 Part 2 - Why should I trust the system? </div>
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A2 Part 3 - Is the system run by people made of a finer clay than the rest of humankind?</div>
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4C - I. The doubt raised in A2 Part 1 could be made clearer by specifying the kind of "trust" involved, thus avoiding hasty generalization.</div>
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Restatement of A2 Part 1 - But they are also one of the people (who can't be trusted to self-govern), are elected by the people (who can't be trusted with freedom) and represent the people (who can't be trusted with power). </div>
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Without clarifying what kind of trust is involved, equivocation occurs. Different kinds of trust are applied in different places, but are presented to mean the same, The aspects of the different forms of trust that are not relevant to this point are compared, and thus this could be considered as a weak analogy.</div>
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4C - II. A2 Part 2 - The "system" that has been introduced has not been clarified. Questions like - "What are the components of this system?" arise. Based on the discussion we could assume the "system" to mean the "system of electing people." A2 Part 2 could be reconstructed as follows:</div>
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Premise 1 - The system of electing people involves the untrustworthy people mentioned in A2 Part 1.</div>
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Conclusion 1 - The system of electing people cannot be trusted.</div>
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Again, questions like - "In which aspects can't the system be trusted?" arise. If this question is answered, we could say that the system of electing people cannot be trusted in xyz aspect. Following that, questions like - "Are the properties of the system of electing people a sum of the properties (regarding not trusting) of its components (people)?" "Which properties (regarding not trusting) that are displayed in the components (people) will be displayed in the system?" "Are the people the only relevant components of the system of electing people? (To put it more generally - Have we identified all the relevant components of the system that would contribute to its properties?)" would arise. These questions would need to be addressed. </div>
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4C - III. A2 Part 2 and A2 Part 3. </div>
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The thought put forth can be expressed as - If the people who run the system are made of a finer clay than the rest of humankind, then the system can be trusted. </div>
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Premise 1 - The people who run the system are made of a finer clay than the rest of humankind.</div>
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Conclusion 1 - The system can be trusted.</div>
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Unspoken premise - </div>
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Premise 2 - The people who are made of a finer clay than the rest of humankind can be trusted.</div>
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Premise 3 - The properties (regarding trust) of the people who run the system contribute to the properties of the system.</div>
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Basically , A is questioning whether Premise 1 is true or not. However, A has not questions regarding Premise 2 and Premise 3 and is thus begging the question.</div>
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4C - IV. The main issue put forth by D was regarding the object - "people". A has introduced a new object - "system". The system, thought related to the people, is more complex and would require a broader perspective. Thus A is digressing from the main issue "people" by introducing a new issue "system". Thus, this can be an example of the "red herring" type of fallacy.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">4D. D3 </span></div>
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4D - I. D states the following - </div>
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Premise 1 - The system is based on a "social contract"</div>
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Premise 2 - The system is based on the "will of the people"</div>
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D does not answer questions like "How is the system based on a social contract?" and "How is the system based on the will of the people?". D thus begs the question and does not establish persuasive premises. D also does not establish clarity about terms like - "social contract" and "will of the people".</div>
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4D - II. D3 is presumably in response to A2 Part 2. Thus,</div>
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Premise 1 - A system based on a social contract and will of the people can be trusted.</div>
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Premise 2 - The system in discussion is based on social contract and will of the people.</div>
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Conclusion 1 - The system can be trusted.</div>
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D does not answer questions like - "Why can a system based on social contract and will of the people be trusted?", thus begging the question and not providing a persuasive premise. Also, if we assume that D is able to answer this question satisfactorily, other questions arise. They include - "Is it a necessary condition for a system to be based on social contract and on will of the people in order to be trusted?" and "Is it a necessary and sufficient condition for a system to be based on social contract and on will of the people in order to be trusted"</div>
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4D - III. The question raised in A2 Part 3 is not answered.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">4E. A3 </span></div>
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A3 Part 1 - Show me the contract</div>
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A3 Part 2 - (Show me) my signature on it</div>
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4E - I. A assumes that the contract is something like a physical object that can be shown. It is possible that the contract could be an abstract. Here, the burden of proof rests on D as it is now D's responsibility to show the aforementioned contract to A.</div>
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4E - II. Restatement - </div>
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Premise 1 - The signature of an individual on the "social contract" represents the "will of the people" or the "will of the individual"</div>
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A does not answer the question "How does the signature of and individual on the social contract represent the will of the individual, and by extension, the will of the people?". Thus, A begs the question. A is claiming that the existence of his/her signature on the contract will dictate whether it represent the will of A. </div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">4F. D4</span></div>
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D quotes the Preamble of the Constitution. D assumes that the Constitution is the aforementioned social contract. Why D does not answer the question - "Why is the Constitution the social contract?" thus begging the question.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">4G. A4</span></div>
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A commits an "ad populum" fallacy. Just because A's signature is not on the the Constitution, does not mean the Constitution does not represent the will of the people. A could make the statement clearer by saying the the Constitution does not represent the will of A. </div>
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Unspoken premise - The will of each individual is necessary before generalizing and commenting about the will of the people.</div>
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The premise would have to clarified as it raises questions like - "How many individuals' will should be taken into account when talking about the will of the people?". A does not address such questions and thus begs the question.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">4H. D5</span></div>
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D's argument - Because, A is questioning the non-existence of his signature in Constitution, A does not wish to be considered as a part of the "people of India". Because A does not wish to be considered as a part of the "people of India", he wishes to be exiled from India. Restatement - </div>
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If one questions the non-existence of one's signature, then one does not wish to be considered as part of the people of India. (If P, then Q)</div>
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If one does not wish to be considered as a part of the people of India, one wishes to be exiled from India. (If Q, then R)</div>
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D does not persuasively establish the above two statements. D thus begs the question.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">4I. A5</span></div>
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A's analogy of a contract for the people of Earth to the Constitution of India is a weak analogy. The similarity A is considering is the absence of the signatures of all the involved individuals. A does not take into account other factors which give credibility to the Constitution of India like the background and context in which it was created, its relevance in the lives of Indians and so. Such relevant factors have not been considered in A's "Earth contract"</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">4J. D6, A6, A7</span></div>
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D6 is an example of the "ad hominem" fallacy where D attacks A personally in order to weaken A's argument.</div>
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D's does not answer the question - "Why can a non-voting person not complain?" and thus begs the question.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">4K. A7 onwards</span></div>
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No new points are put forth. The argument has become circular and has entered a repeating loop.</div>
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Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-9020500518495939712014-06-22T13:18:00.000+05:302014-06-22T14:39:05.131+05:30How to choose a career<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Can one rationally choose a career?</h3>
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I write this for my many young friends who are either passing out of school or high school or graduating from university, and who are a little troubled by the big decision of their lives. Ah! Yes, deciding our career is a big deal. And yes, there are many hurdles in the path as well as many naysayers and misguides. So how do we objectively take a decision.</div>
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Do we decide on the basis of what our elders say? If so, then do our elders know what is right? Do they know the new trends and courses and challenges? And even if so, is what they think right, right for us?</div>
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So do we then decide on the basis of the money prospects? Do we choose the "hot" career? What if the trend changes? What if the money is just a hype? What if the "hot" career turns out to be a "hot" seat?</div>
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Hmm! Then we must go by what our marks say! But then which marks to choose - school or entrance tests? Can the entrance test we take once or twice decidedly know who or what we are? Can the school know for sure what we are? Are the marks of a written exam sufficient to know my psyche? Can the scholastic subjects like Math and History decide what kind of thinker I am? Can they tell me where I will be successful?</div>
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SO, should I not go for success? But then I want to be successful so that I can earn money and that in turn would make me happy. SO should I rather aim for happiness???</div>
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Whew!!!</div>
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Lot of thoughts ... lot of questions. We have all been through this, those of us who crossed this stage in our lives. I ask them - Are you happy? What parameter did you use to take the decision - Money, Marks, Possibility of Success, Popularity of the career or simply Joy? And I know that most of you who have succeeded and some of you who have not, when we cross our mid-life and our strengths start to dwindle, have realized that .... It Matters Not Whether We Won Or Lost ... But Only How We Played The Game.</div>
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But then of course WE the "elders" want the best for our young ones. And so the young persons out there must not ignore the advice of their elders, as neither should they cling on to their elders. So can there be a way in which all the stakeholders - the person concerned, his/her parents, teachers and other relatives (Well they do have a huge role to play in the Indian scene) - take a decision together without conflicts and without bias and reach to a workable plan?</div>
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I propose a plan here that has worked for me and for thousands of my students at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/abhinav.vidyalay.dombivli?fref=nf" target="_blank">Abhinav</a> and some through the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IndianPhilosophyOlympiad" target="_blank">Philosophy Olympiads</a>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggH68AV0_V7A8Mge7lz_M1eYZclqlcaOtz9_Rj7hyphenhyphenlM3hwhYIhyphenhyphenEdrxXJmQ7etz7sUeeaOiNYEb41i4AeAFiCydhE-1H_25lRrwL_2qpX5kJTzouBK-R1rVKL_mEfFfYN7iLwIphsKLtk/s1600/HowToChooseACareer.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Plan to choosing a career" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggH68AV0_V7A8Mge7lz_M1eYZclqlcaOtz9_Rj7hyphenhyphenlM3hwhYIhyphenhyphenEdrxXJmQ7etz7sUeeaOiNYEb41i4AeAFiCydhE-1H_25lRrwL_2qpX5kJTzouBK-R1rVKL_mEfFfYN7iLwIphsKLtk/s1600/HowToChooseACareer.gif" height="400" title="" width="360" /></a></div>
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Step 1. What do I love?</h3>
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If you do that which you do not love, simply because it is a paying career or because its available or "someone says so", you will never be happy. To find out what do you love ask yourself the following:</div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;">What <span style="background-color: yellow;">subjects</span> or activities at school / college do<span style="background-color: yellow;"> I like</span> doing?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Which<span style="background-color: yellow;"> activities</span> out of school / college do <span style="background-color: yellow;">I enjoy </span>the most? Even playing or interacting with friends is important.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">What is it that I can enjoy doing for long periods of time?</li>
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Hence, shortlist a few activities / interests. This may include reading, chatting with friends, solving puzzles, studying and thinking about history, discovering places on maps, etc. These activities need not be known careers like medicine, engineering and so on. Each career has certain traits which are necessary in the person. The activities you choose here will show you those traits.</div>
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Now <b style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">give marks</span></b> to the activities on a scale of 10. The one's you love doing most get higher marks.</div>
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Step 2. What's my talent?</h3>
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If you do not have the ability to do that which you like, you will never succeed. So next step is to discover your talents. These may or may not include the above activities. You may be good at math, but not like it. Never mind, include it in the list. When thinking of your talents do not be biased by what you like doing or what is a "hot" career, etc. Simply focus on these few questions.</div>
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<li>In which <span style="background-color: yellow;">subjects</span> at school / college do <span style="background-color: yellow;">i score</span> highest? Am I better than most of the class in these, if not then maybe they are not really a talent. e.g. my highest marks are in English, say 50%, while the class highest is at 70%, then English cannot be my talent.</li>
<li>In which <span style="background-color: yellow;">activities </span>outside of school, or those in school but not associated with academics, do<span style="background-color: yellow;"> I excel</span>? e.g. I may be good at dance or running. Again, if I haven't won any awards in these, then it may not be my talent.</li>
<li>If I haven't sparkled in front of the world by doing things that win awards, YET ... Are there things that I do in my free time, which are <span style="background-color: yellow;">productive</span>, like - teaching other kids, making handicraft items, helping dad with his shop or mom in the kitchen, or simply thinking about how other people think and usually be right in predicting their actions.</li>
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Usually we ignore the last of these. And yet, it is through these free-time activities which have no public recognition, we can find our careers, e.g. teaching, small scale industry, entrepreneurship or even counselling and philosophy. I may not enjoy doing some of these things the most, but if i am good at them I could still make a decent career. </div>
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A more systematic way of finding out about your talents (however not the most accurate) is to take certain online tests. (free for a basic result and paid for detailed analyses) Some of these tests may not work on you if you are too young like say in std VIII or so. The tests may also not work because you may misunderstand the question or you did not think hard enough. These tests will however, help diagnose if you are seriously talented in a particular area.</div>
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<li>Personality types and career indicators - such as the <a href="http://www.discoveryourpersonality.com/myersbriggstestpackages.html" target="_blank">MBTI</a> or the <a href="http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp" target="_blank">Jung Typology Test</a>. </li>
<li>Intelligence - Simple <a href="http://www.iqtest.com/" target="_blank">IQ tests</a>, <a href="http://www.intelligencetest.com/report/" target="_blank">Weschler Scale</a> (for 6-16 yrs), <a href="http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions/choose_lang.cfm" target="_blank">Multiple Intelligence</a></li>
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Now, again <span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>rank these activities</b></span> by assigning marks on a scale of 10. Where you believe you are most talented - since you get awards or recognition or simply because you are able to successfully perform the activities or because the "tests" say so - give more marks.</div>
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Step 3. Discover and connect careers to activities?</h3>
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Here is where the elders come in in an important way. Young people know whet they like and what they think they are good at. Elders can help refine these thoughts. However, what careers demand such personalities, is something only an elder who has been through that stage can know.</div>
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For example if someone likes to interact with people a lot, is very shrewd in choosing which people to make friends with and can convincingly argue on certain topics, however, is not good at any school subjects, could make a good career in marketing. Someone who is very quiet and reserved and like to think a lot about the world around and is only interested in talking with adults (that too the wise and educated) at length on different topics, can find a good path as a writer or philosopher. If a young person enjoys working with his hands and accepts / understands the science in the "books" only after he performs the experiments himself, would work well in a practical industry like manufacturing.</div>
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So what needs to be done is as follows:</div>
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<li><span style="background-color: yellow;">Find out</span> about different careers online. There is a wealth of information available. e.g. <a href="http://www.collegegrad.com/careers/all.shtml" target="_blank">Collegegrad</a> gives a listing and hence details of almost a 1000 careers and you could choose the ones you like to read about. Also, if you cant think of the career which matches your likes and talents, then you could do a keyword search on the <a href="http://www.myplan.com/careers/db/search2.php" target="_blank">career database</a>. These sites give you a fair idea of the job descriptions, the courses you need to do and to some extent the salary you can expect.</li>
<li><span style="background-color: yellow;">Choose the top 5 interests and talents</span> from your previous listing. For these items ask your parents or other elders in the family to help you guess which careers can your list of activities <span style="background-color: yellow;">match-up</span> with.</li>
<li><span style="background-color: yellow;">Find someone</span> in your friends and family <span style="background-color: yellow;">who is already into that career and try talking</span> to them about what are efforts involved or how satisfied they are and whether your personality is appropriate for this work. If nothing, you could always find someone on the internet who is famously into that career and write to them. </li>
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By doing these, you have the knowledge you need to proceed. So now <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>make a fresh list of the careers</b> </span></span>that your activities can lead to and you assign them marks on the basis of which ones match the most with your likes and talents.</div>
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Step 4. What pays?</h3>
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If you choose a path which wont even pay for your basic necessities, you wont survive for long, leave alone being happy. So with the information from the websites and other elders around you, ask these questions:</div>
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<li>How much money do I need to survive today, if I were living on my own? </li>
<li>How much salary / money should I earn to take care of a family living in this part of the world as of today? Would I be willing to live alone my whole life if my career doesn't pay enough?</li>
<li>How much do my top 5 careers pay?</li>
<li>If my favorite career doesn't pay enough, can I do something on the side to make enough money and yet retain my main interest?</li>
<li>Can I do my favorite "career" as a hobby and take up a more paying career? Will I be able to devote time to my favorite job?</li>
<li>Sometimes some careers are more paying for a few years and then the trend changes. Are my favorite careers just trends (so I must be cautious) or are they "stable and paying" for last many decades?</li>
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<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Mark your list of careers on a fresh scale</span></b> of 10 if they give favorable answers to the above questions. </div>
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</h3>
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Step 5. What is accessible?</h3>
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One may find a career for which he is passionate and has talent and it is also will pay him well; however the courses / learning needed may not be easily available. You may want to become a pilot and there may be no course in any nearby college which trains you to be so. You may not want to take a long-cut like do a regular graduation and then try going to a far-away place for this course. You may want to be a doctor, but you got a few marks less than required to get admissions due to the cut-throat competition or the course fees are exorbitant. So think about the following:</div>
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<ul>
<li>What courses would you need to do to realize your career? Sometimes you may not need a course but rather a particular kind of person (a Guru if you will) to teach you the ropes of the career like an apprentice.</li>
<li>Are such courses / people available at a convenient place?</li>
<li>Are such courses / people affordable?</li>
<li>Is the time required to finish these courses not a problem for you? e.g. If you need to earn in a hurry as your dad is retiring, then a 7 year PhD may not be right.</li>
<li>Are you capable of putting the efforts that the course demands? e.g. Engineering demands 8 hrs of lectures and almost the same for practical / study work per day. Can you handle that?</li>
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Now <span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>rank the top few courses</b></span> in your list on a scale of 10 using this last criteria. </div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;">And ... here's your decision. Try for the top career in your list. If that fails for some reason, move down the list.</span></b></div>
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Some caution</h3>
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The road to taking these big decisions of life is never easy. It may take you many days or months to decide after doing the above process, and the decision you take may change after a few years as your circumstances change. And yet the process I have outlined above is the surest way to take a good decision. After doing the steps diligently, you may still not get the best out of life or be the happiest, but you will surely have no regrets. An informed decision is usually the right one. So all the best ...</div>
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Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-39688829000279459332014-05-21T12:12:00.000+05:302014-05-21T12:48:49.076+05:30India's Hat-trick at the IPO<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I am very happy to announce that India has won a Silver medal for the third consecutive time at the 22nd International Philosophy Olympiad held Vilnius, Lithuania during 15-18 May 2014. The results were announced on the 18th. </div>
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The Indian contingent consisted of teachers Pooja Bilimogga (Mentor) and Kedar Soni (Team Leader) and students Aparna Mishra (DPS, Bokaro, Jharkhand) and Abhishek Dedhe (SP College, Pune, Mahrashtra). Abhishek Dedhe won the silver for his essay on a quote by Anscombe on the idea of what constitutes murder. Abhishek wrote about how unscrupulous thinking necessarily leads to unethical acts like murder, while Aparna highlighted the brutal killings under the guise of religion or politics or caste.</div>
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There were 42 nations competing with 2 students from each country, with the host (Lithuania) allowed a grace of 9 students. There were 4 golds, 8 silvers, 9 bronzes and 9 honorable mentions awarded this year. The total tally of awards is thus about 33%. This has been the highest fraction of awards at any IPO. </div>
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The Indian team had been selected through the Abhinav Philosopher competition during November-December (held in two stages). About 300 students had participated from various parts of the country. They later prepared through this blog (via posts and assignments) and them online on Google Hangouts. Finally a week before departure they attended a camp for more rigorous workouts at my school. Thus they put in almost 10 hours per week for over a few months and more than 14 hours a day at the camp. We even prepared all along the journey until just before the essay round. </div>
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Preparation consists of knowing something about logic and reason and also philosophy of various kinds, isms and issues. It was more about how to apply this knowledge then the knowledge itself. Philosophy cannot be simply learnt as a history of ideas, it must be learnt as a method of passionately debating these ideas and finding rhyme and reason within.</div>
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At the IPO Pooja and I evaluated essays of students from other countries. The identity of the essays we evaluate is secret and the international jury comprising of teachers from various countries goes over essays of students of countries other than their own. We discuss the topics and the essays constantly refining our perspectives and hence getting a more accurate judgement of the level of the students. The jury then selects the top few essays to be sent to the steering board comprising primarily of FISP members who are philosophers themselves. Pooja had represented India at the IPO held in Helsinki, Finland in 2009. She had been assisting in the training and selection of the Indian team, since then. This was the first time, she participated as an international jury.</div>
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All through the days after the essay round, the students participated in tours of historical interest, museums, etc, and workshops on topics in philosophy. The greatest part of the event though was students from many nations and ethnic divides meeting each other and learning from the other's culture. There a few shocks and a few surprises in store for all of them. Through this they learn to understand and accept different views and ideas as also different people. But then this is what it means to become a citizen of the world. </div>
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I conduct this Olympiad in India without any funding, with only one expectation: I want the youth of my country to learn to reason and think critically about each and everything they deal with - may it be IIT exams or regular studies or teenage problems or politics or may it be their deepest emotions and desires. I want them to be strong intellectually and emotionally to really create a great society ... and a great world.</div>
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Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-6091835652901598252014-04-05T09:54:00.001+05:302014-04-05T09:54:10.430+05:30Solutions to 'Structuring our Intuitions' - I<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Dear All,</div>
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Lets discuss the solutions (at least a few takes) to the <a href="http://abhinavphilosopher.blogspot.in/2014/02/structuring-our-intuitions.html" target="_blank">previous assignment</a>.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">1. God is Divine</span></b></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="color: blue;">Abhishek</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">: 1A. There do not seem to be separate premises and conclusions here. The statement is presented to us as a fact. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">Possibility - The statement is the premise. But we have not been given reason to believe in the premise. Thus, even though some potential argument based on this premise could be made and could be "valid", it would not be "sound". Thus, the argument is not "persuasive".</span></i></div>
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<i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">1B. Possibility - The statement is the conclusion. We are not given any reasons to come to the conclusion that "God is Divine". We are left asking - "Why is God Divine?" Thus, this appears to be a form of the "begging the question" type of fallacy</span></i></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Me:</b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"> Yes, it's like saying: "A point is a circle with zero dimensions. (and what is a circle - its a set of points at a certain distance from a common point)". "Divine" means "Of or like God" so it is a tautology (statement which is always true), since whether God exists or not, the idea / person of God will always be like the idea of the person of God. This is no argument.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>1. <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px;">Love is like a rainbow. It looks good from far away, but the moment you get closer to it, it disappears. Hence love is but an illusion.</span></b></span></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="color: blue;">Abhishek</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">: </span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><i>2A. Restructuring the argument</i></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">Premise 1 - Love looks good from far away.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
Premise 2 - The moment one gets closer to love, it vanishes.</div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
Conclusion 1 - Love is like a rainbow.</div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
Conclusion 2 - Love is nothing but an illusion.</div>
</span><u><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
Unspoken premises - </div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
Premise 3 - A rainbow looks good from far away.</div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
Premise 4 - The moment one gets closer to a rainbow, it vanishes.</div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
Premise 5 (Conclusion from Premise 4???)- A rainbow is an illusion.</div>
</span></u><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>2B. Premises 3 is a subjective issue. Different people may have different views on whether a rainbow appears good from afar (aesthetic ambiguity). A potential question - "Does a rainbow appear good from afar?" has not been addressed. Instead, a general statement has been made that is debatable. Thus, this represents the fallacies - "hasty generalization" and "begging the question".</i><i> </i></span><span style="color: blue;">(The arguer is not trying to prove that rainbows look good. He is simply trying to use a common perception. You may find the argument non-persuasive due to this assumption. This could be an '<b>Argument from Ignorance</b>')</span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
2C. Premise 4 is persuasive as it is based on the physical nature of a rainbow which depends upon the position of the observer. Before proceeding to Premise 5, we would have to decide upon the relevant meaning of "illusion". For Premise 5 to arise from Premise 4, "illusion" would have to mean "something that vanishes when one goes close to it". This is not necessarily the case. Thus, the persuasiveness of the Premise 5 would depend on using the correct meaning of "illusion", which is difficult to decide. Thus, this could be an example on the "<b>equivocation</b>" type of fallacy.</div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="color: #cc0000;">2D. Premise 1 and Premise 2 are not persuasive. The questions - "Does love indeed look good from far away? If so, why?" and "Does love vanish once one gets closer to it?If so, why?" are left unanswered. Thus, this is an example of the "begging the question" type of fallacy. Also, there is no clarity about what it means to get "closer" to love. Thus Premise 1 and Premise 2 are not very persuasive.</span></i><i style="color: #262626;"> </i><span style="color: blue;">(This is an argument in a nutshell, so one <b>cannot expect all explanations</b>. Instead, we can guess what are the possible explanations OR what were the possible reasons for the author to argue thus and hence frame our attack)</span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
2E. The argument relies on the analogy between "love" and "rainbow". However, the points of comparison between them (if they do exist) namely - 1) the existence of the object once we get closer to it, and 2) the appeal/ appearance of the object from afar; do not seem to be relevant in this case. Thus, this is an example of the "<b>weak analogy</b>" type of fallacy.</div>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Me:</b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">Thus the general take on this kind of poetic comparisons is that, it does not give a credible evidence of the asserted statement being true. </span></div>
</div>
Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-19323563144371988752014-02-09T21:04:00.001+05:302014-02-09T21:04:11.340+05:30Structuring our Intuitions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Dear students of philosophy,<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I continue with the next step to understanding philosophy (contd. from the <a href="http://abhinavphilosopher.blogspot.in/2014/01/developing-little-intuition-about.html" target="_blank">previous step</a> based on <a href="http://abhinavphilosopher.blogspot.in/2014/01/about-preparing-for-olympiad.html" target="_blank">the plan</a> ). For those who are new to this business (the business of philosophizing) let me tell you that the word I used many times up till now - intuiting or intuition - is not some hocus-pocus. Its just an happy-ish way of saying that you need to think about doing philosophy. Only since most of us are not so trained, we are unawares of the method we may adopt while thinking about something. I refer to this "unaware use of methods" which already are a part of our thinking process as "Intuition". So let us do some more of this and then eventually grab-the-method, so to say.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had asked you to read some stuff from the internet such as <a href="http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/vocab/index.html" target="_blank">Jim Pryor's notes</a> and Wikipedia on syllogisms and fallacies. So by now you must know that when we present our philosophical ideas, we do so in form of arguments. (Not that we bash each other up ...) These arguments are similar to the proofs that we study in math or the derivations we do in physics or the case that a lawyer presents in court on behalf of his client. The argument is a neatly structured set of statements, which imply (as rigorously as possible) the truth of a certain statement. They begin with presenting facts (axioms / premises / observations) and continue to present connections (conditionals / middle-terms / reasons). These connections then employ the reader's "<i><b>logical</b></i>" thinking to arrive at the conclusion. The emphasis of logic is because, it has many forms. The word could refer to the strict mathematical / deductive logic, where A connects to B and B connects to C leads to saying that A connects to C. The word may also mean syllogistic logic where the connections between the subject, middle-term and predicate exist as strictly as in math, but the meanings of the words denoting the subject, etc. may not be straight-forward and would depend upon correct interpretations, hence leading to some of the fallacies. (Some of the other fallacies are simply devious arguments made so to help the arguer win)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then again, the word "logic" taken in the lay sense could also mean - reasoning which itself has many forms - <i><b>deductive</b></i> as in the syllogistic logic or <i><b>inductive</b></i> (as in: I saw the Sun rise in the east for the past 4 days and so I conclude that it will always rise in the east.) or more vague forms. Read this <a href="http://onegoodmove.org/fallacy/branches.htm" target="_blank">quick summary</a>. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thus you see that arguments need not be automatically foolproof. Hence the need to consider whether they are <i><b>valid</b></i> (conclusion follows from the premises, even if the premises or the conclusion may be incorrect) or <b><i>sound</i></b> (valid with true premises; conclusion may still be false).</div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<b>The assignment (What is wrong with the argument? Why?)</b></h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now see if you can find out whats wrong with each of the following arguments. It could be a problem of validity or soundness or simply a fallacy. Try to answer critically by pointing out the exact sentence / sentences where the problem lies and also name the fallacy (if any) and explain in the context of the argument, why is it a problem, i.e. what was probably being implied here and what it ended up with OR what are the implications of the (wrong) argument and why are these implications wrong, etc. It would be helpful if you could start by distinguishing between the premises and the conclusion. <i>Hint: Ask yourself - Are you convinced by the conclusion?</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="background-color: white;">God is Divine</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Love is like a rainbow. It looks good from far away, but the moment you get closer to it, it disappears. Hence love is but an illusion.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Most educated Indians wish that Modi becomes the prime minister. Thus Modi is the ideal choice.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">The following is an argument between a Democratic Statist (D) and an Anarchist (A):</span></li>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;">D: Humans can't be trusted to self-govern!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A: If you can't trust the people with freedom, how can you trust the people in power?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
D: Because they were elected!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A: But they are also one of the people (who can't be trusted), are elected by the people (who can't be trusted) and represent the people (who can't be trusted). Why should I trust the system? Is the system run by people made of a finer clay than the rest of humankind?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
D: The system is based on a "social contract" and represents the "will of the people"...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A: show me the contract and my signatures on it!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
D: "We the people of India....."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A: Hey! Those aren't my signatures!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
D: Are you not part of the people of India? Do you wish to be exiled from the nation?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A: I'm part of the people of India, and no, I do not wish to be exiled, but those aren't my signatures. I could create a similar contract and write "We the people of Earth..." on it. Does that mean everyone on Earth, including the future generations to be born on Earth have consented to it?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
D: Did you vote?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A: No.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
D: Then you cannot complain.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A: show me the contract and my signatures on it!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
D: "We the people of India....."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Anarchist: Hey! Those aren't my signatures!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
D: Are you not part of the people of India? Do you wish to be exiled from the nation?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A: I'm part of the people of India, and no, I do not wish to be exiled, but those aren't my signatures. I could create a similar contract and write "We the people of Earth..." on it. Does that mean everyone on Earth, including the future generations to be born on Earth have consented to it?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
D: Did you vote?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A: No.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
D: Then you cannot complain.</div>
</blockquote>
<li>Read the pro-communism argument at <a href="http://leninism.org/some/index.htm#pseudopod_vs_hand">http://leninism.org/some/index.htm#pseudopod_vs_hand</a> focusing chiefly on the 4th big statement. Look here for a <a href="http://struggle.net/history/index.htm?marxism" target="_blank">more elaborate argument</a>.</li>
<li> .... ...... . .... now I am sure you are completely whacked out, so just send me the answers.</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We talk about analyzing concepts, thought experiments and outlining arguments in the next session.</div>
</div>
Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-24382099125858023852014-01-31T18:42:00.004+05:302014-01-31T19:33:38.441+05:30Solutions to "intuiting about philosophy" - part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://abhinavphilosopher.blogspot.in/2014/01/solutions-to-intuiting-about-philosophy.html" target="_blank">... continued</a></div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<b style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px; text-align: justify;">5. Does a person have a right to complain about the religious practices of his neighbors if the sound of these practices is reaching his home, loudly? Does this mean that he is being intolerant? Is this morally wrong?</b></h4>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;">Abhishek:</span> Main branch - Ethics. This is because the question deals with morality and behavior. Specific branch - Normative ethics and Meta-ethics and Descriptive ethics. This is because the questions considers whether that person ought to act in a specific way (normative ethics); evaluating the rightness or wrongness of that action - morality (meta-ethics). It also considers whether that person has a "right" to act in a particular way, i.e. - people's views about the action (descriptive ethics).</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: blue;">Me:</span> It is broadly stemming from Ethics or the study of the rules of behavior in a society. However, this goes more to the applied area of <i>Praxeology</i> where human action is studied in the context of its consequences on a larger societal setup as also the consequences of setting rules to be followed by certain components of society. Praxeology deals with areas like politics and economics where we discuss about not the behavior of one individual person, but a whole community. Note that if the individual X suffering on account of his neighbors (Y's) loud prayers, decides to engage in conflict or call the cops, then ANY such individual in that community must get the same right. (Unless the community has agreed that some members are ethnically superior to others, as is the case in ethnic dictatorships or nations with strong and fanatic religious majorities) If yes, then any other individual (Z) may protest about X's practices, which may be subtle, but the very idea that X eats meat (just an example) on the "holy" days can be intolerable to Z ... and so on. Taking this reasoning further we see that the issue of tolerating someone's culture/behavior, as long as it does not intentionally harm us, is an essential in a multi-cultural environment such as India. Now maybe you see the link to Politics. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
All the same tolerance with no limits can be considered a sign of weakness by some and can lead to deliberate attacks on the tolerant. This in turn necessitates conditions on the governance of the community. This raises questions of whether religion (or God) are / are not above the country. This also raises issues of economic stability which again have a bearing on the rules of governance. So you see, it is not an individual's moral choice alone, although every individual has a right to protest (in a democracy) against anything "intolerable". It is more of an issue to be resolved by the whole community or the government that represents it.</blockquote>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<b style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px; text-align: justify;">6. Is it appropriate to feed lots of chocolates to a chimpanzee to see if the chimp starts suffering from diabetes?</b></h4>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;">Abhishek:</span> Main branch - Ethics. This is because the question deals with morality and behavior. Specific branch - Normative ethics and Applied ethics. This is because the questions considers whether that person ought to act in a specific way (normative ethics); and whether this action is moral in a particular with respect to a particular issue (clinical or medical ethics in this case) (applied ethics)</span></blockquote>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: blue;">Me:</span> Personally, I would be glad to have the chimp be tested in order that my diabetes can be eventually treated; or to think of it, I would actually feed the poor chap with lots of chocolate, which I am sure he would enjoy to the sweet end. But that's all from personal experience and desires. Now lets think professionally. ;)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Would I like to be in the chimp's place, suppose an superior alien race wants to test a virus? So this is a question pertaining an action by some humans and supported by a larger group of humans, either knowingly or otherwise. However, it is an issue where the individual has to take a decisive stand and its consequences need not affect the larger society directly. So we can rule out Praxeology or any other applied areas. This is <i>Ethics, </i>sub branch - <i>Bioethics</i>. The issue here is about how much we understand other forms of life and value life as a whole. It is at a deeper level how we evaluate the value of something which is not really tangible or direct, viz., the idea of Man's superiority and hence benevolence against his efforts for solutions (which may or may not materialize) to further his survival. This goes to the extent of discussing whether Man gets to play God. Read some essays by Peter Singer. Try doing this <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/practicalethics" target="_blank">free course by Singer</a> to get some perspective.</blockquote>
</div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<b style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px; text-align: justify;">7. Is it 'OK' to mimic Shah Rukh Khan (dance or speech or fashion) because you adore him? Girls may choose Katrina Kaif.</b></h4>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;">Abhishek:</span> Main branch - Ethics. This is because the question deals with morality and behavior. Specific branch - Normative ethics and Descriptive ethics. This is because the questions considers whether that person ought to act in a specific way - imitating a particular actor/actress (normative ethics), based on people's views about the action (descriptive ethics).</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">I</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">ncidentally, the part of the question that stated that a girl may choose Katrina Kaif is an example of descriptive ethics. Girls choosing an actress to imitate while boys choosing an actor is based on people's views about gender. Normative ethics would also involve asking whether it is okay for a boy to imitate Katrina Kaif? And a girl to imitate Shah Rukh Khan? </span></blockquote>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: blue;">Me:</span> I realized that I should have used a newer role model than K-K-K-Khan uncle, but I guess you get the point. Mimicking someone is the natural method of learning new things - when you are a baby, that's how you learnt to speak or move or dance (well you weren't really a baby then, I suppose) - when you grew older, that's how you learnt to socialize, to dress-up, etc. - when you get really old, you still use it now and then to learn new physical skills or complex tasks or to blend in. But you see, the dependence on this method as against deliberate cognition - analyse, classify, reason, discriminate, synthesize, hypothesize, verify, justify, ... - should decrease as you grow more mature. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
So you see, the issue is largely about what you feel is acceptable in society and hence what you should or not do. This is again Ethics, but as all of the students who answered so far have pointed out - <i>Normative Ethics</i>. What is the norm, i.e. standard of social acceptability? How should I behave to blend in more? As also, what do I think is heroic or idealistic? This last part usually depends upon the social norm, but need not be always so. So as long as it is a questions of and for an individual, it is normative ethics.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Now further on, while taking a decision about whether it is "OK" to do so, you end up dabbling with meta-ethics as well. If you extend the question to society at large and for all individuals, i.e. should all barbers trim the hair of youngsters in the Khan or the Kaif style and therefore should all heads of school make this a part of the school dress code, etc. you are questioning "whether it is right to act as per the norm" OR "should the norms be enforced". <i>I am sure some of my students who had the misfortune of watching my hands work synchronously with my scissors, from very close, wouldn't dare support the allowance of fashion as a norm</i>. In essence here you could go as far as to question, whether a philosophy which support / opposes normative thinking, is the better one. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Coming to Abhishek's final comment there: There is indeed a connection between Descriptive and Normative theories wherein it is the people's views which eventually create the norm and you could question whether it is appropriate for a girl to dress like a boy or vice verse. </blockquote>
</div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<b style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px; text-align: justify;">8. What is a joke? What makes us laugh?</b></h4>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;">Abhishek:</span> Main branch - Aesthetics. This is because the question deals with the study of art and beauty. Specific branch - Nature of Art and Aesthetic Judgement and Aesthetic Taste. This is because the question deals with what a joke is (nature of art), whether we consider a given something to be a joke based on our understanding of what a joke is (aesthetic judgement), and whether we find the joke funny - whether we appreciate it (aesthetic taste)</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: blue;">Me:</span> Yes Abhishek & Aparna, it is Aesthetics and no Aparna it is not ethics, although it does raise ethical questions, such as whether we should laugh a certain community based on some of their common characteristics, etc. Humor is usually associated with the idea of difference or oddness, particularly with the difference in something or someone which makes the thing or person appear wrong in the given context. For instance imagine me hogging chocolates instead of the chimp, (Oh I'm loving it) or Abhishek dressed up like Katrina, or a plump chap slipping on a banana peel. Feels funny doesn't it. "How silly can these people be", "How weird would that look", etc.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Now think of the same in a different context: The great and handsome and muscular me (as I actually am) eating a chocolates with an air of gracefulness. (how sensuous - you would say) Abhishek dressed like Katrina when he was 2 year old. (Ohh! how cute - you may say) Plump guy slipping on the peel and hitting his head into a coma, and wait it minute - its your uncle!!! (now try laughing)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
So you see, humor is an issue of evaluating the effect of certain situations on people and determining which ones they would find odd / wrong / weird, but without a feeling of personal involvement. It is a process of evaluation of the psycho-epistemology of people. (why you feel that which you feel) The degree of laughter and hence the degree of the humor presented as an art-form has to be evaluated on the basis of the metaphysics of the artist and the audience. (what do they think is unreal / unnatural, hence humorous)</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So here goes the first assignment. Abhishek you gave really good answers; Satya and Aparna - well tried - next time elaborate your thoughts; and everyone - put your thoughts in the comments (FB or blogger) for all to see and discuss. Thus Abhishek, you get a reward - You are hereby allowed (even at the peril of losing face) to wear ANY costume at the official ceremonies of the IPO (Please try to be more confirming, ;) ). </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
So long. Stay tuned for the next assignment. (in a day or two ...)</div>
Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-48614754817895245732014-01-31T15:57:00.001+05:302014-01-31T19:33:53.088+05:30Solutions to "intuiting about philosophy" - part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In the <a href="http://abhinavphilosopher.blogspot.in/2014/01/developing-little-intuition-about.html" target="_blank">assignment posted</a> a few days ago, I had asked learners to classify 8 different issues as to the branch of philosophy that deals with them. I got some really good answers from Abhishek, Satyasarvani and Aparna. Lets dissect these.</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">1. In what way should one submit oneself to God.</span></span></h4>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18.479999542236328px;">Abhishek: </span></span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">Main branch - Ethics; </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">This is because the question deals with morality and behavior. </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">Specific branch - Normative ethics and Applied Ethics; </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">This is because the questions considers how a person ought to act (normative ethics). It also deals with a specific issue - religion and thus would be related to personal or private religious ethics (a part of applied ethics)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: blue;">Me:</span> The question is usually answered as a diktat from a certain theological standpoint and as such is outside the purview of systematic philosophy. i.e. One religion may ask its follower to submit via penance, while another may advocate highest learning about the world and beyond. These diktats usually have some reasoning (although based on fallacious grounds) which usually end up with "God said so" or that "God likes it like this" or some such variant. Philosophy is about asking questions and finding out deeper truths. Diktats are therefore not what philosophers do. However, questioning the rationale behind such theocratic doctrines is left to <i>Philosophy of Religion</i>. Ethics deals with behavior in human society, while the question above pertains to behavior towards that which transcends all that is human. Hence although normative ethics would analyse how people follow tenets of religion or applied ethics would discuss how subjugating oneself to God may be beneficial (or not) and how should one go about it, neither can define the method by which this may be done. So technically this question is theological and not philosophical, however, philosophy of religion is the closest tool to analyse various theologies and their take on this issue.<span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px;">2. What are the conditions for saying "I Know"? Is it sufficient to have heard it from someone or is it necessary to actually have seen it / sensed it?</b></h4>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18.479999542236328px;">Abhishek: </span></span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">Main branch - Epistemology. </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">This is because the question is regarding the study of knowledge. </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">Specific branch - Acquisition of knowledge : A priori and A posteriori knowledge. This is because the question asks whether obtaining knowledge should be ex</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1a1a1a; display: inline; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">perience-independent (A priori) or experience-dependent (A posteriori).</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: blue;">Me:</span> This is definitely a question from <i>Epistemology</i>. Epistemology deals with <i>what is knowledge</i>?, <i>what does it mean "to know"</i>?, <i>is knowledge subjective or objective</i>? and so on. As Abhishek rightly points out, it is an issue of whether we need to have an experience of something to truly "know" it or is learning indirectly from a trusted source, sufficient. It further deals with issues such as sensory data (what we sense) as being different from perception (what we make of it and is it necessarily the same) and the cognition (what we consciously think about it and learn from it or connecting it with other knowledge) as being the ultimate stage of "knowing". It also questions - if we have never sensed it ourselves, then can we be sure about its existence?. In this, it enters into the realm of metaphysics and would need to discuss what is existence. Thus the <i>Theory of knowledge</i> is an epistemic inquiry with a metaphysical basis. </blockquote>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px; text-align: justify;">3. What is the meaning of adding the number 1 to any number?</b></h4>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18.479999542236328px;">Abhishek: </span></span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">Main branch - Epistemology. </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">This is because the question is regarding the study of knowledge. </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">Specific branch - Nature of knowledge - Propositional knowledge. </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">This is because the question is regarding knowing that (propositional knowledge) addition of 1 to number means something and about finding out this meaning.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-small;">Aparna:</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Epistemology, Rationalism</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: blue;">Me:</span> The study of math entails the study and acceptance of many abstractions, one of which is 'numbers'. Although we can point out objects and count them, the idea of numbers remains abstract. Just to highlight this point, consider this question: If we count all the objects in the known universe (from people to mountains to fishes to molecules to toothpicks and then to stars and so on) we should be able to come up with some (very large) number. So, so far we know what each number we counted stood for. However, if we add 1 to this number, what would that stand for? (of course I already counted myself). So, if a number does not correspond to something, does it have meaning? Does meaning have to do with correspondance, or is it more about implication? (for example if an ant gave birth to another ant, then our counting would increase by 1 and thus the new number "would" exist and hence "has" meaning) Have a look at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_universe_hypothesis" target="_blank">Max Tegmarks hypothesis</a> for an interesting viewpoint. So to answer my question, this is partly epistemology, in the sense that we discuss about what is the knowledge associated with numbers or mathematical operations, but it is a more specific application of epistemology and partly metaphysics (<i>what is the meaning of?</i>) of reality into the field of abstractions, namely - <i>Philosophy of Mathematics</i>. </blockquote>
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Response to Aparna: Rationalism like many other '-isms' (e.g. logical positivism) take different standpoints to answer a question. Strict Realism for example may say that the numbers are just referrals to real objects and as such have no meaning and hence addition by 1 is simply a mechanism to refer to 1 more object. So in the absence of objects, this process has no meaning. Whereas, Plato's idealism or even Tegmark's hypothesis would claim that the numbers have their own existence in a world transcending our's and thus addition is just our way of understanding relations between different, already existing numbers. So you see, that is what isms do. They however do not change the area of philosophy in which the question is posed. Sometimes, questions are posed from one ism to counter another. Very rarely, questions from one area (from any ism) may lead to redefining another area by reclassifying the issues that come under it. e.g. Darwin's observations and the scientific questions he posed, shifted the focus of origin of life from religion to science.</blockquote>
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<b style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px; text-align: justify;">4. Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder or is it really about the hand of the artist?</b></h4>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18.479999542236328px;">Abhishek: </span></span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">Main branch - Aesthetics. </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">This is because the question deals with the study of art and beauty.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">Specific branch - Aesthetic judgement - Objective and Subjective Nature of Art. This is because the question deals with whether beauty is objective - innate, or viewer-independent; or subjective - viewer-dependent.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: blue;">Me:</span> Abhishek, Satya & Aparna are all pretty much on the mark here. It is <i>Aesthetics.</i> It has been a raging debate in this field for more than 2000 years about whether beauty is objective or subjective (<a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beauty" target="_blank">read more here</a>). Aparna is close in saying that it is an issue of values; more specifically of value judgement. It calls for a metaphysical understanding of how (and why) one forms a value judgement about something. For example, the ancient Greeks held that strength and heroism was something to be aspired to and this is depicted in most art of that era. Another example is where a teenager who cannot handle his emotional turbulence, prefers the escape into the world of films or songs, almost all the time, and thus finds songs about dreams and maybe love, to be extremely beautiful. Read <i><a href="http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_nonfiction_the_romantic_manifesto" target="_blank">The Romantic Manifesto</a></i> by Ayn Rand to a get a clearer picture of this issue.</blockquote>
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The next four answers in <a href="http://abhinavphilosopher.blogspot.in/2014/01/solutions-to-intuiting-about-philosophy_31.html" target="_blank">the next post. </a>Stay tuned ...</div>
Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-75046109514041640672014-01-28T23:41:00.001+05:302014-01-31T19:34:15.016+05:30Developing a little intuition about Philosophy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hello learners,</div>
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As I had mentioned in my <a href="http://abhinavphilosopher.blogspot.in/2014/01/about-preparing-for-olympiad.html" target="_blank">earlier post</a>, we need to start grappling with philosophy as a subject of study. This means we get our heads around a little jargon. An introductory piece was in the links in that post - step 1. Some more stuff in a quick form <a href="http://www.importanceofphilosophy.com/FiveBranchesMain.html" target="_blank">can be found here</a>. Having read this and some other books on philosophy, you should be able to figure out which branch of philosophy deals with which kind of issues. The purpose for learning this is:</div>
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<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">To take a narrow view - it helps when you are faced with a quote at the IPO or a similar exam/competition, to know which branch the issue belongs to, as this helps you recollect the different thinkers / isms contributing to this area. (assuming to store information systematically) Hence you can construct your argument for the essay.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">To take it slightly broader - It helps you to store info systematically, when you learn about the ideas in context of their development and the thinkers' backgrounds - more like learning the history of philosophy. However, to achieve this in a short time, its best to take a quick input of material, such as in the links above.</li>
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So now, try to <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">sort out the following</span></b> as an assignment and answer the same as comments to this post.</div>
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<u>Which branch(es) would deal with the following issues? Give the broad branch first, then be more specific</u></div>
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e.g. Q:<i> What is Life? What do you call as "alive"?</i> Answer: broadly - Metaphysics; finer look - Ontology</div>
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<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: justify;">In what way should one submit oneself to God.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">What are the conditions for saying "I Know"? Is it sufficient to have heard it from someone or is it necessary to actually have seen it / sensed it?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">What is the meaning of adding the number 1 to any number?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder or is it really about the hand of the artist?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Does a person have a right to complain about the religious practices of his neighbors if the sound of these practices is reaching his home, loudly? Does this mean that he is being intolerant? Is this morally wrong?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Is it appropriate to feed lots of chocolates to a chimpanzee to see if the chimp starts suffering from diabetes?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Is it 'OK' to mimic Shah Rukh Khan (dance or speech or fashion) because you adore him? Girls may choose Katrina Kaif.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">What is a joke? What makes us laugh?</li>
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So send me the answers in a couple of days. I intend to move to the next step by this weekend.</div>
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Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-59181494612148944222014-01-22T20:26:00.005+05:302014-01-31T19:41:44.606+05:30About preparing for the Olympiad<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Team India for IPO 2014 (Lithuania) has been finalized and the training begins. Ms. Aparna Mishra (Bokaro) and Mr. Abhishek Dedhe (Pune) have agreed to join the team and take the efforts needed. Mr. Previous international participants - Ms. Pooja Bilimogga (MSc - I, Physics) and Mr. Abhinav Menon (IB - DP finals) - have agreed to help with the training of this team. </div>
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I gather that both participants are avid readers and have read many books passed on in the markets as philosophical. (namely Chetan Bhagat or Paulo Coelho) They have also pondered over issues / questions of being and existence and "why things are the way they are". I believe that they are somewhat familiar with the traditional Hindu philosophy of <i>Gita.</i> and other related mythologies.</div>
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I find this to be the condition of most Indian students who are interested in doing philosophy, but have not yet been initiated into it by proper discourse. The fact that these students intentionally ponder over questions of life and "what it is" or "who they are" or "why things ..." is a proof that they have the curiosity needed to philosophize. However, in the absence of proper initiation, books such as self-help books or Chetan Bhagat, etc. provide the fodder for their thoughts. I think that the damage that these books (or similar philosophies touted by mystics or other "thinkers" who have not published any peer-reviewed essays, the latter being the way of a scientific pursuit) cause is </div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;">oversimplification of critical thought leading to wrong concepts</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">"analysis" based on presumptions and usually with a weak or no argument, which nullifies the readers capacity to analyse</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">unverified and usually unverifiable statements, which leave the reader to either take on faith or discard without thought, either of which is not the manner of the philosopher</li>
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I am not discussing this here to demean the literary value of these books or to in any way demean the efforts taken by Aparna or Abhishek or many others who are similarly interested. I am rather stating the problem that there are few resources (books, sites, etc) which can properly initiate a young mind into philosophical thought and engage him/her long enough so that he/she can produce an essay of intellectual value. (I do not count courses in philosophy, since they are usually very academic in nature and presume that the taker is already sufficiently motivated)</div>
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I do not pretend to be able to resolve this problem in an easy way. However, the course through which I have had good results in the past and course in which I intend to take this team is broadly as follows:</div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Overview of the subject (1/2 week):</b> Philosophy is a vast subject (if we may call it "a" subject) and consists of many branches. I ask the beginner to first have a quick glimpse of the issues in these branches so as to familiarize with the scope of philosophy. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Philosophy" target="_blank">Wikipedia portal on philosophy</a> and some specific pages like <a href="http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutphilosoph1/a/branches.htm">http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutphilosoph1/a/branches.htm</a> could be good for starters. Discuss any doubts at the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IndianPhilosophyOlympiad">FB group</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Tools of the subject (1 week):</b> The most important thing to learn before learning or doing philosophy is logic and different terms like arguments, validity, fallacy, etc. See <a href="http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/vocab/index.html" target="_blank">Jim Pryor's quick review</a> of these issues. Wikipedia is also a good source for this, e.g. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllogism">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllogism</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies</a>, or you may find such other pages - <a href="http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/fallacies/">http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/fallacies/</a>. We can discuss some assignments like making arguments or finding flaws in them via the blog / FB, once students have read the material.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Getting Perspectives (1 week):</b> It is now time to go deeper. Philosophy is different from science in that since it deals with many issues which have some un-observable phenomena at their base, hence different schools of thought crop up to explain issues from different viewpoints or to make different assumptions and solve the problems in their own way. These eventually end up as "-isms" such as realism, objectivism, mysiticism, idealism, etc. Look up <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_philosophical_isms" target="_blank">wikipedia</a> again for a quick review. These viewpoints are sometimes also known as different philosophies. We will discuss some simple issues from different isms to get a familiarity.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Diving deeper (3-4 weeks per branch):</b> Next step is to go deeper into a branch of philosophy - say Ethics. We choose the branch depending upon the interests of the students involved in this training. Ethics, Metaphysics or Praxeology are favorites at the IPO only because these contain issues that the pre-university learner can possibly handle, since you have come across these topics somewhere or the other in your humanities curricula or through general awareness. However other branches are given due justice once in a while and those can form some of the most interesting quotes to deal with at the IPO. We study the overview of the branch and then some pertinent issues from different points of view. We hone our argument making skills. We write some essays along the way.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Forming opinions (3 weeks vigorous):</b> Here's where we begin to perfect our essays. We take random issues from different branches or mixed stuff and discuss the arguments possible for or against. We brainstorm this online or in a classroom and hence learn how to explore the topic from every possible point of view, thereby making a complete argument. This goes on till the day of the competition.</li>
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All along this process students are encouraged to read up a few books which cover the overview of the subject and also familiarize the student with the work of specific philosophers and the language in which to put ones thoughts. One such thinker whose books are widely available is Bertrand Russell. <i>Problems of philosophy</i> is an excellent start. Another book you could read is <i>Sophie's World</i> by Josie Gaarder, which is a thorough introduction to the history of ideas (another name for development of philosophy) although in a very casual way through a novel-like approach.</div>
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Another author whose approach and language is very direct and convincing is Ayn Rand. Novels like <i>Atlas Shrugged</i> or the <i>Fountainhead</i> are more philosophically oriented than those of the other novelists I mentioned above. However the most important and direct philosophical works by Ms Rand in promoting her philosophy of <a href="http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=index" target="_blank">Objectivism</a> are <i>For the New Intellectual</i> and <i>The Romantic Manifesto. </i>Although Ms. Rand is not considered as a philosopher by the general community of philosophers, I personally find her thoughts eye-opening and her arguments lucid and usually without flaws. I find her solutions (that is generally rare in philosophy) to be very applicable. Hence I urge the students to read some of her work before they make up their minds about her. The minimum you would gain from reading Ayn Rand is a good grasp on verbal reasoning.</div>
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Thus we begin with Act I, Scene I - <b><i>Overview</i></b>. I expect some comments / queries / thoughts on the Facebook group before the end of January. The sooner we deal with the first three stages (say 2-3 weeks), the faster we can proceed.</div>
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p.s. Anyone is welcome to join these sessions. </div>
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Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2476388186116774184.post-45518302078361737412014-01-03T17:04:00.002+05:302014-01-31T19:41:55.069+05:30InPO final results<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Dear all,<br />
The final stage of the Indian Philosophy Olympiad is concluded with this declaration of the result. As the web site is experiencing some problem, we are posting the results here. <b>Congratulations to all who attempted, as all of you are brave enough to think and thus all are winners.</b><br />
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<td height="17" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: #ffff99; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; height: 12.75pt; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap; width: 142px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Name</span></b></td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: #ffff99; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap; width: 33px;" x:num="8.375"><b><span style="color: black;">Score</span></b></td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: #ffff99; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap; width: 33px;" x:num="8.375"><b><span style="color: black;">Rank</span></b></td>
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<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat; border: medium none; color: #ffff99; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; height: 12.75pt; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap; width: 142px;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Abhishek Dedhe</b></span></td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: #ffff99; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap; width: 33px;" x:num="8.375"><span style="color: black;">8.38</span></td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: #ffff99; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap; width: 33px;" x:num="8.375"><span style="color: black;">1</span></td>
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<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat; border: medium none; color: #ffff99; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; height: 12.75pt; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="142"><span style="color: black;"><b>Aparna Mishra</b></span></td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: #ffff99; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="7.625"><span style="color: black;">7.63</span></td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: #ffff99; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="7.625"><span style="color: black;">2</span></td>
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<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; height: 12.75pt; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="142">Nihar Kulkarni</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="6.625">6.63</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="6.625">3</td>
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<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; height: 12.75pt; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="142">Rounak Majumdar</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="5.625">5.63</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="5.625">4</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; height: 12.75pt; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="142">Purva Chaudhari</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="5.375">5.38</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="5.375">5</td>
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<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; height: 12.75pt; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="142">Rohan Dhere</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="5.375">5.38</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="5.375">5</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; height: 12.75pt; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="142">Satyasarvani Pindiproli</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="">4.5</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="">6</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; height: 12.75pt; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="142">Madhura Bilimogga</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="">4</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="">7</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; height: 12.75pt; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="142">Manju Sharma</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="2.875">2.88</td>
<td style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border: medium none; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;" width="33" x:num="2.875">8</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div>
The top two in this list will be asked to join the Indian team for the IPO at Lithuania in May. If any one of them is unable to join then the next in rank will be asked. This process will culminate in a week or so and the final team for the IPO will be announced.<br />
A more proper announcement of performances will be put up on the web site when the site is back online. </div>
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Kedar Sonihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08994533095149673853noreply@blogger.com0