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Dharma: The Categorial
Imperative
The book highlights 18 selected papers from the conference, which have been revised following the discussions and deliberations that took place there. As the editors point out, the word dharma enjoys a unique semantic status in Indian civilisation, which is only enhanced when it is placed in an eastern context where its semantic uniqueness is best brought out by juxtaposing it with the two English words: religion and ideology. In the western concept of religion, the term carries with it the connotation of singular religious adherence. In other words, it is not possible to be a follower of the religions of Judaism, Christianity or Islam, for instance, at the same time. This sense of exclusive belonging or singular adherence to a faith is a very important to the definition of religion in the West. Similarly, ideology is categorised on mutually exclusive basis, you can’t be a capitalist and a communist at the same time. Dharma, on the other hand has a transcendental dimension, and thereby is in its own category. As the editors point out, dharma is often neglected as a category of organisation in intellectual discourse, thus the emphasis on dharma as a category, for viewing Indian reality intellectually. The word categorial is used to differentiate it from the more philosophically loaded categorical, because of the Kantian baggage that the term has acquired since the German philosopher Immanuel Kant used it in the first quarter of the 19th century in connection with his categorical imperative, which has moral connotation, distinct from the epistemological nature of this enquiry. Dharma: The Categorial Imperative takes the conference papers beyond the walls of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, where the conference was held in 1977. The papers explore the concept of dharma as applied to some contemporary issues relating to women and the dilemmas faced by us in our professional and day-to-day life. They would be of interest to the general readers as well as scholars of philosophy, psychology, religion, sociology, contemporary Indian studies, and women's studies. The editors, who are among the major philosophers in the country today, are to be commended for using their editorial blue pencil and glue to bring together various presentations into a cogent book. |
DHARMA, it is so easily
understood and so difficult to define. The linguist fails if he seeks to
convey the meaning through the term religion, or even ideology, or even
a mixture of two. No wonder, 50 scholars from various parts of the world
attended a week-long conference to discuss Dharma: The Categorial
Imperative.