Shaj Mohan

Shaj Mohan
Shaj Mohan, philosopher
Alma materSt. Stephen's College, Delhi
EraContemporary philosophy
SchoolDeconstruction
Post-metaphysics
InstitutionsSt Stephen's College, Delhi
LanguageEnglish
Main interests
Ontology
Metaphysics
Philosophy of technology
Philosophy of politics
Reason
Anastasis
Notable ideas
Stasis,[1] anastasis, hypophysics,[2] Comprehending law[3]

Shaj Mohan is an Indian philosopher.[4][5][6][7] His philosophical works are in the areas of metaphysics, reason, philosophy of technology, philosophy of politics, and secrecy.[8][9][10][11] Mohan's works are based on the principle of anastasis according to which philosophy is an ever-present possibility on the basis of a reinterpretation of reason.[12][13]

Biography

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Mohan completed his early education in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, and studied philosophy at St. Stephen's College, Delhi where he taught for some time.[12][14] He has academic degrees in economics and philosophy.[5][15] Mohan is originally from Tirunelveli. His grandfather Nadaraja Pillai participated in the Indian independence movement with the congress party.[16]

He has published in the areas of metaphysics, reason, nature,[17] secrecy, philosophy of technology,[18] and philosophy of politics.[19][20][21]

He has written philosophical essays against the rise of Hindu nationalism in The Indian Express,[22] Mediapart,[23] Outlook, La Croix,[24] The Wire, The Caravan,[25] Le Monde[26] and Libération.[27] As per Le Monde he has faced difficulties due to his political writings.[28]

In 2021 the American critical theory journal Episteme published a special issue on the philosophy of Mohan and Divya Dwivedi.[29]

Philosophical work

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Mohan's work shows a new possibility for philosophy which is neither metaphysics nor deconstruction, and its orientation was described as deconstructive materialism.[30] According to Counter Currents there is “something which can be called a revolutionary theory, but not under that name” in his work.[31]

His work combines the formalism and argumentation of analytic philosophy with the intuitive exegetical style of continental philosophy.[32] Mohan is credited with having "created a new voice in philosophy" resembling the style of prophesy.[12] Mohan said that it is possible to practice philosophy without anchoring it to any tradition.[33] He argued that the principle of reason has an important role in philosophy in spite of the criticisms of it in the 20th century. Reason exceeds mechanical thinking as it has a relation to "the obscure".[34][35] This rethinking of the principle of reason is made possible through interpreting the philosophical tradition of faculties in a new way.[30] His works are opposed to exceptionalist style of thinking, including state of exception.[36]

Mohan wrote the books Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-politics published by Bloomsbury Academic, UK[37] and Indian Philosophy, Indian Revolution: On Caste and Politics[38] published by Hurst Publishers, UK with the philosopher Divya Dwivedi.

Jean-Luc Nancy wrote the foreword to Gandhi and Philosophy and described the originality this work in terms of the relation shown by it between truth and suffering. Nancy wrote that this work creates the new beginning for philosophy following the end of metaphysics,

This is how this book comes to our attention and contributes to orient us, if I may say so, toward a thought, and even a world, neither humanist nor reduced to suffering in the name of Truth. In the terms of this work: neither metaphysics nor hypophysics.[39]

Rachel Adams and Crain Soudien assert that Mohan's "thought is increasingly becoming one of the most radical and important contributions to the philosophy of the world, today".[40]

Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-politics

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According to Jean-Luc Nancy Gandhi and Philosophy leads to a new orientation outside of the theological, metaphysical and nihilistic tendencies in philosophy. Bernard Stiegler said that this work "give us to reconsider the history of nihilism in the eschatological contemporaneity and shows its ultimate limits" and offers a new path.[41][42] Gandhi and Philosophy calls this new beginning the anastasis of philosophy.[43] Robert Bernasconi said that the inventiveness and the constructivism behind the concept of ana-stasis, or the overcoming of stasis, has a relation to the project of re-beginning of philosophy by Heidegger.[44]

Gandhi and Philosophy proposed that parallel to the metaphysical tendency in philosophy there is hypophysics. Hypophysics is defined as "a conception of nature as value". Mohan said "This non-philosophical system, which we call hypophysics, is necessarily interesting for philosophy. "[6] The distance from nature that human beings and natural objects come to have through the effects of technology lessens their value, or brings them closer to evil. Gandhi's concept of passive force or nonviolence is an implication of his hypophysical commitment to nature.[45] Livio Boni in Le collectif de pantin noted that the concept of hypophysics is influenced by Kant. Hypophysics enables a rational reading of Gandhi's works to learn from it without falling into the errors of mysticism.[46]

The philosophical direction outside of metaphysics and hypophysics is created through the invention of a new conceptual order. It is meant to enable philosophy to step outside the regime of sign, signifier, and text.[43][6] The Book Review said that the philosophical project of Gandhi and Philosophy is to create new evaluative categories, "the authors, in engaging with Gandhi's thought, create their categories, at once descriptive and evaluative" while pointing to the difficulty given by the rigour of a "A seminal if difficult read for those with an appetite for philosophy".[47] Some of the conceptual inventions have been noted to have come from mathematics and biology.[30]

The constructionist tendency of Gandhi and Philosophy places it between the dominant philosophical styles of continental philosophy and analytical philosophy.[43] The conclusion of Gandhi and Philosophy emphasizes the construction of a new dimension in philosophy.

Anastasis is the obscure beginning which would gather the occidental and the oriental to make of them a chrysalis and set off the imagos born with their own spans and skies; these skies and the imagos set against them will refuse to trade in orientations; and these skies will be invisible to the departed souls of Hegel who sought mercury in the darkest nights.[48]

Indian Philosophy, Indian Revolution: On Caste and Politics

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Mohan co-authored the book Indian Philosophy, Indian Revolution: On Caste and Politics with Divya Dwivedi. The book was edited and annotated by Maël Montévil who added a philosophical glossary to the book explaining the philosophical terminology of Dwivedi and Mohan.[49]

The book is an anthology of essays and interviews outlining a revolutionary theory in anti-caste politics.[50] According to the book the caste system is the oldest structured program of racism continuing uninterrupted for 3000 years. It argues that Hindu religion is a 20th century invention by the upper caste leaders of India and British colonial administration, and it serves to suppress the political reality of lower caste people in all religious denominations constituting the real majority population of India.[51] It contains a new theory of history suitable for understanding the lower caste majority position in politics and for theorising politics of equality.[52][49] Indian Philosophy, Indian Revolution was called “an anti-caste political program or a manifesto only comparable to the little book of Marx and Engels.”[49]

The political points of view, analysis and theories developed in the book are based upon the previously published philosophical works, including on topics such as deconstruction, and the book Gandhi and Philosophy.[53] Philosophers including Slavoj Žižek and Robert Bernasconi, and theorist of literature Robert Young have said that the book has relevance to philosophical reflections on political crisis developing in other parts of the world.[54]

Reception

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Jean-Luc Nancy, Robert Bernasconi, Bernard Stiegler and Robert J. C. Young said that his work creates new possibilities for philosophy beyond the impasse of metaphysics and nihilism.[39][42][41] American critical theory journal Episteme published a special issue of critical assessments of the philosophy of Mohan and Divya Dwivedi in 2021.[29]

Mohan's work on Gandhi was criticised from the point of view methodological and stylistic difficulty. Robert Bernasconi noted that Gandhi and Philosophy is a difficult book and it is "not a book that you will understand at first reading".[44] The difficulty due to the constructivist style was noted by other authors as well.[47][43][55]

Gandhi and Philosophy was criticised from the point of view of the recent mounting criticisms of Gandhi in India and internationally. It was said that Gandhi and Philosophy might be exalting Gandhi while being very critical of him at the same time. The ambiguous approach to Gandhi was described in one of the commentaries in The Indian Express as "Mohan and Dwivedi have done a masterful job of avoiding the binary fork – hagiography or vituperation – as much of Gandhi and hagiography comes from a need to spiritualise Gandhi".[56]

Economic and Political Weekly pointed to Mohan and Dwivedi's participation in the paradigm of "western philosophy", especially when Gandhi's goal was to create an alternative to Eurocentrism. EPW said that his work may be of interest only to continental philosophy as he does not participate in Indic discourses.[57]

Bibliography

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Books

Articles

Interviews

References

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  1. ^ "Shaj Mohan : "Nous sommes en état de stase"". France Culture.
  2. ^ "Gandhi and Philosophy: Hypophysics and the Comparison between Caste and Race". Episteme.
  3. ^ "Transformative Imagination and the Need for Law". Episteme.
  4. ^ "Coronavirus and Philosophers". 8 January 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Gandhi's Experiments with Hypophysics". Frontline. 2 October 2019.
  6. ^ a b c "A new book examines what we talk about when we talk about the Father of the Nation". The Indian Express.
  7. ^ "Hindu nationalism and why 'being a philosopher in India can get you killed". Mediapart. 27 May 2018.
  8. ^ "Shaj Mohan bio at Bloomsbury Academic, UK". Bloomsbury Publishing.
  9. ^ "Une nuit de philosophie (1/4) : Philosopher en Inde". France Culture.
  10. ^ "Shaj Mohan". École normale supérieure.
  11. ^ "Book Review: Gandhi as Chrysalis for a New Philosophy". The Wire.
  12. ^ a b c "The Resurrection of Philosophy". The Wire.
  13. ^ "The Deconstructive Materialism of Dwivedi and Mohan: A New Philosophy of Freedom". positions politics. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  14. ^ "The sound of flicking nails". The Hindu.
  15. ^ "New book rubbishes BJP aim to assimilate Gandhi". Deccan Chronicle.
  16. ^ "Two philosophers and a political theorist: An allegory of Indian public sphere". English.Mathrubhumi. 15 November 2022. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  17. ^ Yu, Ai (2020). "Digital surveillance in post-coronavirus China: a feminist view on the price we pay". Gender, Work & Organization. 27 (5): 774–777. doi:10.1111/gwao.12471. PMC 7280578. PMID 32837009.
  18. ^ Apter, Emily (2019). "Alphabetic Memes: Caricature, Satire, and Political literacy in the Age of Trump". October. 170: 5–24. doi:10.1162/octo_a_00366. S2CID 208268701.
  19. ^ Dhanda, Meena. "Philosophical Foundations of Anti-Casteism". Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. 120.
  20. ^ "Is privacy a privilege?". The Tribune.
  21. ^ Mohan, Shaj (2015). "On the relation between the Obscure, the Cryptic, and the Public". The Public Sphere From Outside the West. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472571922 – via Google Books.
  22. ^ "Courage to Begin". The Indian Express. 30 September 2019.
  23. ^ "Hindu nationalism and why 'being a philosopher in India can get you killed'". Mediapart.
  24. ^ "Un nouveau mouvement pour l'indépendance de l'Inde". La Croix.
  25. ^ Reghu, co-authored by Divya Dwivedi, Shaj Mohan, J. "How upper castes invented a Hindu majority". The Caravan. Retrieved 7 April 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. ^ "En Inde, les troubles s'expliquent en partie par la Constitution du pays". Le Monde.
  27. ^ "L'antifascisme, un crime en Inde Par Divya Dwivedi et Shaj Mohan". Libération. 5 September 2018.
  28. ^ "En Inde, le mensuel " The Caravan " est harcelé par la police". Le Monde.fr (in French). 2 February 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  29. ^ a b "Philosophy for Another Time; Towards a Collective Political Imagination". positions politics. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  30. ^ a b c "The Deconstructive Materialism of Dwivedi and Mohan: A New Philosophy of Freedom". positions politics. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  31. ^ "Class, Caste And Communism: An Interview With J. Reghu| Countercurrents". countercurrents.org. 5 April 2023. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  32. ^ "What we need is collective shared political inventions; Shaj Mohan tells ILNA". ILNA. 22 June 2020. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  33. ^ ""The Winter of Absolute Zero": Interview with Shaj Mohan by Auwn Gurmani". Naked Punch.
  34. ^ ""But, there is nothing outside of philosophy": Conversation between Shaj Mohan and Rachel Adams". positions politics. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  35. ^ Mohan, Shaj; Mohammed, Anish (2015). "Principle of Sufficient Reason 2: On Information Metaphysics". The Public Sphere From Outside the West. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472571922 – via Google Books.
  36. ^ Chambers, Claire (27 December 2021). "Unreliable Witnesses?". 3 Quarks Daily. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  37. ^ "Gandhi and philosophy". Bloomsbury Publishing.
  38. ^ "Dissecting the politics of caste | Book review". English.Mathrubhumi. 8 June 2024. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  39. ^ a b Mohan, Shaj; Dwivedi, Divya; Nancy, Jean-Luc (13 December 2018). Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-Politics. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4742-2173-3 – via Google Books.
  40. ^ Adams, Rachel; Soudien, Crain (31 October 2022). "Introduction: Radical Reason". South African Journal of Science. 118 (Special issue: Radical Reason). doi:10.17159/sajs.2022/15000. ISSN 1996-7489. S2CID 253198738.
  41. ^ a b Stiegler, Bernard (14 November 2018). Qu'appelle-t-on Panser ?: 1. L'immense régression. Les Liens qui Libèrent. ISBN 979-1-02-090559-8 – via Google Books.
  42. ^ a b "Reviews Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-politics". Bloomsbury Academic, UK.
  43. ^ a b c d "Gandhi as Chrysalis for a New Philosophy". The Wire.
  44. ^ a b Robert Bernasconi speaking at the launch of 'Gandhi & Philosophy'. Bloomsbury India. 14 March 2019 – via YouTube.
  45. ^ Singh, Siddharth (27 September 2019). "A philosophical appraisal of Gandhi's outlook and ideas". Open Magazine.
  46. ^ "Le gandhisme à l'épreuve de la psychanalyse (II) Identification à l'autre et dés-identification par « restance » : les années de formation de Gandhi à Londres (1888-1891) - Collectif de Pantin". www.collectifdepantin.org (in French). Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  47. ^ a b Tankha, V. "Philosophizing Gandhi". The Book Review.
  48. ^ Mohan, Shaj; Dwivedi, Divya (13 December 2018). Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-Politics. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 217. ISBN 978-1-4742-2173-3 – via Google Books.
  49. ^ a b c "An Anthology of Anti-Caste Essays and the Question of Who Gets to Kill Whom". thewire.in. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  50. ^ Punia, Aarushi (25 April 2024). "Book review: 'Indian Philosophy, Indian Revolution'; Imagining a country led by lower castes". Maktoob media. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  51. ^ "Religion döljer klass i Narendra Modis Indien". Parabol (in Swedish). Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  52. ^ "Dissecting the politics of caste | Book review". English.Mathrubhumi. 8 June 2024. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  53. ^ Lèbre, Jérôme (9 May 2024). "En finir avec l'hindouisme, révolutionner l'Inde : la philosophie de Divya Dwivedi et Shaj Mohan - AOC media". AOC media - Analyse Opinion Critique (in French). Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  54. ^ "Indian Philosophy, Indian Revolution | Hurst Publishers". HURST. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  55. ^ Suhrud, Tridip (17 August 2019). "'Gandhi and Philosophy – On Theological Anti-Politics' review: Leap of faith". The Hindu.
  56. ^ Ayyar, Raj. "Bending the binary". The Indian Express.
  57. ^ Raghuramaraju, A (3 August 2019). "Gandhi in the Company of Western Philosophers". Economic and Political Weekly. Vol. 54, no. 31. pp. 7–8.
  58. ^ Dwivedi, Divya; Mohan, Shaj (29 February 2024). Indian Philosophy, Indian Revolution: On Caste and Politics. C. Hurst (Publishers) Limited. ISBN 978-1-911723-23-3.
  59. ^ Nancy, Jean-Luc; Mohan, Shaj (8 February 2024). On Bernard Stiegler: Philosopher of Friendship. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-350-32902-7.

Further reading

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Secondary literature

Articles

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