Skeptic's Vocabulary provides a toolkit for skepticism in India. It comes from the realisation the questions that confront skepticism in the Indian subcontinent is fundamentally different from that in the West. It would provide a collection of 'concept words' and arguments that can form basis for meaningful debates.

Most of the articles that form the 'vocabulary' are drawn from the real life debates that took place in the last few years. Few entries are background narratives that are 'prerequistes' for answers discussed elsewhere.

 

See About for my short bio to know my ‘arc of interests’ and the potential conflict of interests. The potential 'risk of bias' are subjected to critical scruitiny by the same tools Ω that form the backbone of analysis in the blog.

 

SLEEP ,DREAMS AND CONCOCTION OF ARMCHAIR PHILOSOPHERS

  Recently I was on a panel discussion on neuroscience datasets at a premier engineering institute. The discussion was part of a symposium on Data-driven innovations. As the meeting was [...]

PROPAGANDA, ARTEFACTS, REASON AND LOGIC A commentary on reasoning in Languages of Common Use

  Revisiting his magnum opus Brave New World, Aldous Huxley cites the story of an institute founded by a group of philanthropists in New England in the late 1930s. Established [...]

PARADIGMS OF MEDICAL PERCEPTION A commentary on the evolutionary status of Indian system of medicine through the eyes of Micheal Foucalt’s The Birth of the Clinic

Micheal Foucalt’s The Birth of Clinic is a relevant read for those who are interested in the evolution of the conceptual jumps that led to the modern medical practices. It [...]

IN THE CRADLE OF EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE

One of the things I was fascinated by during adolescence and early adulthood was the rapid rise of fortunes in the Western world which began in the 17th-18th centuries. We [...]

CONSTANTINE’S SWITCH Yet Another Switch of the Western World

What lies underneath the marbles that covered  the Colosseum? But  you hardly see any marbles in the real Colosseum. It’s all bare stones!   The story of the marbles that [...]

MACROECONOMICS ORTHODOXY AND POLICY MAKING IN TIME OF CRISIS Keynes, Friedman and the Spread of Covid Pandemic in India

The COVID global pandemic was one such phenomenal event that incited the deepest convictions of the politicians. Thus, when the idea of lockdown was mooted to right wing politicians like [...]

COUNTER-ENLIGHTENMENT TRAITS

Counter-Enlightenment traits are a group of beliefs and attitudes that run counter to the values that made possible the modern world. We can list 5 such beliefs. These are mysticism, [...]

MATRIX OF ENLIGHTENMENT VALUES

Modern nation states and organisations are mostly run by virtue of what is known as Enlightenment values (EV) (for more, see) There may be various permutations of these values in [...]

SADHGURU ISHA JAGGI VASUDEV: OSHO AND MAHESH YOGI FOR THE 21st CENTURY MARKET A Review of Isha Sadhguru’s Inner Engineering Program

  I attended one of Isha’s online cum contact programs eager to know what he offer for all the techies to flock to him. I had got positive reviews of [...]

Narender Modi, Indira Gandhi and the Resetting of Indian Politics.

Narender Modi is a charismatic leader. In the range of his influence, he is undoubtedly the most charismatic political leader India has ever seen since Indira Gandhi. His tricks and [...]

What are Enlightenment Values?

Enlightenment values are a set of values that have their origin in the ideas developed by European thinkers from the Age of Enlightenment. These ideas primarily involve a break from [...]

FASHIONABLE NONSENSE Misuse of Language in the Name of Postmodernism

Fashionable nonsense is a sequel  of the ‘Sokal’s hoax’ on the manner in which ‘postmodern’ writers abuse language and scientific concepts. It describes a community of people who encourages obfuscation in [...]

THE RISE OF THE WEST An Annotated review of Niall Ferguson's 'The West and the Rest

British historian Niall Ferguson’s book Civilization: The West and the Rest ( Alien Lane, Penguin Group, 2011) is an interesting survey of the history of the world over the last [...]

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT AND THE FOUNDATION OF MORALITY

social contract is the basis of all our laws and morals. Human rationality is agency that make people follow laws and morals. Laws are boundaries of major infringements of social [...]

MODEL BASED REALISM

What is it like to be a goldfish in a bowl? Does the curvature of the bowl distort its vision enough to prevent it from “knowing” anything beyond the water [...]

AUSCHWITZ AND THE GREAT RESETTING

Auschwitz is the location that acted as the switch which turned on a great resetting in the West after the Second World War. Visiting Auschwitz was like watching a silent horror [...]

Pseudo-communism and Pseudo-capitalism How does the social model of Kerala differ from that of Gujarat?

Kerala is a state that shows signs of an advanced application of European Enlightenment values. Its social cohesion is the direct result of these shared values. North Indian [...]

AGNOSTICISM, ATHEISM, AND THE QUESTION OF ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE

Agnosticism can be explained with a simple statement. I will borrow from renowned physicist and science-writer Carl Sagan for this, who said (in the context of searching for extraterrestrial intelligence), [...]

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONS IN INDIA THE SOCIAL CAPITAL OF CASTE

Social capital is the aggregate influence a person by virtue of his birth and social connections gains in the society. It is the fundamental basis for institution of reservation in [...]

WESTERN STRATEGIC DEPTHS AND THE EMERGENCE OF WEST ASIAN PETROECONOMIES The "Fist of God" in the Making of the Modern Middle East

A few weeks after my relocation to Muscat, I happened to read a controversial and now almost discredited book called The Passing of the Great Race. It was written by [...]

IDEOLOGY BASED OPINION VERSUS EVIDENCE BASED OPINION Matter of Thought versus Matter of Fact

Ideology driven opinion is fundamentally different from evidence driven opinion. For the sake of this article, I will shorten these terms to IBO ( Ideology Based Opinion) and EBO ( [...]

THE ACCIDENTAL PRIME MINISTER INTRIGUES OF THE DELHI DURBAR AND THE FALL OF THE UPA-II

The Accidental Prime Minister is an interesting peep into the intrigues and tribulation of work in the high offices of Delhi. The book has been marred with controversy regarding the [...]

SKEPTICISM

Skepticism is a general approach to the world, and not exclusively linked to ‘denial of God’. Most of the people are skeptics except in a few walks of life. As [...]

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