•  281
    Wittgenstein on the foundations of language : A non foundational narration
    Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences 16 (2009): 165-200. 2009.
    The primary objective of this paper is to show that for later Wittgenstein, language cannot be based on a pre-linguistic foundation. Following closely on the tracks of the philosopher, it argues that none of the proposed foundations that are claimed to relate language to reality - viz. verbal definitions, ostensive techniques, mental images, quantitative measurement , Fregean thought or intention - is able to sustain its assumed pre-interpretive character. In a dense exegetical engagement w…Read more
  •  141
    Wittgenstein and Davidson on actions: A contrastive analysis
    Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences 91-120. 2012.
    This paper seeks to bring out the difference between the later Wittgenstein’s and Davidson’s view of actions with a special focus. Initially it contrasts their respective approaches to the correlative notions of wish, will (intention) and actions, an issue which has customarily been categorized as reason-approach of Wittgenstein as against the mental causation theory endorsed by Davidson. The ultimate aim of this paper is to integrate the ontology of actions with the semantic issue of the dis…Read more
  •  25
    Reference As Action - Space and Time in Later Wittgenstein
    Indian Institute of Advanced Studies. 2019.
    This work projects the later Wittgenstein as dissolving the unwanted cleavage between reference and description through a uniquely original route that also outgrows the traditional dichotomy between the descriptive and non-descriptive theories of reference. Following a nuanced track of arguments, the author argues that the supposed primacy of reference vis-à-vis the optional and indeterminate character of description (or meaning) virtually feeds on a containment model of space and time. Objects …Read more
  •  12
    Later Wittgenstein on Language and Mathematics
    Indian Institute of Advanced Studies. 2017.
    This work takes off with the clear intention of weaving a single anti-foundationalist narrative that will connect the later Wittgenstein’s views on ‘ordinary’ language with those on the ‘specialist’ regime of mathematical language. Some popular notions about his later views—those that confuse his idea of indeterminacy with mere ambiguity, or read him as substituting sociological or physiological foundations for the classical ones, or brand his anti-foundationalism as a form of relativism—are all…Read more
  •  10
    Gandhi on Caturvarṇa and Niṣkāma Karma: A Re-interpretation
    Journal of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research 37 (3): 481-499. 2020.
    Gandhi’s writings on the issue of Caturvarṇa, despite their apparent lacunas, dogmatic tones and seeming inconsistencies, are available to a convincing reconstruction. With this purpose in view, the first section of this paper will attempt to give an anti-foundational reading of Caturvarṇa—where varṇa is seen to be based neither on the different proportions of the three guṇas (sattva, rajas and tamas), nor on a system of hereditary professions, but as abstract dimensions that are not mutually ex…Read more