‘Quine’s Meaning Nihilism: Revisiting Naturalism and Confirmation Method,’

The paper concentrates on an appreciation of W.V. Quine’s thought on meaning and how it escalates beyond the meaning holism and confirmation holism, thereby paving the way for a ‘meaning nihilism’ and ‘confirmation rejectionism’. My effort would be to see that how could the acceptance of radical naturalism in Quine’s theory of meaning escorts him to the indeterminacy thesis of meaning. There is an interesting shift from epistemology to language as Quine considers that a person who is aware of linguistic trick can be the master of referential language. Another important question is that how could Quine’s radical translation thesis reduce into semantic indeterminacy that is a consequence of his confirmation methord. Even I think that the notion and the analysis of meaning became hopelessly vague in Quine’s later work. I further argue on Quine’s position of meaning that I call, following Hilary Putnam, ‘meaning nihilism’. It seems to me that Quine had no belief like ‘meaning consists in’, or ‘meaning depends on’ something. Through this argument, I would like to challenge the confirmation holism that was foisted by Fodor on Quine’s thesis. My attempt would be to scrutinize Putnam’s point of view that Quine was neither a confirmation holist nor a meaning holist. I think that both Putnam and Quine denied the concept of constitutive connection of meaning as a second grade notion not only from the realm of semantic, but also from the perspective of epistemology. So, linguistic meaning cannot be formed by any sample of its uses. For Quine, the concept of meaning in metaphysics is heuristic and need not be taken seriously in any ‘science worthy’ literature

Wittgenstein and Husserl: Context Meaning Theory

The present article concentrates on understanding the limits of language from the realm of meaning theory as portrayed by Wittgenstein. In the Tractatus, Wittgenstein’s picture theory provides a glimpse of reality by indicating that a picture could be true or false from the perspective of reality. He talks about an internal limitation of language rather than an external limitation of language. In Wittgenstein’s later works like Philosophical Investigations, the concept of picture theory has faded away, and he deeply becomes more interested in the ‘use theory of meaning’ and ‘language game.’ My other attempt in this paper is to show Husserl’s theory of meaning and try to find out its compatibility with Wittgenstein’s thoughts. Husserl thinks that as a part of phenomenological experience, ‘meaning’ should be an act character that Wittgenstein rejected as an appeal of inner experience. Like Mohanty, I also attempt to show the Husserlian idea of meaning as an essence that is related to the meaning rather than linguistics. Both the giants are talking about description of language from different levels. My effort would be to illustrate how these two giant thinkers proclaim their meaning theories in such a way that leads to a well-known internalism versus externalism debate in the philosophy of mind and language

Revisiting the Notion of “Analysis” on the Bedrock of Analytic Philosophy

In recent years, there has been a huge resurrection of interest in the idea of ‘analysis,’ encompassing on analytic philosophy. As with any major philosophical movement, it is futile to define or classify any precision of what makes someone an analytic thinker. However, drawing on the startling works by Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Dummett and Putnam I clear up some strands, portended by the observation that language is the sole medium of analytic philosophy, so the main focus of analytic philosophy is to understand the structure of language, thought, and meaning. Analytic philosophy pursues a critical analysis on the interface between word and world interrelation in terms of natural language guided by analysis, reasons, clarity and reflective thoughts. In this paper, I will reflect on what this means and why analytic philosophy deserves an initial importance

‘Feminism: Confronting a Contradiction’

The contemporary debate centering round the circumference of feminist discourse has of late been very potent in addressing the issues of certain prejudiced notions in our existing patriarchal structure. This paper is an attempt to show the ongoing paradox existing in the world of feminism which has thoroughly critiqued the patriarchal culture and has naturalized sexual identities, thereby glorifying man’s supremacy and dominion. The patriarchal culture lionized the ideals of brevity, courageousness, and intellect and thought of these as the only special possessions of man in society. The qualities of being submissive, kind and caring in nature is considered to be “ideal” and exclusive qualities of a woman. Even though these qualities are “ideal” to women, they are discarded from being considered as universal in nature and are thought of as insignificant in the mainstream societal structure. These qualities are treated as inferior, and exclusively womanly and hence cannot make their stand in the conventional patriarchal social order. For this reason a dilemmatic situation arises here. My effort is to show that this dilemma cannot be exposed in the sense of gender specific human qualities

Immunomodulatory herbs of Ayurveda and Covid-19 : A Review Article

COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), previously known as 2019 novel corona virus. The first cases were seen in Wuhan, China. The current outbreak was officially recognized as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. The most common symptoms are fever, tiredness, and dry cough. Some individuals also develop aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat, or diarrhea. It was reported that traditional remedies may alleviate the symptoms of COVID-19. Ayurveda is the world’s oldest medical system that can manage any disease without side effects. Ayurveda being the science of life, propagates the gifts of nature in maintaining healthy and happy living. We all know that “prevention is better than cure”. While there is no medicine for COVID-19 as of now, it will be good to take preventive measures which boost our immunity in these times. Ayurveda’s extensive knowledge base on preventive care by which each individual can achieve by uplifting and maintain his or her immunity. In Ayurveda, Immunity comes under the heading of Vyadhiksamatwa. In Ayurveda, many single drugs or compound formulation were mentioned as Rasayana to boost up Immunity (Bala or Vyadhiksamatwa)

Reconfiguring Colonial Subjects as Informed Travellers: Cross-Cultural Encounters and Representation of Australia in Two Indian Travel Narratives of late Nineteenth Century

In recent times, an urgency is felt within the postcolonial scholarship as well as in the area of cultural studies to address the diverse ramifications of colonial history and ideology beyond the narratives of colonial encounters between Great Britain and its colonies so that hitherto unfamiliar patterns of cross-cultural and intersubjective relationships can be explored between such colonial cousins as Australia and India. This paper presents a case for two early travel narratives by Indian travellers – Nunda Lall Doss and Hajee Sullaiman Shah Mahomed – about Australia. I have examined how these travellers have represented the Australian landscapes and urban centres. They worked largely within the framework of colonial travel writing about Australia and described the continent in terms of wide, empty spaces, opulence of natural resources, dwindling indigenous population and spectacular urbanization and modernization under colonial rule; yet their accounts are not without complexity. These accounts present their writers casting themselves as imperial subjects beyond the colonial stereotypes and trying to carve their distinct identity as Indian travellers abroad. In this way they emerged as informed travellers with their critical judgements vis-à-vis the naïve and the passive tourists struck by awe and wonder at every spectacle witnessed. More remarkably, their critique of British imperialism and white Australian policies regarding immigration and “race” helps us to understand the late nineteenth century pro-Federalist discourse of Australianness in its racist and ethnonationalist contexts

Buddhist ‘Theory of Meaning’ (Apoha vāda) as Negative Meaning’

The paper concentrates on the most pressing question of Indian philosophy: what is the exact connotation of a word or what sort of entity helps us to identify the meaning of a word? The paper focuses on the clash between Realism (Nyāya) and Apoha vāda (Buddhist) regarding the debate whether the meaning of a word is particular/universal or both. The paper asserts that though Naiyāyikas and Mīmāṁsakas challenged against Buddhist Apoha vāda, yet they realized that to establish an opinion in support of a word that conceptually denotes a negative meaning first would be a very difficult task