Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities The Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities (MCPH) began

functioning in February 2010. This Centre was established to not only promote humanities and liberal arts education at Manipal University, but also to establish a world-class centre for teaching and research in philosophy and humanities. The Centre will provide students access to quality education in these fields. With the increased awareness all over the world about the importance of humanities education, this Centre is designed to impart the best of both philosophy and humanities. And as it is not possible to understand the nature of our societies or our experiences without drawing deep from both Indian and western intellectual traditions, MCPH will facilitate a cosmopolitan approach to education and research. The fundamental task of the Centre will be to encourage critical and creative thinking across a wide variety of disciplines. One of its core aims is to foster original writing from India in the fields of social sciences and humanities. Why MCPH: India had one of the greatest traditions in philosophy, which is often seen as the mark of intellectual maturity of a civilization. Today contemporary philosophy is dominantly drawn from the Western civilization. This has serious consequences among which is the fact that India in spite of very competent individuals is not a producer of knowledge and wisdom. Instead, we are consumers of knowledge derived from the developed West. As a consequence, our culture shows a marked lack of originality in most of our activities, whether they be in science or humanities or even arts. Philosophical insights are needed to understand the nature of any discipline, whether in the natural or social sciences. They are also needed to understand the nature of our society and given the history of our society, we need to draw upon both Indian and Western philosophical systems to do this effectively. Our education system has been skewed towards the science and engineering disciplines at the cost of top quality humanities and social science education. A very large number of students interested in these areas often have to go abroad to get decent training or they make do with sub-standard degrees in these fields. While the country has developed a significant number of science graduates, we severely lack people who understand the nature of science, the nature of development and the overall understanding of what it is to be a good citizen.

Understanding of this kind arises through an entry into the world of humanities where questions of justice and ethics stand side by side with questions of development. While there are a few good departments in literature it is not the case with the other disciplines of humanities including philosophy. Moreover, there is no rigorous training leading to interdisciplinary studies. Even in the social sciences departments around the country, there is often a lack of strong theoretical training. Programs which combine philosophy, social sciences, literature and the arts are not to be found in any of our universities. This problem of humanities education is not special to India. Asian, African and Middle-Eastern countries have very similar problems. There is a crisis of intellectual confidence in these cultures. The way out is to train students to learn to think, both critically and creatively. MCPH will do this and more through the MA course, workshops, summer schools, writing programmes and other such interventions. It will also actively promote original writing in a variety of areas. Courses: MA in Philosophy: Totally there are 16 papers, a graduate seminar and a thesis in this course. The papers are in the form of themes which will draw upon many disciplines and will thus exemplify what interdisciplinary means. All the papers in this course will have a strong theoretical basis drawn from philosophy and other intellectual traditions, both from the Indian and the non-Indian perspectives. They will engage with seminal texts in these areas. All the courses will require written essays for purposes of grading. Students are expected to read from an extensive reading list. Participation in Workshops, Conferences and Outreach Assignments will be worth 10 Credits MA in English: Totally there are 16 papers, a graduate seminar and a thesis in this course. The papers are in the form of themes which will draw upon many disciplines and will thus exemplify what interdisciplinarity means. All the papers in this course will have a strong theoretical basis drawn from philosophy and other intellectual traditions, both from the Indian and the non-Indian perspectives. They will engage with seminal texts in these areas. All the courses will require written essays for purposes of grading. Students are expected to read from an extensive reading list. Participation in Workshops, Conferences and Outreach Assignments will be worth 10 Credits MA in Sociology:

Totally there are 16 papers, a graduate seminar and a thesis in this course. The papers are in the form of themes which will draw upon many disciplines and will thus exemplify what interdisciplinarity means. All the papers in this course will have a strong theoretical basis drawn from philosophy and other intellectual traditions, both from the Indian and the non-Indian perspectives. They will engage with seminal texts in these areas. All the courses will require written essays for purposes of grading. Students are expected to read from an extensive reading list. Participation in Workshops, Conferences and Outreach Assignments will be worth 10 Credits.