Dear Jeyamohan Sir,
I am Karthikeyan from Hyderabad & this is the first letter that I am writing to you even though I have attended eight classes organised by Unified Wisdom. I have tried to write about my previous classes but my lack of proficiency in written Tamil proved to be a hindrance. I even tried to first write in English & then translate it to Tamil!
I belong to the class of people from Madras that you often castigate for not even being aware that there is a Modern Literature Movement in Tamil. I found your blog only three years ago & what a fantastic three years this has been, especially the last year and a half when I started attending classes in Vellimalai.
I think I am one of the few people who had the privilege of attending both your introductory Indian Philosophy class & Ajithan’s German Philosophy Class in the same month. You should tell us whether any father-son duo have ever taken philosophy classes at the same time, that too two seemingly opposing systems.
Ajithan gave a wonderfully detailed but easy to comprehend picture of the evolution of Western Philosophy over the course of the last 2,500 years. Even though he is a known Schopenhauerian, he did justice to every major German philosopher as he himself said at the end of the class.
You have told us that the Indian Philosophy classes are essentially an expansion of the first introductory class & there can be 15 to 16 classes. The same can be said about Ajithan’s German Philosophy class and I do hope he will continue in the future.
Ajithan’s exposition of pre-Socratic philosophers was eye opening because there is a general tendency in Western Philosophy introductions to just name check them & then go right into Socrates. In fact, he devoted more time to pre-Socratic philosophy than to other philosophers with the exception of Plato.
Ajithan’s explanation of the evolution of the Medieval Christian Philosophy was very lucid as this is a much neglected field. I heard names like Meister Eckart for the very first time in my life.
I never thought that I would have a clear picture of notoriously dense philosophers like Fichte & Leibniz but thanks to this class, now I do have a blueprint of their essential features.
At the end of class, when asked who was their favourite philosopher, Nietzsche was the clear winner but Wittgenstein had his fanboys or I should say fangirls.
That I was able to win two chocolates for my daughters during the quiz contest at the end of the class was the crowning glory!
Thanks & Regards,
Karthikeyan
Hyderabad
