Dear Jeyamohan
I have just noted the following message on your website: We are against online education.
Yes, I understand. I am very interested in your ideas about philosophy. Are your thoughts on this available in written form? Or, do you think that a gurukula is the only way to learn this?
Yours sincerely,
Ravi Vishnu
Dear Ravi,
Books can contain the ideas and discourses of philosophy. But they are meant for other philosophers. Students of philosophy cannot learn through books. This is due to the intricate and multi-layered nature of philosophy’s language and arguments. We always learn and develop philosophy through direct discussions and classes.
The West has developed big academic institutions for this purpose. In India we have universities, but that particular environment is very rare. That is why we are creating these venues.
Philosophical studies require direct classes and person-to-person communication in a conducive environment with like-minded students. Books or online classes are useless for learning philosophy.
The unfortunate aspect of those attempts is that we often mistakenly believed we had learned philosophy. We often made significant progress despite our initial mistakes.
Yes, we can write textbooks for the classes, but they are useful only in a direct class where there is a competent teacher.
Jeyamohan
