Multidisciplinary, Social Sciences, General Social Sciences, Gender Studies
4
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
Embodied and Contextual Intelligence: Towards a Policy Framework for Higher Education Madhu Prabakaran Higher Education for the Future, 2025 This article explores the diverse epistemic perspectives on intelligence, tracing its conceptual evolution across early Indian philosophy, Western philosophical thought and contemporary computational theories. Intelligence is examined as a dynamic, multifaceted phenomenon that transcends mere cognition, extending into embodied, ecological and meta-intelligent domains. The discussion juxtaposes traditional views—where intelligence is seen as a divine or innate quality, a product of sagacious prudence, or a computational system—with more contemporary understandings that emphasize the role of context, embodiment and ecological interaction. Through a critique of pancomputationalism and an exploration of the non-computable aspects of intelligence, the article argues for a more holistic view that recognizes intelligence as an adaptive, contextually grounded and evolutionarily emergent property.
Sphoța Theory of Knowing and Its Implications for Higher Education Madhu Prabakaran Higher Education for the Future, 2023 The article’s central theme is that knowing cannot be equated with knowledge because knowing is an innate process and knowledge is a product. Knowing as an intuitive process is an inalienable experience, whereas knowledge is an alienable property. Knowledge is a discursive construct of human political economy, whereas knowing is the very character of existence. Knowing arises as we interact. It involves awareness, understanding and the experience of intelligence. Knowledge, on the other hand, is a commercial product of the class-ridden world. The argument has its implication for higher education, that is, higher education should primarily focus on nourishing the knowing quotient without being lost in knowledge production. The article traverses various realms of knowing, such as knowing subjects, learning beings, ontologies and epistemologies of knowledge and knowing, as they glimmered from the ancient to the modern both in the east and the west. Towards the end of the article, the arguments culminate with the philosophical narratives of an Indian philosopher Bhartṛhari, especially his sphoța theory, known as sphoța sidhantham.
Historical Appropriation of Epistemological Values: A Goal Ahead for Higher Education Madhu Prabakaran Higher Education for the Future, 2020 The historical appropriation of epistemological values is the theme of the article. Bachelard, one of the pioneering thinkers on epistemological evolution, presupposed that historical epistemology will culminate in the end of its history. Scientific imagination should be decluttered from human sentimentalities, Bachelard observed. For that, it is necessary that academics has to psychoanalytically purge himself/herself from his/her path dependencies, originary misperceptions and methodological inappropriateness. Thinking along with Bachelard, I explore whether higher education can be channelized towards evolutionary ascendance of epistemological values.
The conservation question: Inspired by the Ka¯ni tribes of southern western ghats Economic and Political Weekly, 2014
