Tiṇai Philosophy

The Indigenous Lifeway for the Anthropocene

Nirmal Selvamony (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

188 Seiten

2025
Routledge India (Verlag)
978-1-032-78537-0 (ISBN)

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This book refigures an ancient indigenous way of knowing and being practiced by the Tamil people for present times, by tracing the origin and structure of this philosophical tradition that has been continually evolving since the pre-Holocene epoch. tiṇai is both the world of this philosophy and a way of living harmoniously with all beings of this world.

This book illustrates how this philosophy was practiced both within and outside the home. It demonstrates how kāṭci (“vision,” the Tamil word for philosophy), the philosophical practice of living out tiṇai, is a kind of action that is at once rational, emotional, and volitional, and how this praxis is guided by the ultimate value of aṉpu or love. It reconceptualizes the discipline of philosophy itself by exploring the semantic horizons of kāṭci without falling back on the western idea of this discipline and thus earns its indispensable niche.

Comprehensive and insightful, this volume will be of interest to students and scholars of the humanities and social sciences, spanning fields such as philosophy, Indian philosophy, history, place studies, indigenous studies, Tamil studies, Indian studies, South Asian studies, and studies of the Global South.

Nirmal Selvamony is an interdisciplinary scholar and educator with over four decades of experience in decolonizing the study of literature, ecology and society through the practice of tiṇai. He has taught in universities around the world, building and nurturing a global tiṇai movement. While serving as a faculty member in the department of English at Madras Christian College for nearly three decades, he established the first interdisciplinary Ecocriticism program in India. More recently, he retired from the Central University of Tamil Nadu as the head of the department of English studies and Dean of social sciences and humanities. He is also an avid bird lover, poet and guitarist.

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

1 Indigenous Tamil lifeway (tiṇai lifeway) 34

2 The name of the field 69

3 Exclusive philosophy (akakkāṭci) 91

4 Inclusive philosophy (puṟakkāṭci) 114

Conclusion 155

Bibliography 161

Glossary 177

Index 182

Erscheinungsdatum	15.11.2025
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	530 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Östliche Philosophie
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
ISBN-10	1-032-78537-3 / 1032785373
ISBN-13	978-1-032-78537-0 / 9781032785370
Zustand	Neuware