Aristophanes: To be a demagogue is not now for lettered men, nor yet for honest men, but for the base and ignorant.
Author: jackofalltrades
I am a chronic procrastinator.
Nehru in Kohima: The visit that turned into a farce
I present a few reflections on/retellings of the infamous visit by Jawaharlal Nehru and the Prime Minister of Burma, U Nu, to Kohima on 30 March 1953.
Philo: Philosophy as the Handmaiden of Theology
The phrase “philosophy is the handmaiden of theology” was famously adopted by medieval Christian thinkers. It is usually attributed to the medieval thinker Peter Damain. The point of this post is not to examine what is meant by philosophy or theology as used in this phrase, but to tell the origin of the metaphor of the handmaiden.
Zeno: “To grasp” means “to understand”
Why is it that a word which primarily means “to clutch” also means something like “to understand”? It seems Zeno is responsible for this (imaginative) invention.
Ethics vs Morality — I
The etymological difference between ethics and morality.
Ptolemy’s Nangalogai
Scholars (especially from Nagaland) have been guilty of carelessness and dishonesty in their (non-)references to Ptolemy. They have been also been uncritical in their acceptance of Hutton’s interesting but deeply problematic suggestion.
