Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

Reading Wittgenstein on the Blessed Life One version of mystical experience that involves being safe and intoxicated by the miracle of being is what we find in Wittgenstein, the quintessential modern philosopher who initiated two influential movements in philosophy and impacted upon philosophy of religion. His description of being absolutely safe and seeing creation as a miracle are so compelling that we hardly need to entertain any second opinion about the mystical in him or his encounter with the mystical. The cognizance of the fact that there is a world is enough to make one dance with ecstasy and wonder. Wonder is the beginning and end of human wisdom for both philosopher-mystics as diverse as Ibn Arabi and Whitehead. It is time to explore the ideas evoking/invoking/leading to/reflecting Heaven or parasitic on our quest for Heaven or what may appear as some secular substitute or fragmented image of Heaven in Wittgenstein.       For Wittgenstein the metaphysical s...

How Tolstoy, Heidegger and Wittgenstein treat the question life asks all of us.  Have we succeeded or failed in our lives? This question remains despite our successful careers or positions or percentage of marks obtained. Let us examine how we fare in the key test of life that poses one question to all and sundry – what is the meaning of our life?  In the words of an influential modern mystical philosopher, the most extraordinarily ordinary people are called mystics. Celebrating the ordinary is what distinguishes not only great mystics but also such modern writers as Joyce. What distinguishes another great modern writer Tolstoy is finding extraordinary grace in lives of common people – in his case Russian peasants. If life’s most important task is to find meaning of life or save one’s soul as Tolstoy would put it, the common folk succeed far better than so-called scholarly or educated elite.  Regarding the question of meaning of life that troubles every thinking pe...

Sanaullah Mir is Kashmir’s Mulla Nasruddin   One hour talk with a gifted mind is worth scores of books. And there are such gifted minds amidst us. I immediately recall  two such minds – I call them Super Mirs or Meers of Mirs  – Prof. Sanaullah Mir (Parvaaz Sahib) who teaches philosophy at AMU and Prof Shabir Ahmed Mir, awardee of “scientist of the year” at international level, a self taught mathematician and one of the most brilliant pharmacologists of India, who has  retired last year as professor of veterinary pharmacology. Today we converse with the first Mir. Brilliant people have their own idiosyncrasies. Perhaps these are the cost of devotion to thinking. Sanuallah Mir, generally speaking, doesn’t pick up phone. I doubt if he would be tempted to take up even President’s call. He has no important document like service book copy or certificates with him. His colleagues have been great friends and they take care of his documents and may other matters he is...

Ideally most of the classics in philosophy must be read by a general reader. And in the 20th century, the two most important philosophers must be part of the general curriculum for anyone who wants to be introduced to the best of its thought. These are the Heidegger and Wittgenstein. Begin by watching films or documentaries on them or some accessible lectures by recognized authorities. Today a few preliminary points about life and work of Wittgenstein as an appetizer for taking heavier doses later. I would recommend at least his slim work Culture and Value that criticizes modern Western civilization as without culture on religious-mystical grounds as his more philosophical writings are hard nuts to crack been for professionals in philosophy. Described by Terry Eagleton as the philosopher of poets and composers, playwrights and novelists, Wittgenstein has been “something of a cult figure but shunned publicity and even built an isolated hut in Norway to live in complete seclusion....