New Acropolis India South in association with the Bangalore International Centre, celebrated World Philosophy Day with a panel discussion “Walking The Talk: Practical Philosophy”.
The motivation behind the session’s theme was to challenge the idea that philosophers are lost souls who spend their waking hours thinking things over and over while remaining blissfully disconnected from reality.
“Our role as practical philosophers is to bring a solution. The philosopher’s solution will not directly combat, say, the climate or energy crisis, but it will offer a different approach with the promise of more holistic, longer-term benefits”, Ran Kremer, the director of New Acropolis South India, said.
Prem Chandavarkar, the architect on the panel, said that in its practical form philosophy is not just relevant but essential. “We need to practice philosophy not as an activity of academic abstraction, but as a concrete tool for examining our lives.”
Dr. Sashidhara related to the close relationship between philosophy and truth. “The essence of philosophy is truth,” he declared. The peripheral truth lies at the interface of our interaction with the outside world, the central truth lies within us. One is characterized by doing, the other by being.
Reminding the audience of the roots of philosophy, entrepreneur Bhanu Prathap Singh Slathia, said: “Philosophy is not just intellectual. but (rather) philosophy is an active force. It’s the force of transformation.”
