INAUGURATION OF PHILOSOPHY ASSOCIATION

Department of Philosophy, Madras Christian College


Mission Statement : The Department of Philosophy is committed to providing all sections of students, a holistic education based on critical thinking leading to moral wisdom, rightful living and striving towards building a just society.

The Department of Philosophy: A brief historical Survey : The history of the department of Philosophy dates back to the year 1873, when Rev. Charles Cooper was appointed the Professor of Mental and Moral Science as it was then called. He was known for his erudite lectures in the class room as well as articles in the Madras Christian College Magazine. Cooper retired in the year 1900. Rev. William Skinner (1884 -1921), Rev. William Meston (1893- 1930), Rev. Alfred Hogg (1903- 1939) were the other illustrious teachers in the department. Incidentally, these three became the Principals of the College between 1907 and 1938, and were also teachers for the most illustrious student of the department Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who studied during the years 1904 to 1908, when the college was located in George Town. While Meston and Hogg were his supervisors for MA. dissertation, Skinner’s kindness was personally acknowledged by Radhakrishnan when he dedicated one of his early books to Skinner.


Mr. K.C. Chacko was one of the first Indian teachers to be appointed in the department. He was followed by John Bangaru Raju, who did B.Sc. from Oxford, and MA. from Madras University, who was the first lndian Professor to be appointed in the Department in 1916. He was followed by another brilliant lndian teacher Dr Samuel Joseph Theodore, who had higher studies in Yale (MA Philosophy 1919, Doctorate 1931 32), and Oxford (B.Litt. and Diploma in Education 1922 25). Apart from being an inspiring teacher in the department, Theodore served as the Vice Principal of the College (1931 36). Rev. S. Samuel, who came over from the Bishop Heber College, Trichy, taught during the years 1933 40, and he also lent his hand in the chaplaincy of the college. After his chairmanship (1938 40), Rev. Dr. Jon F. Butler headed the department for a year(1940-41). 

The year 1911 witnessed the introduction of BA, Honours courses in the college in six departments including the Mental and Moral Science. The Department then offered Logic, Epistemology, Ethics, Ancient European Philosophy, Psychology and Political Philosophy as the main subjects. The Honours students had to take inter collegiate classes, which were held in Madras University and Presidency College, the practice which continued into mid sixties. There was also F.A. classes, which gave way to Intermediate course in 1909. Logic was an extremely popular subject in this course. In the year 1956, when Professor J.R.Macphail was the Principal, the two year Intermediate course gave way to one year Pre University course, Honours courses were replaced by three years of BA, and B.Sc., courses, followed by two years of MA, and M.Sc., courses. 

From 30’s through 60’s three Indian Professors contributed immensely to the growth of the department – Professor (Major) S. Parthasarathy (1929 -50), Dr. C.T. Krishnamachari (1940- 74), Dr. S.P. Adinarayana (1943 -57). Incidentally, all these three illustrious Philosophers were also known for their expertise in Psychology, and as alumni, they were greatly influenced by Professors such as A.G. Hogg. Due to this dimension, the department was a combined department of Philosophy and Psychology in the 1960’s. After C.T. Krishnamachari stepped down as the Chairman of the department, two other teachers served long years as heads of the departments-Prof. Ch.G.S.S. Sreenivasa Rao (1971- 1993), Prof. M. Gabriel (1993- 2013). Dr. K. Joshua took over as the Head of the Department in June 2013. Currently Dr. James Kurian is the Head of the Department. Today, there are eleven faculty members teaching in the department, which also has a student strength of more than 125 undergraduate and postgraduate students and around 15 M.Phil and Ph.D. Students as well.

Key Objectives : The Philosophy program at Madras Christian College is designed to provide students a holistic liberal arts education as well to impart training in the special areas of critical thinking and logical analysis, effective communication, problem solving, leadership and Creativity. These essential skills may be applied to anything students pursue in life professionally or personally. In addition to the core curriculum, students are introduced to study of logic, philosophy of science, aesthetics, great thinkers, moral and religious problems and metaphysics among other topics. The students of philosophy are also introduced to interdisciplinary courses offered by other departments. The objective is transformation of individuals to judge things with an open mind and take right action. 

The philosophy students at MCC receive close attention and care by eleven members of the faculty with a broad range of interests and specialties. Students of the department enjoy frequent philosophical films, lectures, discussions and other activities of the Philosophy Association.

 

The 130 year old Philosophy Association : The Philosophical Society was founded in 1887, with the motto-All our knowledge is ourselves to know. Its membership was limited to 40, and those students who have passed intermediate examination were eligible to be members. The founder patron was Rev. Charles Cooper, who was succeeded by Rev. William Skinner and Rev. A.G. Hogg. The meetings were held on Tuesday evenings between 4:15 and 7 pm. Essays and discussions were main features of the Society. The Annual Reports of the Association were regularly published in the MCC Magazine. Intellectual curiosity of both faculty and students enabled the department to start the Seminar Forum Dialectic, in 2000. Under this forum, weekly inter disciplinary lectures are organized.  

Faculty Profile

James Kurian, after his doctoral research in the area of Phenomenology and Existentialism at Pondicherry University, joined the Department as an Assistant Professor in 1996. He has been handling courses in Western Philosophy, Bioethics, and Moral Philosophy. Dr. James visited Hong Kierkegaard Library, St. Olaf College, USA in 2000 to pursue a Research project on Kierkegaard. He was a visiting Professor to Modern College of Business and Science, Sultanate of Oman (2003 2009). He was the principal investigator for a Research Project on Environmental Audit in MCC. Currently he holds the position of the Head of the Department of Philosophy and the Dean of Humanities.                   

Smile Ross did his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the Department of philosophy at Madras Christian College. He started his teaching career in 1989. He did his M.Phil work on Kierkegaard’s philosophy. Smile Ross developed keen interest in Phenomenology and Existentialism, Contemporary Western Philosophy and Philosophy of Language.

StanleyJebaraj pursued all his higher studies in the Department of Philosophy. After joining the Department in 1994, Stanley has been offering courses in Western Philosophy, Saiva Siddhantha, Political Philosophy, Christian Thought etc., He also holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology, a Bachelors Degree in Education, and a Diploma in Graduate in Theology. He was awarded doctorate for his thesis on Gandhi’s Religious Philosophy.

Dr Kumari Sunitha. V. is working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy. She completed her PG and UG degrees in Philosophy from the University of Kerala. She was awarded Doctorate for her thesis on A Critical and Comparative Study of Heideggerean and Sartrean View of Man, World and Society from JNU, New Delhi. Dr. Sunitha was a recipient of the Nehru fellowship from the Nehru Memorial fund for two years (1998 2000) and the General Fellowship of the ICPR during 2003-2005. Dr. Sunitha joined the department in 2005, after completing her Post-Doctoral research on the topic Time and History in Heidegger’s Philosophy from the University of Madras. She is offering courses such as Moral Philosophy, Contemporary Western Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Introduction to Philosophy etc. for the Postgraduate and Under Graduate students. She has authored the book The Anatomy of Alienation: A Critical Study of Heidegger and Sartre (Excel India Publishers, New Delhi)

S Segar completed his M.Phil on Speech Acts of John Austin and John R. Searle. His Doctoral work, at Pondicherry University, was on the theme: Human Rights with reference to Social Contract Theorists. Dr Segar joined the department of Philosophy as Assistant Professor in 2008. He presented academic papers and also published in the area of Human Rights. Segar participated in four Summer workshops on Phenomenology in Southern States, which were sponsored by the International Phenomenological Society based in USA. Presently, Segar is handing papers -Contemporary Indian Philosophy, Modern Western Philosophy and Sociology.

JojanJob has done his MA and M.Phil in Philosophy from Madras Christian College and won CTK Chari Gold Medal and Gajjala Sundara Rao prize for academic performance in Philosophy. Having obtained an MA and M.Phil in Journalism and Mass Communication, Jojan headed the department of Journalism and also taught as faculty member in the Postgraduate Department of Communication, Madras Christian College. He has presented papers at National and International seminars organized by various Universities in India. His book titled, Philosophical Aspects of Media is released recently. He has specialized in the field of Buddhism, Upanishads, Culture, Development communication and Philosophical aspects of History. He has served as the Editor of the Madras Christian College Magazine and is the coordinating editor of ‘MCC newsletter’. Jojan has joined his parent department of Philosophy as Assistant Professor in June 2012.

Dr. Sam Pravin Kumar did schooling in Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School. Later he joined the Madras Christian College to pursue his BA. and MA. programmes in the department of Philosophy. During his under graduation he received Cooper prize for scripture and in post-graduation he received Jitendar Rodricks Gold Medal. He joined as a faculty in June, 2013. Currently he teaches Western Philosophy, Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, Value Education and Personality Development. Currently, he is process of completing his Ph.D. in Peace Studies. He is also an Associate Staff Advisor of Student Christian Movement in the college.

Dr. M. Vijayasarathy did his B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy from Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, Chennai. He has received University Gold Medal for securing First Rank in 2005. He has been awarded UGC-NET Junior Research Fellow in 2010 completing as All India Second Rank. He has completed his Ph.D. from Central University in 2015 on the thesis entitled “An Examination of Reductionism and Anti-Reductionism in Consciousness: A Study on John R. Searle. His area of interest includes Philosophy of Mind, Analytical Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Science and Logic. He worked as lecturer in Vivekananda College, Madras University and currently he is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy in Madras Christian College.

Mr. C. Sugirdharajan did his schooling in St. Columba’s Higher Secondary School, Chengalpet. He did his BA, MA and M. Phil. courses in the Department of Philosophy, MCC. He was a recipient of C. T. Krishnamachari Gold Medal, Miller Philosophy Prize and Gajiala Sunder Rao Prize. After having taught at St. Joseph’s College, Chennai, for five years, Sugirdharajan joined the Department of Philosophy in December 2015. He teaches courses such as Traditional and Symbolic Logic, and Western Classic: Kierkegaard’s Concluding Unscientiftc Postscript. He is now pursuing his Doctoral Degree in Soren Kierkegaard’s Christian Existential Philosophy under the supervision of Dr. M. Gabriel, the former Head of the Department.

Dr. Bins Sebastian is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Madras Christian College, Chennai. Before joining MCC, he taught at St. Stephen’s College of Delhi University (DU), Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), and Delhi Technological University (DTU).   Dr. Sebastian received his M. Phil and Ph. D degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. His areas of interest within philosophy are Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Modern European Philosophy, and Sociopolitical Philosophy.

Dr. K. Vengadachalam is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Madras Christian College, Chennai. Before joining MCC, he taught at Pondicherry University, Puducherry, Arsha Vidya Mandir, Chennai. He has completed his M. Phil and Ph. D degrees from Pondicherry University, Puducherry. He has been awarded ICPR-PDF (2019-20) & ICPR-JRF (2013-15). His areas of interest within philosophy are Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, Contemporary Indian Philosophy, and Classical Indian Philosophy.

Illustrious Alumni (select)

1. S. Radhakrishnan President of India (1962-67)

2. Hiriyanna Distinguished Indian Philosopher

3. H.V.Nanjundayya First Vice-Chancellor, Mysore University 

4. C.Ramalinga Reddi First Vice-Chancellor, Andhra University

5. ChenchiahNoted Indian Christian leader, Judge of Pudukottai

6. Bharatan Kumarappa noted Philosopher and Gandhian, editor of Collected Works of Gandhi 

7. K.C. Varadachari Former Professor, Philosophy Dept, S V University 

8. D.G. Moses Former Principal, Hislop College, Nagpur 

9. Major Parthasarathy noted Professor of Philosophy and Psychology, MCC

10. C.T. Krishnamachari noted Professor of Philosophy and Psychology, MCC 

11. S.P. Adinarayana noted Professor of Philosophy and Psychology, M CC 

12. G.D. Boaz First Head of Psychology Dept., University of Madras

13. Devasenapathi Professor and Head, Philosophy, Uni. of Madras

14. T.S. Devadoss Professor and Head, Philosophy, Uni. of Madras 

15. Ms. Nalini Devadas (retd) Professor of Philosophy, Canada 

16. Besant C. Raj Business Person and Administrator, former Chairman of MCC Association 

17. Ms. Shanti Manuel Former Principal, Lady Doak College, Madurai

18. Suresh Reddy, IFS, Former Ambassador, Iraq, and Chairman, ASEAN