University of Calcutta

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History

Year of Establishment : 1913

History of the department : The post-graduate Department of philosophy of the University of Calcutta was set up in the year 1913 with the appointment of Acharya Brajendranath Seal as King George V professor of Mental and Moral Science (later renamed Acharya Brajendranath Seal, professor of Mental and Moral science in 1950). Acharya Seal, the great Savant of oriental learning, also known as a “moving university” for his encyclopedic knowledge, was a scholar of outstanding eminence in our country and was one of the pillars of Indian Renaissance. Since its grand inception the quest of academic excellence on the part of its teachers has been the hallmark of the Department. The heritage of academic excellence was created and nurtured by philosophers, scholars and teachers like Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Hiralal Halder, a Hegelian scholar of international repute, Krishna Chandra Bhtatacharyya, whose philosophy of Neo-vedantism is taught in several P.G. Departments of our country till date, Surendranath Dasgupta, Sushil Kumar Moitra, Satish Chandra Chatterjee, Nalini Kanta Brahma, Rashvihary Das, Adhar Chandra Das, Gopinath Bhattacharyya, Kalidas Bhattacharyya, Humayun Kabir, Jitendranath Mohanty, Pritibhushan Chatterjee, Sivajiban Bhattacharyya, Ramaprasad Das, Shankari Prasad Banerjee, Ashok Kumar Ganguly, Kumudranjan Goswami, Prabal Kumar Sen, Prahlad Kumar Sarkar, Arindam Chakraborty, and agood number of eminent Sanskrit scholars (who taught original texts in Indian philosophy) like Prabhu Datta Sastri, Mahamahopadhyay Jogendranath Bagchi, Pandit Anantalal Tarkatirtha, Pandit Panchanan Sastri, Pandit Narayan Chandra Goswami, Pandit Shyamapada Misra – to mention only a few-among many others.

It is worth mentioning here that many philosophers of international repute have visited the Deaprtment from time to time and delivered endowmwnt lectures / special lectures on invitation, on diferrent areas of Philosophy. To mention only a few : Alfred Jules Ayer, vonWright, P.F. Strawson, W.V.O. Quine, Donald Davidson, Arthur Danto, Richard Sorabjee, Debiprasad Chattopadhyay, Bimal Krishna Matilal, Pranab Kumar Sen, Anjan Shukla, Sacchidananda Murthy. The latest in the list includes J. N. Mohanty, Arindam Chakraborty, J.L. Shaw.

The major research areas of the faculty are History of Philosophy, Analytic Philosophy, Epistemology, Ethics, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Kant, Philosophy of Wittgenstein, Logic, Comparative Religion, Socio-Political Philosophy, Nyāya-Vaisesika, Vedānta, Buddhism and contemporary Indian Philosophy.

It is a matter of great pride for us that profound scholarship and administrative honour have blended beautifully in our Department. It is noteworthy to mention that our Department has produced eight (8) vice-chancellors of different universities, till date.

The Department celebrated the centenary years of its meaningful existence during 2013-14, by organizing national seminars on the thoughts of Past Masters of the Department to pay homage to them in a befitting manner. The 150th birth anniversary of Acharya Brajendra Nath Seal, the founder of the department was also celebrated (which coincided with the centenary celebration) with great enthusiasm.

To sustain our rich heritage and legacy, our Department is making sincere efforts to maintain high standard of teaching and research. Teachers of the department, apart from lecturing to the classes and guiding the work of research students, have independently contributed much to the extension of philosophical knowledge by bringing out books and publishing papers.

In recognition of high standard of  teaching and research, the Department was granted UGC SAP DRS Phase-I in 2007 for a period of five (5) years and again the upgradation from phase-I to II was approved by the UGC for a further period  of five (5) years , i.e., 2013 to 2018, in consideration of our satisfactory academic performance. Sanctioned recurring grant is utilized by holding national seminars, publishing a good number of books including anthologies (on Epistemology, Ethics and Religion) along with a successful completion of translation project (Vedanta-Paribhāsā of Dharmaraja Ādhvarindra, translated in to English language by Professor Prabal Kumar Sen). The fact is that some of our faculty members have received national and International accolade for their works deserves special mention.

We the teachers, one and all are proud of our Department and hope to keep the lamp of learning ablaze through our endeavour to maintain our high standard of teaching and research.

Reports of recent achievements :

Special award / recognition from UGC or related statutory body :
In recognition of high standard of teaching and research, the Department was upgraded from phase-I to II by UGC SAP DRS, for a further period of five (5) years, i.e., 2013-2018