East Mends West

Victoria University professor of philosophy Kolkata-born Jayshankar Lal Shaw says philosophy helps individuals with a “global perspective and a clear notion on how to alleviate pain from the world”, especially during times of unrest. Shaw says with pitched battles being fought in certain pockets, an understanding of the basic question of life and existence and a critical examination of facts is of utmost importance. Known to the world for solving the ‘West woes using Indian philosophy’, the professor has more than 100 international publications and several books to his credit and has formed many societies — Society of Comparative Philosophy Calcutta, Dum Dum Samskriti Samsad, Society for Global Philosophy and Culture, Calcutta, including the Vedanta Society of Wellington and Bharat Samaj, Wellington. “Philosophy makes one do things in a better way. It tells you how to assess the merits and demerits of a phenomenon.”