Excavating the Problem of Non-being

<strong>Centre for Philosophy School of Social Sciences</strong> a Talk on <strong>Excavating the Problem of Non-being</strong> By <strong>Prof. A. Raghuramaraju </strong> Date: <strong>October 14, 2015</strong> <strong>Abstract</strong> : The paper makes a case for the need to move from the political to the metaphysical. In this context, it explores two moves: (i) the relation between hierarchy and permanence and (ii) the relation between hierarchy and change. Within metaphysics the paper discusses how the concept of non-being provided the ontological resources, albeit surreptitiously and in a disguised form, to hierarchy. The discussion covers different versions of non-being, and its different aspects including, pre, post and non-existence that draw resources from the idea of permanence in Classical Indian philosophical schools. The next section moves on to use close analysis and criticism of non-being in Deleuze's presentation of Bergson. As part of thickening the plot, the discussion identified the insufficiency in the treatment, of the debates between Descartes and Hume, who provide dominant and counter traditions in the West to the problem of reason and non-reason. The paper identifies permanence as sustenance of both non-being and reason, and in this context, it discusses the work of Vaddera Chandidass who sought to historicise the human craving for permanence by relegating it to the margins as a projection of intellection, sustained by negation. The paper concludes by claiming how this rendering is more powerful in dethroning non-being than attempted by Bergson who leaves it to intuition.