Knowledge system, Scepticism and COVID-19 pandemic. by - Ayush Gaur

Knowledge is acquaintance with fact, information or events that take place.We gain knowledge through experiences or study. Knowledge makes our belief system. It forms true beliefs with the help of good reasons.These reasons are called epistemic reasons which provide justification for beliefs. As beliefs are generated by less well grounded point of view, they need justification otherwise they create the condition of gullibility.But it is difficult to utilize the epistemic reasons during the time of worldwide lockdown due to COVID pandemic.Practical knowledge is not completely possible during the pandemic as it requires senses which are in restrictions and as the lockdown period increases, the performance aspect of knowledge becomes slower.

Conspiracy theory against Corona virus pandemic is in discourse. COVID-19 is a natural pandemic is also the opinion of scientific communities. These two theories are pole apart and both have arisen from the domain of science.Now, it creates a conflict within the believers of science that which theory is rationally driven.One is based on bio-power, bio-terrorism and imperialism in which China is blamed for it's secretive role to destroy the western economies.The other theory is based on the incapable system to fight pandemic and poor health infrastructure.The conflict among both are explicit as both have their own rational tools to prove their side of the hypothesis.But it generates radical scepticism which is not healthy as it questions everything.Doubts on the success of vaccine, fear on the second wave, impossibility of any effective drug, and the bleak future are some of the aspects of radical scepticism. Knowledge amidst the crisis and the doubts there upon seems impossible.

Knowledge is virtue. Virtues are special kinds of value.So, knowledge is valuable.During the world-wide lock down the pace of gathering the virtuous knowledge has become difficult.Today, doubts are strong and these doubts are self-destructive as we doubt everything during a serious crisis.Doubts help regimes to maintain power knowledge nexus.Citizens doubts on their knowledge and hence lose their confidence in their own commitment.It ultimately leads to incoherence in everything.This incoherence destroys the formal routes and methods to gather knowledge.It takes away the spirit and creates despondency.It gives rise to the vice of deficiency.Hence, knowledge becomes a problem as it poses only questions to ones own self.In such a radical sceptic atmosphere, knowledge is impossible.

Genuine knowledge is compatible with the possibility of being mistaken. Knowledge does not demand infallibility.But there should be the scope to mistake. When a crisis falls on a person,it makes one helpless.It sets limits over the rational thinking as it destroys the set patterns and norms.It is the same discourse that postmodernists create in the literary circles.The meaninglessness of the world is in a sense a complete doubt on the existing knowledge.It is the incredulity towards meta narratives as the postmodern philosopher, Lyotard suggests. The enlightenment principle is questioned and the whole established system of knowledge comes under the serious considerations.The atmosphere after the second world war solidifies the sense of radical scepticism and the pandemic like COVID-19 further strengthens the radical scepticism.

The existential crisis is apparent. People are in depression and fear. Technological development is not able to put forward the answer to the pertinent questions that the pandemic has arisen.Scientists with their own approaches are magnifying the problem,some of whom are raising the possibility of no vaccine in future.It is true that scientists are just raising concerns and showing different side of the story but these doubts during the worldwide crisis create anxiety and terror.The world looks absurd and this absurdity ultimately destroys the spirit to search knowledge.Both absurdism and existentialism are the prominent ideas in the postmodern thinking and COVID crisis has further enhanced the problem.Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) are being questioned.All the economic models are failing and no new social ideology is capable enough to displace the current ideological paralysis.

Knowledge,hence is in crisis as the world is in doubt.Future seems uncertain with many possibilities that want reconsideration on the present systems and methods of rationality.Radical scepticism is dominant today.It can destroy self-spirit but that is the reality.Reality is itself in question that again leads to radical doubts and among everything knowledge needs passage to become available for the masses. It needs rational and logical efforts but with a caution and that is to first define rationale and logic in the new contexts.

127 hours by Jyoti Singh

I decided to watch 127hours movie.It is an inspirational movie which tell us about to never lose hope.The movie is directed by Danny Boyle.This movie is based on a real story of man's determination to survive after hiking accident.This story is about brave mountaineer Aron Ralston who is crazy in doing adventurous thing.But this craziness take him in trouble which becomes a question of life and death for him.

Aron falls down while performing adventure at the narrow pass of the Grand canyon's veeran valleys and a heavy rock falls over him.To escape 65 feet deep, Aron will have to come out first then have to cross the 8 mile long path. The next five days, Aron thinks about his life.He remembers the two girls who were found before the accident and decides that he will get out of this trouble at any cost.

In order to divert attention from the pain,Aron catches up with the stubbornness of his life, thinking about his family, friends and beloved ones.

This is an extremely thriller movie which teaches the philosophy of never giving up.It also tells what we can do when we have to choose between life and death.

Stop waiting for life to be easy 

Stop hoping for somebody to save you

Face some hard facts and you 

Could have an incredible life....


Fear can hold you prisoner

Hope can set you free....

Children, Childhood and COVID-19 by AYUSH GAUR

The mind of a child is an empty slate according to Tabula Rasa theory, and therefore all knowledge is gained through experiences.The question,hence,arises that children in the era of pandemic perceive what kind of world. Are they not forced to limit their sensory receptors that assist and form basis in the understanding of the world? Children in houses are being taught to suppress their desires which include exploration of society, learning from nature and playing with peers.They are restricted to approach and sense physically, anything outside their homes.It is true that these are preventive measures to protect them from the pandemic,but it has transmogrified their psychology grotesquely.

Scepticism is healthy but that is learnt with the help of rational tools that include logical reasoning and scientific understanding.It is a continuous process that can't be taught mechanically in the nascent age.Childhood is conceived as the period of innocence and William Blake's Songs of Innocence weave 'unfallen world's of innocence that is full of pleasure and joy of paradise.This innocence is under the coercive shade of radical scepticism that is harming the confidence of small children to such an extent that it will make doubting as only principle in their lives. It will create a dent in their confidence for sure.

The terms like social distancing, isolation, lockdown, quarantine centres do not carry positive meaning with themselves as nobody wants to enjoy them.The impact these terms create on children need analysis and research.Children are being taught to explore the world through different mythical stories, parables and fables;and in all these moral stories we treat humans as social animals whose limit is beyond sky whether physical or mental.But today,these stories look like historical metafictions to us that depict world which is a distant -historic world of pre-COVID era.

Children today are prone to domestic violence as their elders are facing extreme psychological distress due to lockdown.People are losing jobs, uncertainty about the future employability is grave and dismal,and limiting oneself at home amidst these anxieties can have a  negative impact on children. They can face abuses and grudges for the causes that are not produced by them.The unpeaceful atmosphere in the houses is a serious issue as we can not leave our future in the depressed and tyrant atmosphere.It is evident that children are among the most vulnerable and marginalized section in the era of COVID-19.

To approach with doubt and ask question is scientific model of understanding but to doubt and remain in fear is a curse that children are experiencing today. The threat to life is so big that emotional proximity has not been given space to nurture within self.When a son denies the cremation of his father to protect himself from Corona Virus,we can sense the level of fear that the world today possesses.If young and healthy are in such fear, the working of fear psychosis among children can be assessed easily.It is being instructed to stay at home,an unprecedented war is going on;what violent results will it have on the minds of our children needs serious pondering.



Children are being forced to use technology to study and play online without any proper arrangements to curb the cyber- crimes that can victimize these innocent minds to an extent that their psychological recovery will not be possible later.In pre-COVID era,elders have tried best to protect their children from the perils of social media.Today their children spend most of their time exposing themselves to many uncensored sites that are not conducive for their development.Proximity to internet is unprecedented in this pandemic era and our understanding and preparation to deal with the negative aspects of internet is still very less.

The attack on childhood by the COVID-19 raises some fundamental questions and serious reconsiderations in our approach to history and economics.Historians have assessed pre history of 200,000years as unconstructive and insignificant in terms of human development.History of human civilization begins with the agricultural development and achieves it's pinnacle during the age of Industrial revolution.Since then, our approach is forward looking, that always followed the imperialist ideals of the British regime.It blatantly rejected any direct association of human civilization with nature.

Consequently, the present generation of our children is forced to accept the curse which their forefathers have cultivated for them.Our children now have to familiarize themselves with the new novel sufferings that include environmental grief and climate depression; bioterrorism and disease mutations.It is the present and the future of our children that is built on the reckless industrial adventurism and that has left no space for any other kind of adventure to our children.

'The Child is the Father of Man's is a phrase composed by William Wordsworth in 1802 and now if we understand it in the present context, we can feel the future of humanity.It will be based on doubt,mistrust,persistent threat to life and the habit of self-protection to a level of obsession.We can hope for the good but the present scenario and our over enthusiasm to adopt techno culture will lead us to the place from where it will be difficult to return.