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Glossary

Big ideas, in two lines each.

25 terms that come up across the essays and videos, explained briefly — each linked to the essay that uses it.

ABCDEHIKMNOPSTV
Anumana
Inference in Indian philosophy — knowing something unseen (fire) from something seen (smoke). Read: Nyaya Solved a Problem the West Took 2,000 Years to Notice
Banality of evil
Hannah Arendt's phrase for great harm done by ordinary people following orders and routines, without monstrous motives. Read: How Ordinary People Become Monsters
Charvaka
An ancient Indian materialist school that doubted inference could ever prove a universal rule. Read: Nyaya Solved a Problem the West Took 2,000 Years to Notice
Code-switching
Moving between languages within one conversation or piece of writing; a skill, not a confusion. Read: Why I Write in Three Languages
Cognitive dissonance
The discomfort of holding beliefs that clash with our behaviour — usually resolved by reinterpreting the behaviour. Read: Caste Is Not a Past Tense
Cosmological argument
The family of arguments from causes or contingency to a first cause or necessary being. Read: The God of Philosophy Is Not the God of Religion
Diffusion of responsibility
The fading sense of personal duty when many people share a task or witness the same event. Read: How Ordinary People Become Monsters
Endogamy
Marrying within one's own group; the rule that keeps caste lines intact across generations. Read: Caste Is Not a Past Tense
Hindustani
The shared spoken language from which modern Hindi and Urdu grew apart, largely through script and politics. Read: Why I Write in Three Languages
Identity-protective cognition
Defending a belief because it marks your membership of a group, not because of the evidence. Read: How to Change Your Mind Without Losing Yourself
Inherited faith
Religion received at birth with language and food, and never examined as an adult. Read: Faith Is Not the Problem. Inherited Faith Is.
Kalama Sutta
A Buddhist discourse advising people to test teachings against experience rather than accept them on tradition alone. Read: Faith Is Not the Problem. Inherited Faith Is.
Meritocracy
A system that rewards measured ability; the word was coined in 1958 by Michael Young as a warning. Read: The Village That Taught Me What Merit Means
Motivated reasoning
Reasoning backwards from the conclusion we want, while feeling that we are reasoning forwards. Read: Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things
Myside bias
Judging evidence and arguments by whether they support our side; barely related to intelligence. Read: Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things
NOTA
"None of the Above" on Indian ballots since 2013 — a recorded protest that does not change the result on its own. Read: I Have Voted for Everyone. Here’s What I Learned.
Obedience to authority
Milgram's finding that ordinary people will hurt others when a legitimate-seeming authority takes responsibility. Read: How Ordinary People Become Monsters
Problem of induction
No number of past observations can logically guarantee the next one — made famous by Hume, argued in India much earlier. Read: Nyaya Solved a Problem the West Took 2,000 Years to Notice
Scout mindset
Julia Galef's term for wanting to see things as they are rather than defending what you already believe. Read: How to Change Your Mind Without Losing Yourself
Smoke-detector principle
Randolph Nesse's idea that anxiety is tuned to false alarms because missing a real danger costs more. Read: Your Anxiety Might Be a Sane Response
Spinoza's God
God understood as nature itself — impersonal, without favourites, without a temper. Read: The God of Philosophy Is Not the God of Religion
Steelmanning
Stating an opposing view in its strongest form, so well its supporters would agree with your summary. Read: How to Change Your Mind Without Losing Yourself
System justification
The tendency to defend the arrangements we live inside, even when they are unfair to us. Read: Caste Is Not a Past Tense
Tarka
Testing reasoning in Nyaya: showing the absurd results that follow if a proposed rule is denied. Read: Nyaya Solved a Problem the West Took 2,000 Years to Notice
Vyapti
Invariable concomitance — the universal relation (wherever smoke, there fire) that makes an inference valid. Read: Nyaya Solved a Problem the West Took 2,000 Years to Notice

Want the long version?

Every term here has an essay behind it.

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