Much has been made of Kant's Scottish ancestry but his debt to Kerala has scarcely been acknowledged. Recently, Shashi Tharoor's daring 'de-Kanting' (as Prof. Binmore puts it) and re-formulation of Ethics has re-opened the whole question of Malyalee- in particular Shree P. Menon's- influence on Kant.
Menon Sahib, whom Kant addressed as Prolego (Prahalad? Palghat?), had a great influence on Kant' views though, with typical European condescension the sage of Konisberg wrote a letter of introduction for Prolego Menon to all future Metaphysics. This gives us the clue that Shri P. Menon may have been a student or, more likely, a waiter at a South Indian Restaurant and had requested this favor from the German philosopher.
The P.Menon you refer must be Smt. Pralajjishwari Menon of Tata Consultancy Services who was posted to Konisberb (Kalliningrad) in the Eighteenth Century. Kant gave a letter of introduction to Pralajja Ji to all future Metaphysics but European Competition Policy forbade the deal which would given the beautiful Malyalee maiden a monopoly of Metaphysics with consequences catastrophic down to this day.
ReplyDeleteSorry, that should read 'Kant gave a letter of introduction for Pralajja Ji to all future Metaphysics &c.
ReplyDeleteI merely point this out because it was sexist of you to presume that P.Menon must be male.
@ Anonymous- is that you, Shiela, by any chance? Pralajja Menon is clearly right. God, those Malyalee women are beautiful! Now if only there was some way to get rid of Malyalee men...
ReplyDeleteCorrect title is Sow. (Sowbhagyavati) not Smt. (Shrimati) Pralajja Ishwari Menon as we are speaking of a maiden lady not a married woman.
ReplyDelete