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The World, the Other and I: Solipsistic Poems of Kunjunni

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Abstract

The Malayalam poet, Kunjunni, is known for his short and simple poems. Some of his poems are filled with rich philosophical insights, and a few such poems are gathered in this paper with a view to unravel the philosophical view point embedded in them. By explicating the poet’s views about space, time, the world and the other, the paper contends that the philosophical vision that unfolds in these poems is a form of solipsism, the doctrine that the self alone exits. It is shown how the poet considers the other minds including God, and the spatiotemporal universe as various manifestations of his self and refuses to grant them independent ontological status as people generally tend to do. The paper concludes by noting also certain sceptical tendencies in the poet.

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Notes

  1. A competing interpretation would be from the point of view of transcendental idealism or monistic idealism of the variety advocated by Advaita Vedantins.

  2. Newton, for example, argued that space and time are absolute. See Rynasiewicz (2014), ‘Newton’s Views on Space, Time, and Motion’, The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (Summer 2014 Edition).

  3. Against Newton’s absolutist views of space and time, Leibniz advances a relational theory of space and time. See Ballard (1960), ‘Leibniz’s Theory of space and Time’.

  4. Kant (1998), Critique of Pure Reason, A26/B42–A28/B44.

  5. Kunjunni (1984), Kunjunnikavithakal. All poems used in the text are from this collection; they are translated into English by Chitra Panikker. The translated poems are not published elsewhere.

  6. The word ‘Guruyayur’ appearing in the poem refers to a place in Thrissur district of Kerala, India, where the celebrated temple of Lord Krishna is situated. The reference to Guruvayur in the poem could be understood either literally as a place name or metaphorically as signifying divinity. Both the readings would be compatible with the interpretation I pursue in this essay.

  7. I do not mean to say that Augustine was a subjective idealist. Nor do I claim that Kunjunni is influenced by Augustinian Philosophy. Kunjunni’s position on time resembles Augustine’s and I use an already articulated concept of time in the history of philosophy to clarify the poet’s views on time.

  8. Augustine of Hippo (1948), The Confessions, Book XI, Chapter XX. 195.

  9. This reminds us of Wittgenstein’s (1974) celebrated remark on solipsism in Tractatus which says: ‘The self of solipsism shrinks to a point without extension, and there remains the reality coordinated with it’. See TLP 5.64.

  10. Karassery notes that for the poet the real which he christens ‘I’ is without any duration or extension. However, he does not see it as avowal of solipsistic position. See Karassery (1981), ‘Kaalam nischalamavumbol’ 34–42.

  11. ‘Kunnikuru’ in the above poem refers to the seed of abrus-precatorius. The seed is very small but beautiful, spherical in shape and red in colour with a tiny black spot on the top.

  12. Wittgenstein, for example, says: ‘what the solipsist means is quite correct; only it cannot be said, but makes itself manifest’. See TLP: 5. 62.

  13. An alternative way to answer the question, ‘how did this poet become a solipsist?’ is to study the poems from sociocultural, historical and biographical perspectives and identify the process that led the poet to adopt a solipsistic point of view. For a study of the historical and sociocultural process involved in the evolution of self-narration in general and autobiography in particular in modern Malayalam literature, see Kumar (2016), Writing the First Person: Literature, History, and Autobiography in Modern Kerala.

References

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  • Wittgenstein, L. (1974). Tractatus logico-philosophicus (D. F. Pears & B. F. McGuinness, Trans.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

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Acknowledgements

I am thankful to Chitra Panikkar for translating into English the poems quoted in this paper and to Narayanan Varadarajan for his comments on an earlier draft of the paper.

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Correspondence to C. A. Tomy.

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Tomy, C.A. The World, the Other and I: Solipsistic Poems of Kunjunni. J. Indian Counc. Philos. Res. 35, 557–570 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40961-017-0128-4

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