Thing Theory Research Paper

A THING-ORIENTED PERSPECTIVE OF
ANCIENT INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
M. John Britto
Assistant Professor of English
St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous)
Tiruchirappalli-620002
Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT
With the emergence of thing-oriented doctrines in the recent times, there is a gradual shift of attention from human subjects to material objects in the contemporary educational realm. Thing theory and object-oriented ontology, as thing-oriented doctrines, are in equilibrium with their primary concern with things. Both of them are pertinent to each other in multifarious ways. While thing theory is concerned with the significance of things in relation to literature and culture, object-oriented ontology focuses on the centrality of things in philosophy.

However, there are a few instances here and there wherein things were said to gain some attention. This

Organized polytheism refers to the phase of religion wherein “[t]he gods are gradually related to one another as the major and the minor, as dependent on one another, and as generating one another” (Sinha 19). For example, Heaven and Earth are regarded as the mothers of Agni, Rudra as the father of Maruts, Aditi as the mother of the Ādityas, and the Aśvins as the brothers. Indra maintains the Earth and the Sky, and is regarded as a major god and others as minor deities. The next phase of religion was henotheism in which one god, among many gods, was treated as the supreme god at the time of worshipping him (19). Thus, the hierarchy began to grow among the deified things of nature. In this sense, even among the powerful things of nature, there is a sense of superiority and inferiority which is an anti-object-oriented feature. The hierarchy of things in terms of their superiority undermines the things which are considered lower or