Using Thinkers in an Answer: Which One, and When
Knowing sixteen thinkers is useless if you cannot pick one under time pressure. This part is the selection table and the three ways to deploy a thinker without sounding decorative.
Category: Moral Thinkers and Philosophers
Chapter 5 — the Indian and Western moral thinkers, what each actually contributed, and how to deploy them in an answer.
Kant, Mill and Rawls: Duty, Utility and Justice
Three Western thinkers who between them define the modern vocabulary of public ethics: duty, welfare, and fairness under uncertainty.
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Confucius: Character and the Good State
Four thinkers, two civilisations, one shared question: what kind of person should hold power, and how is such a person made?
The Modern Indian Thinkers: Gandhi, Ambedkar, Vivekananda, Tagore, Aurobindo
Five modern Indians who answered the same question differently: what should a free country be, and what kind of person does it require?
The Classical Indian Thinkers: Kautilya, Buddha, Mahavira, Thiruvalluvar
India’s oldest ethical thinking is unusually practical. It was written by people advising kings, founding orders and governing households — not by academics.