Dr Vivek Radhakrishnan is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Division of Humanities & Social Sciences, Krea University. Before joining Krea, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay. For his doctoral research he was awarded the Junior Research Fellowship by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), and he received his PhD from Manipal Academy of Higher Education. His areas of research are Kant’s philosophy, history of normative ethics and contemporary Indian philosophy. Dr Radhakrishnan’s teaching experience includes his stint as a lecturer at Christ Junior College, an IB world school, where he taught theory of knowledge and ethics. At Krea, he teaches courses on philosophical methods, ancient Greek philosophy and moral philosophy. Dr Radhakrishnan also translates influential philosophical texts into Tamil and is keen on seeing classical works of philosophy available in regional Indian languages.

Research

Dr Vivek Radhakrishnan’s research interests lie in the history of philosophy, moral philosophy and Indian-European cross-cultural philosophy. Philosophical questions like, “Why should we be moral?”, “What makes actions right and wrong?”, “How are we motivated to do moral actions?”, etc motivate his research. Since these are age-old questions that have been explored by various the philosophers at different times, he is keen on studying how these fundamental questions were asked and addressed in the history of philosophy. Besides moral philosophy and its history, Dr Radhakrishnan is also interested in studying how 19th and 20th century Indian philosophers received and calibrated philosophical theories from modern Europe. His doctoral and postdoctoral research focussed on the problem of moral motivation as discussed by the 18th century Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant. In his PhD thesis titled Kant’s Theory of Moral Motivation, he argued for the inclusion of feeling as an essential motivational component within the rationalist Kantian ethical framework. His research articles on Kant’s practical philosophy have appeared in peer-reviewed journals like Con-textos Kantianos, Kantian Journal, Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research and Problemos. He has presented his research papers on Kant’s philosophy in international conferences organised by North American Kant Society (NAKS), Hong Kong Kant Society (HKKS), Leuven Research Group in Classical German Philosophy and Russian Academia Kantiana. His current research focuses on moral philosophy of Kant, metaphysics of KC Bhattacharyya and the reception of Kant’s philosophy in India.

Publications

Selected Publications
Research Papers

1. Radhakrishnan, Vivek. 2023. “Feeling and Moral Motivation in Kant: A Response to the Frierson-Grenberg Debate”, Con-Textos Kantianos, 17, pp. 111-123.

2. Radhakrishnan, Vivek. 2020. “Kantian Moral Motivation: An Affectivist Interpretation”, Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, 37, 2, pp. 225-241.

3. Radhakrishnan, Vivek. 2019. “Revisiting the Maxim-Law Dynamic in the Light of Kant’s Theory of Action”, Kantian Journal (Kantovskii Sbornik), 38, 2, pp. 45-72.

4. Radhakrishnan, Vivek. 2019. “The Duty of Knowing Oneself as One Appears: A Response to Kant’s Problem of Moral Self-Knowledge”, Problemos, 96, pp. 23-35.

Translations (into Tamil)  

1. Radhakrishnan, Vivek. 2023. “Manithaneya Nokkathilirunthu Poi Pesalam Endrennappatta Oru Urimaiyai Pattri” (Translation of Kant’s “Über Ein Vermeintes Recht aus Menschenliebe zu Lügen), Kanali – Online Cultural-Literary Magazine, 30.

2. Radhakrishnan, Vivek. 2023. “Arivolirthal Endral Enna?: Kelvikku Oru Bathil” (Translation of Kant’s “Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?”), Kanali – Online Cultural-Literary Magazine, 28.

3. Radhakrishnan, Vivek. 2022. “Meyyiyalin Mathippeedu” (Translation of Russell’s “The Value of Philosophy”), Kanali – Online Cultural-Literary Magazine, 25.

Teaching Modules

• Philosophical Methods
• Presocratics and the Socratics
• Aristotle’s Ethics
• Kant’s Moral Philosophy
• Virtue Ethics
• Philosophical Perspectives Across Cultures