Sreekumar Nellickappilly ([email protected])

Dr Sreekumar Nellickapilly is an Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, India, and specialises in the areas of Hermeneutics, Philosophy of Wittgenstein, Bioethics and Indian Philosophy. He offers courses in European and Indian Philosophies, Gandhian Philosophy and Ethics. A Gold medalist in Post Graduation, he has completed his PhD from the Central University of Hyderabad in the year 2000, after completing MPhil from the same Institution. Before joining IIT Madras in 2003, he worked at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India.

At present he is working on some specific issues related to the phenomenological, medical and philosophical conceptions of health, healing, wellbeing and the various other social, cultural and moral aspects related to them.

Currently he is involved in work on two projects. The first is sponsored by the Wellcome Trust and entitled “Patient Welfare and Patient Autonomy: Reflections on Bio-medical Ethics in the Indian Context” (http://www.hss.iitm.ac.in/wipmitepsi/project3.html). This work examines some fundamental ethical concepts relevant in the practice of modern medicine in India today, by problematising them in contemporary India’s social and cultural context. It examines the relevant issues with a historical and philosophical analysis of the Indian conceptions of welfare and wellbeing, patient rights, patient-physician relationships etc.

The second project is sponsored by the Indian National Science Academy (http://insaindia.org) and is about the “History of the Traditional Physicians of Kerala and their Unique Ethical Outlook”, where he explores the nature of the ethical insights the traditional physicians of Ayurveda in Kerala have imbibed and integrated into their practice.

He is an Associate of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla and a Member of several academic bodies and Associations. Apart from academic publications, he also writes in many English and Malayalam newspapers, periodicals and magazines.