C. T. K. Chari (5 June 1909 – 5 January 1993) was Head of the Department of Philosophy at
Madras Christian College
Madras Christian College (MCC) is a liberal arts and sciences college in Chennai, India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. The college is affiliated to the University of Madras but functions as an autonomous institu ...
from 1958 to 1969 and the most prominent among contemporary Indian philosophers who paid close attention to psi phenomena. Chari published extensively on extremely diverse topics, such as logic, linguistics, information theory, mathematics, quantum physics, philosophy of mind, and, of course, psi research.
Early life
Cadambur Tiruvenkatachari Krishnamachari (CTK) was born on 5 June 1909 in Tiruvellore, South India. He was the third son of Tiruvenkatachari and Padmammal. He had two older brothers -
C.T.Rajagopal, a noted mathematician, and
C.T.Venugopal.
They had a young sister - Kamala. They were grand nephews and niece of the illustrious brothers -
Sir.P.Rajagopalachari KCSI, CIE and P.Narasimhachari - Justice in
High Court of Burma (Myanmar).
CTK and his family lived in Triplicane (
Chennai
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
) on Big Street and all of them studied in Hindu Higher secondary school. He did his intermediate in
Presidency College, Chennai. Following the two years in the intermediate college, he got his BA (Honors) from
Madras Christian College
Madras Christian College (MCC) is a liberal arts and sciences college in Chennai, India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. The college is affiliated to the University of Madras but functions as an autonomous institu ...
(MCC) and distinguished himself by also winning the Samuel Sathyanathan Gold medal for Philosophy. He then became a tutor and lecturer at
American College, Madurai
The American College, often referred to as American College, is one of the oldest colleges in India, located in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded in 1881 by American Christian missionaries. The red-brick buildings, in the Saracenic style, ...
. In 1940, he joined MCC as an assistant professor.
Career
CTK was contributing scholarly articles to scientific magazines and journals even before he got his doctorate or before becoming a professor at MCC. His first paper â€
‘An Epistemological approach to the special theory of relativity'was published by Mind in April 1937.
Towards the end of 1952 he started to work on his doctoral thesis - 'On some spatial representations of time and their significance for problem of precognition'. His supervisor was Professor Parthasarathy (Major) and in 1953, his thesis was sent to a board of three judges that included Sir
Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the cl ...
at University of London. He was awarded his PhD with top honors, something that was widely expected. At the same time the university allowed him to convert his BA (Honors) degree to be an MA degree.
By 1958, he was appointed the Head of the Department of Philosophy. From then to his retirement in 1969, he and his family lived at Staff Bungalow 15 (behind
Bishop Heber Hall
Madras Christian College (MCC) is a liberal arts and sciences college in Chennai, India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. The college is affiliated to the University of Madras but functions as an autonomous institu ...
) on the
Madras Christian College
Madras Christian College (MCC) is a liberal arts and sciences college in Chennai, India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. The college is affiliated to the University of Madras but functions as an autonomous institu ...
Campus at Tambaram. Following his retirement, he continued as a (University Grants Commission) professor until 1976. He also was the acting head of the department of Philosophy until 1971. The family moved outside the college campus to a house which they called 'The Cloister' where CTK and Mythili lived out the remainder of their lives.
Contemporaries
In 1955,
Gardner Murphy
Gardner Murphy (July 8, 1895 – March 18, 1979) was an American psychologist who specialized in social and personality psychology and parapsychology.Martin Seymour-Smith, Andrew C. Kimmens. (1996). ''World Authors, 1900-1950, Volume 3''. H.W. Wi ...
visited Dr. Chari at the request of Eileen Garrett - a medium and one of the founding members of the Parapsychology Foundation, after which Dr. Chari became a regular contributor to various parapsychological magazines.
Interests
He wrote much about philosophy of science, social impact of the philosophy, metaphysics,
psychology, parapsychology, cognitive sciences and quantum mechanics.
Apart from written articles for various journals, he also had his speeches broadcast on radio occasionally, of which 'Philosophy of Bertrand Russell' - is the only documented one as it was later published by
All India Radio
All or ALL may refer to:
Language
* All, an indefinite pronoun in English
* All, one of the English determiners
* Allar language (ISO 639-3 code)
* Allative case (abbreviated ALL)
Music
* All (band), an American punk rock band
* ''All'' (All a ...
Reincarnation and astrology
He had a long and engaged battle
of wits with
Ian Stevenson
Ian Pretyman Stevenson (October 31, 1918 – February 8, 2007) was a Canadian-born American psychiatrist, the founder and director of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
He was a professor at th ...
who studied reincarnation
across South East Asia and published a lot of cases favoring the phenomenon. CTK was skeptical, and questioned Dr. Stevenson's research in the Journal for American Society of Psychical Research. He similarly discussed the research and views of
Dr. B. V. Raman, who was the founder of the Indian Astrological magazine.
Later years
In the 1980s, he slowly wound down his research activities, though his correspondence with various scholars continued to the very end. His last contribution was a paper titled 'Paranormal Religious Thanthology' to Christian Parapsychologist in March 1992. Mythili died in Jan 1992 and CTK died within a year in Jan 1993.
References
Publications
By C. T. K. Chari
Introduction to the book titled ‘From India to the Planet Mars: a Study of a Case of Somnambulism’ by Flournoy, Theodore with Glossolalia; University Books; New Edition (1963)
- A detailed list of scientific papers published is to be foun
On C. T. K. Chari
- Great Thinkers on Great Questions by Varghese, Roy Abraham (, )
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chari, C.T.K
1909 births
1993 deaths
20th-century Indian philosophers
Parapsychologists
Madras Christian College alumni
Philosophers of mind
Philosophers of science