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Tarka and kutarka

Today in our class, our faculty was explaining about tarka, kutarka and vitarka. Tarka means debate or reasoning. Or to some extent logic. Ku as a prefix in Sanskrit means bad. Bad logic or argument with a bad motive. And vitarka is special reasoning or thinking outside the box. 


So I wanted to write some funny logic or shall I say kutarka? I searched the net for such jokes. All of them concluded that the person is not gay or gay? Really, all of them. 

OK, I got something different. But not exactly vitandavada.

  • A bus station is where a bus stops.
  • A train station is where a train stops.
  • On my desk, I have a work station.
  • so.....


And one more

  • Love is God. Love is blind. So God is blind.

One more quote by Stephen Colbert
  • God is love. Love is blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.

The one I liked is this

  • I am nothing
  • Nothing is perfect
  • So I am perfect

This kind of deducing by the way is called syllogism where one inference is made from two or more statements. Something like if A=B and A = C, then B=C

This one is MCP kind of thing

  • Devil is ugly
  • My wife is ugly
  • So my wife is devil


Let us come back to tarka, kutarka and vitarka. We can say all these are kutarka. But kutarka is when makes faulty arguments with selfish motives. 

By the way, the arguments lawyers make in court, are they tarka or kutarka?


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