George Joseph

Assistant Professor
  • PhD in Philosophy (University of Szeged, Hungary)
  • Fellowship in Catholic Social Teaching (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome, Italy)
  • MA History (University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram)
  • BA History (Loyola College, Chennai)

George Joseph wrote his doctoral dissertation at the Department of Philosophy in the University of Szeged, Hungary. The study was an attempt to assess relativism by investigating the deficits of an exclusively positivist hermeneutic underlying it. In this study, he re-read the concepts of nature and reason evidential in the jurisprudential tradition of natural law and verified Joseph Ratzinger’s analysis of normativity. He was also a Fellow at the Faculty of Social Sciences in the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome. There he familiarized with Aristotelian-Thomistic Virtue Ethics and Catholic Social Teaching. With the wealth of these interpretative frameworks, he tries to develop business ethics by discussing human dignity and discerning common good vis-à-vis the contemporary managerial questions such as confronting adversarial technology and market compulsions.

Teaching Areas

  • Business Ethics
  • Philosophy

Experience

  • Lecturer in History, Newman College Thodupuzha, Mahatma Gandhi University –Kerala (2019-2020; June 2025)
  • Lecturer in History, Nirmala College Muvattupuzha, Mahatma Gandhi University – Kerala (2018-2019; February–April 2025)

Research Area

  • Debates on Natural Law and Legal Positivism
  • Relativism and the Ideological Influences on Normativity

Current Research Interests

  • Human Dignity and Common Good in Catholic Social Thought
  • Personalist Approach in Ethics

Publications

  • András Máté-Tóth and George Joseph Vellankal, “Social Sins, Structural Virtues, and the Educational Challenge: Reflections on Caritas in Veritate and Laudato Si’” (Religions, MDPI, 2025). https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16020136
  • George Joseph Vellankal, “Transcendental Dimension of Human Dignity in Joseph Ratzinger’s Evaluation of Normativity” (Threats to Democracy: Nationalism, Chauvinism, Extremism, UNUM Publishers, 2025). https://doi.org/10.21906/9788376432588.23
  • George Joseph Vellankal, “From Natural Law to Relativism: Joseph Ratzinger on the Normative Transformation since Kant” (The European Legacy, Taylor & Francis, 2024). https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770.2024.2355748
  • George Joseph Vellankal, “Going Beyond Positivist Logic of Market: Joseph Ratzinger on Fraternity in Economy” (Dialogue and Universalism, Journal of the International Society for Universal Dialogue, Warsaw), XXXIV (1)/ 2024, 37-49. https://doi.org/10.5840/du20243414
  • András Máté-Tóth and George Joseph Vellankal, “Relativism According to Joseph Ratzinger: An Attempt to Understand Central and Eastern Europe,” Keresztények a pluralista demokráciában—Tanulmányok Joseph Ratzinger—XVI. Benedek munkásságról, Budapest: Ludovika University Press, 2024). http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12944/27403
  • George Joseph, “Going Beyond Legal Positivism: Evidence of Natural Law in Classical Foundations up to Scholasticism” (Journal of Indian History – Centenary Volume 2023, 740-759). ISSN 0022-1775.
  • George Joseph Vellankal, “Combating the Exclusivity of Relativism: The Proposals of Natural Law in the Writings of Joseph Ratzinger” (Ütközéspontok IX, Budapest: Doktoranduszok Országos Szövetsége, 2023).
  • George Joseph Vellankal, A Journey through the Theology of Pope Benedict XVI (co-edited with Thomas Padiyath and Christo Neriamparambil, Kottayam: OIRSI Books, 2022).
  • George Joseph, “Reason and Religion in Indian Public Sphere: A Study on Habermas-Ratzinger Debate on Secularization” (Beyond the Boundaries: Critical Studies in Social Science, Kollam: Dissent Books, 2018).

Awards

  • Stipendium Hungaricum Doctoral Scholarship 2020–2024 (Tempus Foundation Budapest – University Grants Commission)
  • CREATE TX Scholarship January–June 2024 ((Adjuvantes—Angelicum, Rome)