On the Design Philosophy of this Website

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Do you want to do Intellectual work? Begin by creating within you a zone of silence, a habit of recollection, a will to renunciation and detachment which puts you entirely at the disposal of work; acquire that state of soul unburdened by desire and self-will which is the state of grace of the intellectual worker. Without that you will do nothing, at least nothing worth while.

— A.G. Sertillanges OP, in The Intellectual Life, preface to the 1934 edition, translated by Mary Ryan

Every design decision instantiated in this website was made in the service of one core purpose: to preserve and disseminate the intellectual output of the Association of Christian Philosophers of India.

The real treasures of the ACPI, from an intellectual, historical, and sociological point of view, are the proceedings, books, conference papers, photographs and archival material produced over the various stages of the life of the ACPI. The website that curates and serves these treasures is a mere transient wrapper, and it should draw little attention to itself, and organically emphasise the intellectual content enshrined here. Our aim is to create a stable scholarly reference capable of serving researchers many years to come.

From a functional point of view, an intentionally minimalist page design is appropriate for this purpose because minimalist pages load quickly even on slower connections, work well on older computers, print cleanly if needed, remain readable for decades, and have a lower probability of giving a dated appearance with the changing trends in style.

Since philosophy requires sustained attention, the design aims to eliminate unnecessary visual distractions, allowing the conversation of ideas rather than the platform enabling this conversation to occupy the foreground.

Method is a normative pattern of recurrent and related operations yielding cumulative and progressive results.

— Bernard F. Lonergan SJ, in Method in Theology