Core Vocabulary and Semantic Range: Faculty Source Packet
A faculty-reviewed reader for ASHA-204 introducing core vocabulary and semantic range through transparent methods and evidence boundaries.
Orientation
Avestan terms often carry a wider semantic range than one English word. Asha may involve truth, rightness, order, and reality aligned with the good.
Core concept
Vohu Manah is commonly rendered Good Mind, but belongs to a network of thought, discernment, and beneficent intention.
Evidence and method
Druj can refer to lie, deception, disorder, and active distortion of right relationship.
Application and limits
A glossary should record form, transliteration, working translation, grammatical role, context, and alternatives.
What the evidence establishes
Vohu Manah is commonly rendered Good Mind, but belongs to a network of thought, discernment, and beneficent intention.
What remains interpretive
The course requires students to distinguish disciplinary evidence from theological or philosophical interpretation and to state uncertainty where evidence is incomplete.
Seminar questions
- Which claim is most strongly established?
- What alternative explanation deserves consideration?
- How would stronger evidence change the conclusion?