A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
Why does a devotee love God? Because He is good, merciful, omniscient…? Or just out of love? This seems to be one of the moot issues between the two currents within the form of Vaiṣṇavism later to be known as Continue reading Loving God for no reason
The Eleventh East-West Philosophers’ Conference will be held in Honolulu, Hawai’i on May 24-31, 2016. The theme of the conference is “Place.” The deadline for panel and paper submissions is November 1, 2015. Please see the Call for Papers at Continue reading Eleventh East-West Philosophers’ Conference: May 24-31, 2016
In the last week, two students have asked me about the distinction between jñā- and vid- and this made me think that it might be worth adding a new section to Andrew’s collaborative enterprise (see here and here) of mapping Continue reading Keywords: jnā– and vid–
Patricia Y. Mumme. The Śrīvaiṣṇava Theological Dispute. Maṇavāḷamāmuni and Vedānta Deśika. xviii+320 pp., index. Bangalore: Navbharath Publications, 2000 (1st ed. Madras 1988). 25 USD. The book is a unique contribution to the study of Śrīvaiṣṇavism insofar as it takes into Continue reading Book Review of The Śrīvaiṣṇava Theological Dispute by Patricia Y. Mumme (Reviewed by Elisa Freschi)
Well, yes… isn’t it? The problem is less easy than it may look like and amounts to the problem of non-committal understanding. Is it the normal attitude while listening to a speaker or just an exception or an a posteriori Continue reading Can one understand a sentence without believing its content to be the case?
This week on Sunday will start the next World Sanskrit Conference. Among the contributors and regular commenters of this blog, several are going to be there, such as Jason Birch, Daniele Cuneo, Evgeniya Desnitskaya, Camillo Formigatti, Andrew Ollett, Agnieszka Rostalska Continue reading The World Sanskrit Conference is approaching…
If you have read post-Classical śāstra, you will have certainly encountered the formulation above, describing the three foundational disciplines as focusing on words (pada), i.e., grammatical analysis in Vyākaraṇa sentences (vākya), i.e., textual linguistics in Mīmāṃsā means of knowledge (pramāṇa), Continue reading pada-vākya-pramāṇa… Since when? (with updated reference)
The discussion on the epistemological validity of sentences starts in Jaimini’s Pūrva Mīmāṃsā Sūtra (PMS) and in Śabara’s commentary thereon when the opponent notes that, even if —as established in PMS 1.1.5— there were really an originary connection between words Continue reading Śabara on sentences
From the INDOLOGY list-serv: Dear colleagues, As some of you know, Stephanie Jamison and I have been working on a more detailed and technical commentary on the Jamison-Brereton RV translation. The obvious place to put something like this is the Continue reading Online commentary on the Rig Veda by Jamison and Brereton
Are words an instrument of knowledge? And, if so, what sort of? Are they an instance of inference insofar as one infers the meaning on the basis of the words used? Or are they are an independent instrument of knowledge, Continue reading Are words an instrument of knowledge?