From now on, you will read new voices on the IPhBlog!
One way to interact with people on the blog is by means of mentions. For instance, let me quote something Ge said:
I am happy to be studying Nyāya with Prof. Preisendanz.
Thanks, Ge!
A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
Some of you may be interested in this open-access article (which is also available in pdf) from the Journal of World Philosophies: Reconstructing Hindu-Buddhist Dialogue on the Self Through the Lens of Jaina Non-Absolutism
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/jwp/article/view/6320
There is also a review in the same journal of Pradeep Gokhale’s The Yogasūtra of Patañjali: A New Introduction to the Buddhist Roots of the Yoga System (Routledge India, 2020). https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/jwp/article/view/6329
Thank you, Patrick!
You are most welcome, Elisa, my pleasure.
Emma Irwin-Herzog on Jaon non-absolutism opens a rich vein of discovery which will yield remarkable insights for a long time to come. Much if not most of the creative thought in Indic philosophy arose between the established doctrines of the sects. Already in ancient times there were scholars who focussed on disputes between authorities, and on that way came to record memorable debates between them. The Upaniṣads then drew on these records for many if their best passages. The Mokṣadharma again makes frequent reference to these wandering scholars.
Mahāvīra introduced non-absolutism or anenkanta-vāda into Jain thinking, responding to an existing dispute about the categories, whether time should be included as a sixth. That stance one can attribute to the mathematicians then taking an interest in astronomy, and proving their worth as calculators. For time is the basis for all the most sensitive measurements in astronomy.
From there the trails lead out all over the world! The five categories with Motion and Rest as separate principles show up in the Physics attributed to Aristotle! And we then find him admiring Time as the most sensitive of measures, evidently in response to Plato’s famous lecture on the Good, which curiously approached the topic through astronomy.
So the physics was in no way original to Aristotle, rather responding to Jain ideas off the caravan routes from India; and Plato was similarly moving with the new astronomy. Back in India, the Jain-Buddhist dialogue started between the founders, and then spead on time through Sāṁkhya to Yoga. And the impact in the Yogaśāstra Bhāshya can be traced right from Mahāvīra! One thread of commentary expounds the samyag-darsana, a,’vidion of rightiousness’ evenly poised between avoiding evil and persuit if the good, very much in the spirit of anenkanta-vāda. But here rethought already in relation to Manu, as an ethical principle, which is worth now raking very seriously. It’s just what Elon Musk now needs to get level again! Indulging gross risks of abuse in persuit of profit is no way good business – rather driven self-destruction.