A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
What makes a text a “commentary”? The question is naive enough to allow a complicated answer. In Sanskrit intellectual history there is not a single word for “commentary” and several words focus on different aspects (bhāṣya’ for an extensive commentary Continue reading Changes and continuities in the practice of Sanskrit philosophical commentaries
Almost all the chapters I will deal with in this second post (“Part 1” in the book) are about a defence of objects. The next bunch of chapters will be about a defence of subjects and the last one will Continue reading Thoughts on Arindam Chakrabarti’s Realisms Interlinked / Part 2
Author: A philosopher of two worlds, pupil of amazing scholars of Nyāya and of Analytic philosophy, completely accomplished in both worlds in a way which is hard to repeat —Book: It puts together Arindam’s research of 27 years. Thus, it Continue reading Thoughts on Realisms interlinked by Arindam Chakrabarti 1/ [UPDATED]
Note by EF: This post is part of our series dedicated to younger colleagues presenting themselves and their research, like Manasicha Akepiyapornchai did here and Anusha Rao did here. For more on Szymon, see here. Hello everyone, my name is Continue reading My project on Buddhist epistemology of logic—First guest post by Szymon Bogacz
Within the paradigm of rational theology (in my jargon, God-as-Lord or Īśvara), can God have a form and a body?… Do They need one? Possible arguments in favour of Their having a body: —Yes! They need it to exercise Their Continue reading Preliminary thoughts on divine omnipresence
Future Leaders Fellowships: Indian Philosophy and Mediaeval Islamic Philosophy, University of Oxford Call for expressions of interest The Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Oxford seeks expressions of interest from potential applicants in the field of Indian Philosophy, and in the Continue reading 4–7ys fellowships leading to permanent position at Oxford University!
Sanjay Lal recently published a book titled Gandhi’s Thought and Liberal Democracy (Lexington Books, 2019). You can now listen to Sanjay Lal discussing it on the New Books network, here.
What happens when commands clash? A standard devise to deal with the topic is the idea of taking one as a general rule and the other as a specific one. In Sanskrit, these are called, respectively, utsarga and apavāda. Mīmāṃsā Continue reading General and specific rules in Mīmāṃsā?
Why do people obey to commands? Because they are immediately inclined, in a behaviourist way, to obey? Or because they realise that the action commanded is an instrument to the realisation of a coveted goal? Or are there further explanations? Continue reading Why do people respond to commands?
Maṇḍana’s thesis is an answer to the problem of how to identify the core of a prescription. What makes people undertake actions? Kumārila’s śabdabhāvanā theory and Prabhākara’s kāryavāda had already offered their answers. Maṇḍana expands on Kumārila’s intuition about human Continue reading Maṇḍana’s intellectual theory of motivation