A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
I am fresh back from the “Buddhism and Social Justice” conference hosted by Leiden University, The Netherlands. This will be the first in what I hope will be a number of posts in the coming weeks about individual papers and Continue reading Trusting our sources: manuscripts, archaeology, and what we “cannot know”
Who invented the apoha theory? If you, like me, are prone to answer “Dignāga” and to add that Dignāga (as shown by Hattori) was inspired by Bhartṛhari’s theory and that Dharmakīrti and Dharmottara later fine-tuned Dignāga’s one, you are ready Continue reading Who invented the apoha theory? On Kunjunni Raja 1986
Who is the most productive scholar on Indian Philosophy? Kei Kataoka is surely in the top-10 (have a look at his publications here).
A series of reflections and notes around the relationship between Buddhism and the political category of the Empire. * The most superficial survey on Buddhist political ideas through history will immediately reveal that the favourite political system of Buddhism is Continue reading Buddhism and Empire (1)
The term tuccha means in Classical Sanksrit “worthless”, “insignificant”. In Vedānta, however, it gets a more specific technical meaning, to denote the absolute unreality of chimeral entities, such as the khapuṣpa (flower in the air), which will not and cannot Continue reading What is unreal?
A strange coincidence surprised me as I designed this spring’s course in Indian philosophy – but one that I suspect is quite significant. The coincidence resulted from three of my primary concerns in selecting content for the course syllabus, and Continue reading The accidental Gītā
…or can one just say that his existence cannot be denied? During his commentary on Maṇḍana Miśra’s Vidhiviveka (henceforth VV), 1.14–15, Vācaspati Miśra focuses on the possibility of the existence of omniscients. Why so? Because the VV is a Mīmāṃsaka Continue reading Can one establish the existence of an omniscient?
How was Capitalism born? And, more in general, 1. does the economic structure determine its superstructure (including philosophy or religion), as in Marx; 2. does a certain philosophy, religion, etc. determine a certain economic result, as in Weber; or 3. Continue reading Economic structures and philosophic superstructures: On Scott 2013 and Eltschinger 2013
The starting point of every discussion on this book is that it is an amazing achievement: more than 160 pp. of translation of Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika and Svavṛtti which will enhance further studies on Buddhist and non-Buddhist epistemology and, even more Continue reading Book note: Vincent Eltschinger’s “Penser l’autorité des Écritures”
How do reason and authority interact and trace each other’s boundaries? Which one is the first to be allowed to delimit its territory and, by means of that, also the other one’s one?