A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
Do we need God to make sense of the world’s reality? Michael Dummett, who was surely not known for his religious fanatism came to this conclusion. God is, for this well-known philosopher, the objective perspective from which the world can Continue reading God and the reality of the world (on Alex Watson’s contribution to a workshop in Hawai’i)
J. L. Shaw is an important figure in the contemporary movement to understand India’s śāstric traditions through analytic philosophy. Unfortunately (like other figures, including Kishor Chakrabarti), his influence is sometimes underappreciated given the preeminence of Matilal, Mohanty, Potter, and their followers. It is refreshing Continue reading NDPR review of The Collected Writings of Jaysankar Lal Shaw: Indian Analytic and Anglophone Philosophy
From the publisher (Bloomsbury): Indian Epistemology and Metaphysics introduces the reader to new perspectives on Indian philosophy based on philological research within the last twenty years.Concentrating on topics such as perception, inference, skepticism, consciousness, self, mind, and universals, some of the Continue reading Book Announcement–Indian Epistemology and Metaphysics (Bloomsbury), ed. Joerg Tuske
I am excited to be taking part in the following workshop next week in Hamburg. If I have time, maybe I’ll write a blog post about how it goes, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, here is the Continue reading Workshop: Buddhism and Scepticism: Historical, Philosophical, and Comparative Approaches
Peter Adamason’s podcast series, History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps has been developing a subsection on Indian philosophy for the last year and a half or so. It is worth looking at. Consider, for example, this episode, where our own Elisa Freschi Continue reading History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps
Regular blog readers may remember my earlier posts that I was co-editing, along with Prasanta Bandyopadhyay, the Fall 2017 edition of the APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies. The theme of the issue is “B. K. Matilal: The Continue reading APA Newsletter on B. K. Matilal Now Available!
I presented about Disengaged Buddhism at the International Association of Buddhist Studies conference in August. My talk was paired with a presentation by Frédéric Richard on a topic that did not initially appear to be related: the Tibetan government in Continue reading The political path vs. the Buddhist path
I am a big fan of Paul Ricoeur. It’s shame, I think, that he never learned Sanskrit, because he was deeply interested in a number of issues that were of critical importance to Indian thinkers: the production of meaning through Continue reading Hermeneutics, “Ricoeurian” and “Jaiminīya,” and the Question of Writing
The authors of Advaita Vedānta maintain that God, the impersonal brahman, is the only reality and that each hint of dualism or pluralism is due to māyā ‘illusion’. In other words, the absolute, the brahman, is the only reality and Continue reading Does anything exist according to Advaita Vedānta?
One of our blog members, Andrew Ollett, has recently published Language of the Snakes: Prakrit, Sanskrit, and the Language Order of Premodern India with University of California Press. Not only are congratulations in order for the book, but on his Continue reading “Language of the Snakes” available for download or purchase