A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
Can a theist believe in God’s omniscience&omnipotence and in free will? I have argued in other posts that one can think in a compatibilist way (because God wants to be freely loved) and that this entails that no punishment/ban from Continue reading A theist caught in the paradoxes of free will
A short terminological excursus: bhāvanā is a rather common name throughout Sanskrit philosophy (it designates, e.g., a peculiar meditation in Buddhism and in Kashmir Śivaism, a linguistic function in Bhāṭṭa Nāyaka’s aesthetical theory, etc.). It is also found in grammar. Continue reading What did Kumārila have in view when he spoke of a “linguistic force” and of an “objective force”?
Recently I read a very interesting argument in Kumārila’s remarks on the authority of ritual manuals (Kalpasūtrādhikaraṇa, Tantravārtika on Mīmāṃsasūtra 1.3.11–14) which deployed a very familiar concept, the textual coherence of the Veda, in an unexpected way. To put it Continue reading Coherence and intentionality: Kumārila on the Kalpasūtras
Do we need to prove that unicorns, tooth fairies, hobbits and so on do not exist? The question is not just funny, insofar as an upholder of the existence of ghosts and the like could easily claim that —strictly speaking— Continue reading On the epistemology of the extra-ordinary. Or: Do we need to waste our time proving that unicorns do not exist?