A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
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?
Several years ago I had some pain in convincing a friend working on Husserl that the “phenomenologist” J. Mohanty which he knew too well was the same as the scholar of Sanskrit Philosophy J.N. Mohanty (I had similar problems in Continue reading Will the journey ever come to its goal? On Clooney 2013
Veṅkaṭanātha (traditional dates 1269–1370 (see Neevel 1977 for a convincing explanation of these too long life spans) is a complex figure who can be interpreted in different ways according to the facet one is focusing on. What is sure is Continue reading Veṅkaṭanātha’s contribution to Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta
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
Yāmuna (967–1038 according to Mesquita 1973) is one of the chief figures of the philosophy later known as Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta. In fact, to me one of the most intriguing questions regards his role in the formation of this school. It Continue reading Was Yāmuna the real founder of Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta? (On Mesquita 1971 and 1973)
As a scholar trained in Western Academia, one has at least three choices while dealing with Sanskrit Philosophy: One can treat it as if it were Western philosophy and discuss, e.g., of monotonic or non-monotonic logic in Nyāya, One can Continue reading Doing research on free will in Indian Philosophy
What are the Pāñcarātras? Is there anything like a uniform Pāñcarātra Canon and/or Theology? Or are these texts only part of a constellation which has been made consistent by its later interpreters?
(apologies in advance for the lack of diacritics, I am home, ill, with no access to a unicode keyboard) The Sankarsakanda (henceforth SK, about which see here) is an enigmatic text thought to complete the Mimamsa Sastra, after the Purva Continue reading On Vyāsa and the authorship of the Saṅkarṣakāṇḍa
(apologies in advance for the lack of diacritics, I am home, ill, with no access to a unicode keyboard) Purva Mimamsa authors are generally not interested in the topic, whereas several Uttara Mimamsa (i.e. Vedanta) ones deal at length with Continue reading How many texts are comprised in the Mimamsa Sastra? And why is this relevant?
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