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
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!
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?
A colleague from the Savitribai Phule Pune University, Prof. Muzaffar Ali, sent us this question concerning K.C. Bhattacharya. Can readers help? “To reflect on the feeling of pain is necessarily to wish to be free from it. To wish anything Continue reading Pain and freedom in K.C. Bhattacharya: A question
I’m continuing to examine Justin Whitaker‘s interpretation of Pali Buddhist ethics as Kantian moral law. I argued last time that the concept of dhamma does not serve in these texts as a universal, trans-human moral law. Here I want to Continue reading Karmic punishment is not a good thing
“Omniscience” (sārvajñya) assumes many different meanings in the various Indian philosophies. The understanding possibly most common in European and Anglo-American thought, which sees omniscience as including the knowledge of any possible thing in the past, present and future, is neither Continue reading First thoughts on omniscience in Indian thought
Philosophical Studies has recently published a short summary by Jonardon Ganeri of the project he has undertaken his ground breaking book, The Self: Naturalism, Consciousness, and the First-Person Stance. For those who don’t have the time to engage at length with Continue reading Summary paper on Ganeri’s The Self
In his interesting recent Buddhism and Political Theory, Matthew Moore sums up current scholarly work on Buddhist ethics noting “There are several major debates ongoing in the field, particularly whether early Buddhist ethics are better understood as consequentialist or a Continue reading The dhamma is not a transcendent law
As I noted last time, I think the disregard of ethics by Indian-philosophy scholars like Dan Arnold is a problem in itself: it’s a misconception of what philosophy is, and one that harmfully shrinks the field of the study of Continue reading The significance of ethics to Candrakīrti’s metaphysics