A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
Mīmāṃsakas of both the Bhāṭṭa and the Prābhākara subschools refute the idea of a sphoṭa carrying the meaning and being different from what we experience, namely phonemes and words, since this contradicts the principle of parsimony and our common experience. Continue reading Meanings of Words and Sentences in Mīmāṃsā
I’ve been fortunate in the past year and a half to meet Charles Goodman at three different conferences, and to have long and stimulating discussions with him. Since our researches have both focused on Śāntideva’s ethics, we can critique each Continue reading Śāntideva vs. Singer
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
This article came out a little while ago, in India’s Seminar magazine. But it’s well worth highlighting here. Alex reflects on the ways that textual scholarship, philosophical reflection, and historical reconstruction intersect in the study of Indian philosophy. Link: http://www.india-seminar.com/2015/671/671_alex_watson.htm
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
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
Among the papers in the new issue is “(Close) the Door, the King (is Going): The Development of Elliptical Resolution in Bhāṭṭa Mīmāṃsā” by our own Malcolm Keating. Congratulations, Malcolm! Entire contents here: https://link.springer.com/journal/10781/45/5?wt_mc=alerts.TOCjournals