Interpretation vs. Explication I: background (Truth and Objectivity)

Happy belated Solstice to all! I hope everyone is having a good holiday. Thanks to Elisa Freschi and Malcolm Keating for prompting me to post about interpretation and explication. The distinction between interpretation and explication to my knowledge has not Continue reading Interpretation vs. Explication I: background (Truth and Objectivity)

“But is Indian thought really philosophy?”

We can answer the question “What is it?” for a religion or worldview by proceeding either sociologically or doctrinally. […] In philosophy, for example, the question “But is it philosophy?” can be not so much a question about the boundaries Continue reading “But is Indian thought really philosophy?”

Book Review of An Introduction to Indian Philosophy by Roy W. Perrett (Reviewed by Matthew R. Dasti)

Roy W. Perrett. An Introduction to Indian Philosophy. 249pp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.  $34.99 (paperback). When introducing the wide-range of Indian philosophy to a new audience, there have been two major approaches: the schools approach and the topics approach. Continue reading Book Review of An Introduction to Indian Philosophy by Roy W. Perrett (Reviewed by Matthew R. Dasti)

Workshop on Rasa Theory: February 2017

A bit of a last-minute announcement (which readers may have already seen elsewhere). A few months ago, Mrinal Kaul mentioned that Manipal University has established a new Center for Religious Studies and would be hosting a workshop on rasa theory. Continue reading Workshop on Rasa Theory: February 2017

Analytical Philosophy of Religion with Indian categories

As part of my attempts to go beyond my confort zone, Wednesday and Thursday last week I enjoyed two days of full immersion in the Analytical Philosophy of Religion. In fact, the conference I was attending was about the ontological Continue reading Analytical Philosophy of Religion with Indian categories

Philosophical and historical uses together

Cross-posted on Love of All Wisdom. Last time I examined Andrew Ollett’s distinction between “decision-oriented” texts like Kant’s Grounding and “capacity-oriented” texts like Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga, and the ways in which that distinction might suggest a “philosophical” versus a “historical” approach Continue reading Philosophical and historical uses together

3rd annual meeting of the History of Philosophy Society (HOPS)

A call for papers for the 3rd annual meeting of the History of Philosophy Society (HOPS) has been released. The topic of the meeting is pleasure. The organizers have specifically mentioned that they are looking for a wide variety of Continue reading 3rd annual meeting of the History of Philosophy Society (HOPS)

Decision and capacity, philosophical and historical

Cross-posted at Love of All Wisdom. Andrew Ollett has recently taken up the point I made earlier this year that Buddhist ethics, in distinction from modern analytical ethics, is not primarily concerned with decision procedure. He identifies Indian non-analytic approaches Continue reading Decision and capacity, philosophical and historical

Nīti and the two ways of “using” texts

On Sunday I was reading Sundarapāṇḍya’s Nītidviṣaṣṭika, an interesting collection of āryā verses on the subject of nīti (something like: how to act in the world), and later on caught up (very belatedly) on part of the debate occasioned by Continue reading Nīti and the two ways of “using” texts