A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
In the number of years I have been teaching both Indian and Chinese philosophical traditions, I have found that the topic that students in general have the most trouble engaging with is that of “release from rebirth.” Of course, this Continue reading Mokṣa and the Undergraduate Classroom
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
Friends, please forgive the shameless self-promotion. The volume that Edwin Bryant and I have edited, Free Will, Agency, and Selfhood in Indian Philosophy, has just been released by Oxford University Press. The origin of the book lies in conversations that Edwin Continue reading Book Notice: Free Will, Agency, and Selfhood in Indian Philosophy
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?