A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
Maṇḍana reforms Mīmāṃsā philosophy of action and deontic by saying that one undertakes actions only because one believes them to be the means to a desired output. A problem Maṇḍana needs to face is the following: If the performance of Continue reading Fixed duties require less care in their performance than optional ones (Maṇḍana’s view)
From Elizabeth De Michelis: Dear Colleagues, AMRAY, of which I am one of the managers, would like to advertise to suitable candidates an intensive course on the Yogasūtra that will take place in France this Summer (mid-June to mid-August 2020). The Continue reading Notice: Intensive course on the Yogasūtra, Summer 2020
From the website: The Ludo and Rosane Rocher Foundation has created a program that provides subventions for the publication of “first books” by young scholars in the field of classical Indology. The scholars are expected to submit a CV, a Continue reading Notice: The Ludo and Rosane Rocher Foundation Subvention Program for First Books
I’ve started a biweekly (in the sense of every other week) podcast about Indian philosophy, called sutras (and stuff), which is being hosted at Anchor.fm and has a website here. In the coming week, it should be distributed to other Continue reading New podcast about Indian Philosophy
I think I’ve shown that the kammatic-nibbanic distinction should matter to the historian, textual scholar, or anthropologist trying to figure out what Buddhism has meant in other times and places. Contra Damien Keown, it is a helpful ideal type to Continue reading Naturalized kammatic Buddhism
We received from Yujin Nagasawa (via Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad): I am starting a new Templeton-funded project called the Global Philosophy of Religion (https://www.global-philosophy.org/). The aim of the project is to promote research involving philosophers of religion from all religious traditions and Continue reading Post-Doc Fellowships in Global Philosophy of Religion
We all know so many clever jokes about how hell should be preferred “because of the good company” and about how boring should heaven be. Let me take the chance to focus on the Śrīvaiṣṇava heaven, i.e., Vaikuṇṭha, and see Continue reading The theology of Vaikuṇṭha: Why should you want to be in heaven?
When philosophers and translators approached Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory of langue vs parole, they initially thought of translating parole with ‘word’ or its various synonyms in many languages. The problem is that parole can mean ‘word’, but that in French Continue reading How to translate śabda?
In the Nyāyasiddhāñjana and the Nyāyapariśuddhi, Veṅkaṭanātha discusses some fundamental ontological topics in order to distinguish his positions from the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika position. The Nyāyasūtra proposes a fundamental division of realities into dravya ‘substances’, guṇa ‘qualities’, and karman ‘actions’,1 with the Continue reading Inert and alive substances: Alternative classifications in Veṅkaṭanātha
The chapter on epistemology (tarkapāda) is the first chapter in the basic text of Mīmāṃsā, the Mīmāṃsāsūtra, but was presumably the last one added to the Mīmāṃsā hermeneutic enterprise.