A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
Miri Albahari has a nice review of Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy, by friend and contributor to the IPB, Evan Thompson. This is a ground-breaking philosophical exploration of consciousness and the self as they occur Continue reading NDPR Review of Evan Thompson’s Waking, Dreaming, Being
Rajiv Malhotra, whose criticisms of scholarship on India will be familiar to many on this blog, has been accused by Richard Fox Young of plagiarism in his recent book Indra’s Net. Examples of the problematic passages are publicly available. Many Continue reading Petition regarding plagiarism
Like postulation (arthāpatti), the pramāṇa or instrument of knowledge known as upamāna, often translated as “analogy,” is both fascinating and underdeveloped in contemporary analysis. There are few stand-alone books focusing just on upamāna, although it is frequently treated along with testimony and perception. I suspect this is Continue reading Analogical reasoning and postulation
My friend Stephen Harris recently posted an interesting article on the question of whether Śāntideva’s ethics is “overdemanding”. I appreciate the article’s methodological approach. It engages Śāntideva’s ethics with the categories of analytical moral philosophy while moving beyond the relatively Continue reading Does Śāntideva’s theory make demands?
Why does a devotee love God? Because He is good, merciful, omniscient…? Or just out of love? This seems to be one of the moot issues between the two currents within the form of Vaiṣṇavism later to be known as Continue reading Loving God for no reason
The Eleventh East-West Philosophers’ Conference will be held in Honolulu, Hawai’i on May 24-31, 2016. The theme of the conference is “Place.” The deadline for panel and paper submissions is November 1, 2015. Please see the Call for Papers at Continue reading Eleventh East-West Philosophers’ Conference: May 24-31, 2016
In the last week, two students have asked me about the distinction between jñā- and vid- and this made me think that it might be worth adding a new section to Andrew’s collaborative enterprise (see here and here) of mapping Continue reading Keywords: jnā– and vid–
Patricia Y. Mumme. The Śrīvaiṣṇava Theological Dispute. Maṇavāḷamāmuni and Vedānta Deśika. xviii+320 pp., index. Bangalore: Navbharath Publications, 2000 (1st ed. Madras 1988). 25 USD. The book is a unique contribution to the study of Śrīvaiṣṇavism insofar as it takes into Continue reading Book Review of The Śrīvaiṣṇava Theological Dispute by Patricia Y. Mumme (Reviewed by Elisa Freschi)
Well, yes… isn’t it? The problem is less easy than it may look like and amounts to the problem of non-committal understanding. Is it the normal attitude while listening to a speaker or just an exception or an a posteriori Continue reading Can one understand a sentence without believing its content to be the case?
This week on Sunday will start the next World Sanskrit Conference. Among the contributors and regular commenters of this blog, several are going to be there, such as Jason Birch, Daniele Cuneo, Evgeniya Desnitskaya, Camillo Formigatti, Andrew Ollett, Agnieszka Rostalska Continue reading The World Sanskrit Conference is approaching…