A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
Jonardon Ganeri has asked me to publicize an upcoming conference this summer dedicated to the memory of his teacher, the great Bimal Krishna Matilal. It will be held in Wolfson College, Oxford. Many leading scholars will be giving talks that Continue reading Bimal Matilal Conference, June 26-27, Oxford
Don Howard recently uploaded an interesting paper on cross-cultural philosophy on academia.edu. The paper discusses stimulating topics, such as why we* react ackwardly when we hear of “African philosophy” or “Native American philosophy” and why these labels sound like a Continue reading Is there “African Philosophy”? Or just Greek, German…and Indian Philosophy?
Humans are not animals according to Descartes’ distinction of res cogitans and res extensa. They are also not animals according to many Christian theologians (Jesus came to save humans, not animals). Perhaps humans are not (only) animals also according to Continue reading Humans as animals
The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography. By Richard H. Davis. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015. Pp. x + 243. Hardcover $24.95, ISBN 978-0-691-133996-8. Richard H. Davis’s The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography is a recent offering within Princeton University Press’s series “Lives Continue reading Book Review of The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography, by Richard H. Davis (Reviewed by Matthew R. Dasti)
When I was a new Sanskrit student, one of my first teachers, a female Sanskritist, told me that she didn’t agree with the idea of introducing female pronouns while translating Sanskrit texts (excepting, of course, when the original Sanskrit is Continue reading Translation question: balancing use of gendered pronouns and historical fidelity
In the arthāpatti reading group we are currently reading the chapter on arthāpatti of Śālikanātha’s Prakaraṇapañcikā. As already discussed, Śālikanātha differentiates arthāpatti from anumāna insofar as in the latter the gamaka `trigger of the cognitive process’ is doubted, whereas, it Continue reading Arthāpatti and the Kevalavyatirekin anumāna
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about two excellent books on very different topics, both of which I’ve written about at Love of All Wisdom before: Andrew Nicholson’s Unifying Hinduism, and Brian Tierney’s The Idea of Natural Rights. The idea Continue reading The blurry boundary between premodern and modern
Volume 43, issue 2-3 of the JIP is available, guest edited by our own Elisa Freschi. Congratulations, Elisa! The issue theme is the reuse of texts in Indian philosophy. Table of contents is here: http://link.springer.com/journal/10781/43/2?wt_mc=alerts.TOCjournals
Readers may be interested to know that Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles recently hosted a conference on Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras. A video playlist including all of the talks is now available on YouTube. Among the many fine scholars to Continue reading “Thinking with the Yoga Sūtra: Translation, Interpretation”
In preparing for the fall term, I have been looking through translations of Udāyanācarya’s Kusumāñjali. The one excerpted in Radhakrishnan’s Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy (mentioned in some earlier posts here as not a good starting point) is by E.B. Cowell, translated in 1864. I checked out Continue reading (Relatively) Recent History: E.B. Cowell’s Preface to the Kusumāñjali