Buddhist Philosophy of Language in India

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Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231150946
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis Buddhist Philosophy of Language in India by : Lawrence J. McCrea

Download or read book Buddhist Philosophy of Language in India written by Lawrence J. McCrea and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jnanasrimitra (975-1025) was regarded by both Buddhists and non-Buddhists as the most important Indian philosopher of his generation. His theory of exclusion combined a philosophy of language with a theory of conceptual content to explore the nature of words and thought. Jnanasrimitra's theory informed much of the work accomplished at Vikramasila, a monastic and educational complex instrumental to the growth of Buddhism. His ideas were also passionately debated among successive Hindu and Jain philosophers. This volume marks the first English translation of Jnanasrimitra's Monograph on Exclusion, a careful, critical investigation into language, perception, and conceptual awareness. Featuring the rival arguments of Buddhist and Hindu intellectuals, among other thinkers, the Monograph reflects more than half a millennium of competing claims while providing an invaluable introduction to a crucial philosopher. Lawrence J. McCrea and Parimal G. Patil familiarize the reader with the author, themes, and topics of the text and situate Jnanasrimitra's findings within his larger intellectual milieu. Their clear, accessible, and accurate translation proves the influence of Jnanasrimitra on the foundations of Buddhist and Indian philosophy.

Buddhist Philosophy of Language in India

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Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231150954
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis Buddhist Philosophy of Language in India by : Lawrence J. McCrea

Download or read book Buddhist Philosophy of Language in India written by Lawrence J. McCrea and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jnanasrimitra (975-1025) was regarded by both Buddhists and non-Buddhists as the most important Indian philosopher of his generation. His theory of exclusion combined a philosophy of language with a theory of conceptual content to explore the nature of words and thought. Jnanasrimitra's theory informed much of the work accomplished at Vikramasila, a monastic and educational complex instrumental to the growth of Buddhism. His ideas were also passionately debated among successive Hindu and Jain philosophers. This volume marks the first English translation of Jnanasrimitra's Monograph on Exclusion, a careful, critical investigation into language, perception, and conceptual awareness. Featuring the rival arguments of Buddhist and Hindu intellectuals, among other thinkers, the Monograph reflects more than half a millennium of competing claims while providing an invaluable introduction to a crucial philosopher. Lawrence J. McCrea and Parimal G. Patil familiarize the reader with the author, themes, and topics of the text and situate Jnanasrimitra's findings within his larger intellectual milieu. Their clear, accessible, and accurate translation proves the influence of Jnanasrimitra on the foundations of Buddhist and Indian philosophy.

Indian Philosophy of Language

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9401132348
Total Pages : 214 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis Indian Philosophy of Language by : Mark Siderits

Download or read book Indian Philosophy of Language written by Mark Siderits and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What can the philosophy of language learn from the classical Indian philosophical tradition? As recently as twenty or thirty years ago this question simply would not have arisen. If a practitioner of analytic philosophy of language of that time had any view of Indian philosophy at all, it was most likely to be the stereotyped picture of a gaggle of navel gazing mystics making vaguely Bradley-esque pronouncements on the oneness of the one that was one once. Much work has been done in the intervening years to overthrow that stereotype. Thanks to the efforts of such scholars as J. N. Mohanty, B. K. Matilal, and Karl Potter, philoso phers working in the analytic tradition have begun to discover something of the range and the rigor of classical Indian work in epistemolgy and metaphysics. Thus for instance, at least some recent discussions of personal identity reflect an awareness that the Indian Buddhist tradition might prove an important source of insights into the ramifications of a reductionist approach to personal identity. In philosophy of language, though, things have not improved all that much. While the old stereotype may no longer prevail among its practitioners, I suspect that they would not view classical Indian philoso phy as an important source of insights into issues in their field. Nor are they to be faulted for this.

The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019104704X
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy by : Jan Westerhoff

Download or read book The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy written by Jan Westerhoff and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-12 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jan Westerhoff unfolds the story of one of the richest episodes in the history of Indian thought, the development of Buddhist philosophy in the first millennium CE. He starts from the composition of the Abhidharma works before the beginning of the common era and continues up to the time of Dharmakirti in the sixth century. This period was characterized by the development of a variety of philosophical schools and approaches that have shaped Buddhist thought up to the present day: the scholasticism of the Abhidharma, the Madhyamaka's theory of emptiness, Yogacara idealism, and the logical and epistemological works of Dinnaga and Dharmakirti. The book attempts to describe the historical development of these schools in their intellectual and cultural context, with particular emphasis on three factors that shaped the development of Buddhist philosophical thought: the need to spell out the contents of canonical texts, the discourses of the historical Buddha and the Mahayana sutras; the desire to defend their positions by sophisticated arguments against criticisms from fellow Buddhists and from non-Buddhist thinkers of classical Indian philosophy; and the need to account for insights gained through the application of specific meditative techniques. While the main focus is the period up to the sixth century CE, Westerhoff also discusses some important thinkers who influenced Buddhist thought between this time and the decline of Buddhist scholastic philosophy in India at the beginning of the thirteenth century. His aim is that the historical presentation will also allow the reader to get a better systematic grasp of key Buddhist concepts such as non-self, suffering, reincarnation, karma, and nirvana.

Against a Hindu God

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231142226
Total Pages : 421 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis Against a Hindu God by : Parimal G. Patil

Download or read book Against a Hindu God written by Parimal G. Patil and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-22 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophical arguments for and against the existence of God have been crucial to Euro-American and South Asian philosophers for over a millennium. Critical to the history of philosophy in India, were the centuries-long arguments between Buddhist and Hindu philosophers about the existence of a God-like being called Isvara and the religious epistemology used to support them. By focusing on the work of Ratnakirti, one of the last great Buddhist philosophers of India, and his arguments against his Hindu opponents, Parimal G. Patil illuminates South Asian intellectual practices and the nature of philosophy during the final phase of Buddhism in India. Based at the famous university of Vikramasila, Ratnakirti brought the full range of Buddhist philosophical resources to bear on his critique of his Hindu opponents' cosmological/design argument. At stake in his critique was nothing less than the nature of inferential reasoning, the metaphysics of epistemology, and the relevance of philosophy to the practice of religion. In developing a proper comparative approach to the philosophy of religion, Patil transcends the disciplinary boundaries of religious studies, philosophy, and South Asian studies and applies the remarkable work of philosophers like Ratnakirti to contemporary issues in philosophy and religion.

Buddhist Thought in India

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134542313
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (345 download)

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Book Synopsis Buddhist Thought in India by : Edward Conze

Download or read book Buddhist Thought in India written by Edward Conze and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-16 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1962. This book discusses and interprets the main themes of Buddhist thought in India and is divided into three parts: Archaic Buddhism: Tacit assumptions, the problem of "original Buddhism", the three marks and the perverted views, the five cardinal virtues, the cultivation of the social emotions, Dharma and dharmas, Skandhas, sense-fields and elements. The Sthaviras: the eighteen schools, doctrinal disputes, the unconditioned and the process of salvation, some Abhidharma problems. The Mahayana: doctrines common to all Mahayanists, the Madhyamikas, the Yogacarins, Buddhist logic, the Tantras.

Indian Buddhist Philosophy

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317547764
Total Pages : 326 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis Indian Buddhist Philosophy by : Amber Carpenter

Download or read book Indian Buddhist Philosophy written by Amber Carpenter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-03 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organised in broadly chronological terms, this book presents the philosophical arguments of the great Indian Buddhist philosophers of the fifth century BCE to the eighth century CE. Each chapter examines their core ethical, metaphysical and epistemological views as well as the distinctive area of Buddhist ethics that we call today moral psychology. Throughout, this book follows three key themes that both tie the tradition together and are the focus for most critical dialogue: the idea of anatman or no-self, the appearance/reality distinction and the moral aim, or ideal. Indian Buddhist philosophy is shown to be a remarkably rich tradition that deserves much wider engagement from European philosophy. Carpenter shows that while we should recognise the differences and distances between Indian and European philosophy, its driving questions and key conceptions, we must resist the temptation to find in Indian Buddhist philosophy, some Other, something foreign, self-contained and quite detached from anything familiar. Indian Buddhism is shown to be a way of looking at the world that shares many of the features of European philosophy and considers themes central to philosophy understood in the European tradition.

A Śabda Reader

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231548311
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis A Śabda Reader by : Johannes Bronkhorst

Download or read book A Śabda Reader written by Johannes Bronkhorst and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language (śabda) occupied a central yet often unacknowledged place in classical Indian philosophical thought. Foundational thinkers considered topics such as the nature of language, its relationship to reality, the nature and existence of linguistic units and their capacity to convey meaning, and the role of language in the interpretation of sacred writings. The first reader on language in—and the language of—classical Indian philosophy, A Śabda Reader offers a comprehensive and pedagogically valuable treatment of this topic and its importance to Indian philosophical thought. A Śabda Reader brings together newly translated passages by authors from a variety of traditions—Brahmin, Buddhist, Jaina—representing a number of schools of thought. It illuminates issues such as how Brahmanical thinkers understood the Veda and conceived of Sanskrit; how Buddhist thinkers came to assign importance to language’s link to phenomenal reality; how Jains saw language as strictly material; the possibility of self-contradictory sentences; and how words affect thought. Throughout, the volume shows that linguistic presuppositions and implicit notions about language often play as significant a role as explicit ideas and formal theories. Including an introduction that places the texts and ideas in their historical and cultural context, A Śabda Reader sheds light on a crucial aspect of classical Indian thought and in so doing deepens our understanding of the philosophy of language.

Language and Reality

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Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004204741
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

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Book Synopsis Language and Reality by : Johannes Bronkhorst

Download or read book Language and Reality written by Johannes Bronkhorst and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-04-07 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For a number of centuries Indian philosophers of all persuasions were convinced that there was a particularly close connection between language and reality, also, or even primarily, between sentences and the situations they describe. This shared conviction was responsible for a perceived problem. Different currents in Indian philosophy can be understood as different attempts to solve this problem; these include the satkāryavāda of the Sāṃkhyas, the anekāntavāda of the Jainas, the śūnyavāda of the Buddhists, and many others. By bringing to light the shared problem underlying almost all schools of Indian philosophy, this book shows the interconnectedness of currents that had hitherto been thought of as quite independent of each other.

Brains, Buddhas, and Believing

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231518218
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Brains, Buddhas, and Believing by : Dan Arnold

Download or read book Brains, Buddhas, and Believing written by Dan Arnold and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Premodern Buddhists are sometimes characterized as veritable "mind scientists" whose insights anticipate modern research on the brain and mind. Aiming to complicate this story, Dan Arnold confronts a significant obstacle to popular attempts at harmonizing classical Buddhist and modern scientific thought: since most Indian Buddhists held that the mental continuum is uninterrupted by death (its continuity is what Buddhists mean by "rebirth"), they would have no truck with the idea that everything about the mental can be explained in terms of brain events. Nevertheless, a predominant stream of Indian Buddhist thought, associated with the seventh-century thinker Dharmakirti, turns out to be vulnerable to arguments modern philosophers have leveled against physicalism. By characterizing the philosophical problems commonly faced by Dharmakirti and contemporary philosophers such as Jerry Fodor and Daniel Dennett, Arnold seeks to advance an understanding of both first-millennium Indian arguments and contemporary debates on the philosophy of mind. The issues center on what modern philosophers have called intentionality—the fact that the mind can be about (or represent or mean) other things. Tracing an account of intentionality through Kant, Wilfrid Sellars, and John McDowell, Arnold argues that intentionality cannot, in principle, be explained in causal terms. Elaborating some of Dharmakirti's central commitments (chiefly his apoha theory of meaning and his account of self-awareness), Arnold shows that despite his concern to refute physicalism, Dharmakirti's causal explanations of the mental mean that modern arguments from intentionality cut as much against his project as they do against physicalist philosophies of mind. This is evident in the arguments of some of Dharmakirti's contemporaneous Indian critics (proponents of the orthodox Brahmanical Mimasa school as well as fellow Buddhists from the Madhyamaka school of thought), whose critiques exemplify the same logic as modern arguments from intentionality. Elaborating these various strands of thought, Arnold shows that seemingly arcane arguments among first-millennium Indian thinkers can illuminate matters still very much at the heart of contemporary philosophy.

Apoha

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231527381
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Apoha by : Mark Siderits

Download or read book Apoha written by Mark Siderits and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we understand that something is a pot, is it because of one property that all pots share? This seems unlikely, but without this common essence, it is difficult to see how we could teach someone to use the word "pot" or to see something as a pot. The Buddhist apoha theory tries to resolve this dilemma, first, by rejecting properties such as "potness" and, then, by claiming that the element uniting all pots is their very difference from all non-pots. In other words, when we seek out a pot, we select an object that is not a non-pot, and we repeat this practice with all other items and expressions. Writing from the vantage points of history, philosophy, and cognitive science, the contributors to this volume clarify the nominalist apoha theory and explore the relationship between apoha and the scientific study of human cognition. They engage throughout in a lively debate over the theory's legitimacy. Classical Indian philosophers challenged the apoha theory's legitimacy, believing instead in the existence of enduring essences. Seeking to settle this controversy, essays explore whether apoha offers new and workable solutions to problems in the scientific study of human cognition. They show that the work of generations of Indian philosophers can add much toward the resolution of persistent conundrums in analytic philosophy and cognitive science.

An Introduction to Indian Philosophy

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136653090
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (366 download)

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Book Synopsis An Introduction to Indian Philosophy by : Bina Gupta

Download or read book An Introduction to Indian Philosophy written by Bina Gupta and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-04-19 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Introduction to Indian Philosophy offers a profound yet accessible survey of the development of India’s philosophical tradition. Beginning with the formation of Brahmanical, Jaina, Materialist, and Buddhist traditions, Bina Gupta guides the reader through the classical schools of Indian thought, culminating in a look at how these traditions inform Indian philosophy and society in modern times. Offering translations from source texts and clear explanations of philosophical terms, this text provides a rigorous overview of Indian philosophical contributions to epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language, and ethics. This is a must-read for anyone seeking a reliable and illuminating introduction to Indian philosophy.

Ethics and the History of Indian Philosophy

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Publisher : Motilal Banarsidass Publishe
ISBN 13 : 9788120831933
Total Pages : 436 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (319 download)

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Book Synopsis Ethics and the History of Indian Philosophy by : Shyam Ranganathan

Download or read book Ethics and the History of Indian Philosophy written by Shyam Ranganathan and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishe. This book was released on 2007 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ethics and the History of Indian Philosophy, by Shyam Ranganathan, presents a compelling, systematic explication of the moral philosophical content of history of Indian philosophy in contrast to the received wisdom in Indology and comparative philosophy that Indian philosophers were scarcely interested in ethics. Unlike most works on the topic, this book makes a case for the positive place of ethics in the history of Indian philosophy by drawing upon recent work in metaethics and metamorality, and by providing a through analysis of the meaning of moral concepts and PHILOSOPHY itself- in addition to explicating the texts of Indian authors. In Ranganathan`s account, Indian philosophy shines with distinct options in ethics that find their likeness in the writings of the Ancient in the West, such as Plato and the Neo-Platonists, and not in the anthropocentric or positivistic options that have dominated the recent Western tradition.

Language in Indian Philosophy and Religion

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Author :
Publisher : Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 114 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Language in Indian Philosophy and Religion by : Canadian Society for the Study of Religion

Download or read book Language in Indian Philosophy and Religion written by Canadian Society for the Study of Religion and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 1978-02 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Papers originally read at a seminar sponsored by the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion/Sociaetae canadienne des sciences religieuses at Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, May 28th to 30th, 1976.

Madhyamaka and Yogacara

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190231297
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Madhyamaka and Yogacara by : Jay L. Garfield

Download or read book Madhyamaka and Yogacara written by Jay L. Garfield and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Madhyamaka and Yogacara are the two principal schools of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. While Madhyamaka asserts the ultimate emptiness and conventional reality of all phenomena, Yogacara is usually considered to be idealistic. This collection of essays addresses the degree to which these philosophical approaches are consistent or complementary. Indian and Tibetan doxographies often take these two schools to be philosophical rivals. They are grounded in distinct bodies of sutra literature and adopt what appear to be very different positions regarding the analysis of emptiness and the status of mind. Madhyamaka-Yogacara polemics abound in Indian Buddhist literature, and Tibetan doxographies regard them as distinct systems. Nonetheless, scholars have tried to synthesize the two positions for centuries. This volume offers new essays by prominent experts on both these traditions, who address the question of the degree to which these philosophical approaches should be seen as rivals or as allies. In answering the question of whether Madhyamaka and Yogacara can be considered compatible, contributors engage with a broad range of canonical literature, and relate the texts to contemporary philosophical problems.

Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief

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Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780231132817
Total Pages : 332 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (328 download)

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Book Synopsis Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief by : Daniel Anderson Arnold

Download or read book Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief written by Daniel Anderson Arnold and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief, Dan Arnold examines how the Brahmanical tradition of Purva Mimamsa and the writings of the seventh-century Buddhist Madhyamika philosopher Candrakirti challenged dominant Indian Buddhist views of epistemology. Arnold retrieves these two very different but equally important voices of philosophical dissent, showing them to have developed highly sophisticated and cogent critiques of influential Buddhist epistemologists such as Dignaga and Dharmakirti. His analysis--developed in conversation with modern Western philosophers like William Alston and J. L. Austin--offers an innovative reinterpretation of the Indian philosophical tradition, while suggesting that pre-modern Indian thinkers have much to contribute to contemporary philosophical debates. In logically distinct ways, Purva Mimamsa and Candrakirti's Madhyamaka opposed the influential Buddhist school of thought that emphasized the foundational character of perception. Arnold argues that Mimamsaka arguments concerning the "intrinsic validity" of the earliest Vedic scriptures are best understood as a critique of the tradition of Buddhist philosophy stemming from Dignaga. Though often dismissed as antithetical to "real philosophy," Mimamsaka thought has affinities with the reformed epistemology that has recently influenced contemporary philosophy of religion. Candrakirti's arguments, in contrast, amount to a principled refusal of epistemology. Arnold contends that Candrakirti marshals against Buddhist foundationalism an approach that resembles twentieth-century ordinary language philosophy--and does so by employing what are finally best understood as transcendental arguments. The conclusion that Candrakirti's arguments thus support a metaphysical claim represents a bold new understanding of Madhyamaka.

Free Will, Agency, and Selfhood in Indian Philosophy

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019992273X
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (999 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Will, Agency, and Selfhood in Indian Philosophy by : Matthew R. Dasti

Download or read book Free Will, Agency, and Selfhood in Indian Philosophy written by Matthew R. Dasti and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the rich and variegated cluster of Indic philosophical traditions as they developed from the late Vedic period up to the pre-modern period, this book offers an understanding, according to each school, of the nature of free will and agency.