Indian Philosophy And The Consequences Of Knowledge

This book presents a collection of essays, setting out both the special concern of classical Indian thought and some of its potential contributions to global philosophy. It presents a number of key arguments made by different schools about this special concern: the way in which attainment of knowledge of reality transforms human nature in a fundamentally liberating way. It also looks in detail at two areas in contemporary global philosophy - the ethics of difference, and the metaphysics of consciousness - where this classical Indian commitment to the spiritually transformative power of knowledge can lead to critical insights, even for those who do not share its presuppositions. Close reading of technical Indian texts is combined with wide-ranging and often comparative analysis of philosophical issues to derive original arguments from the Indian material through an analytic method that is seldom mastered by philosophers of non-western traditions.

First Published in 2001. The five volumes of this series collect together some of the most significant modern contributions to the study of Indian philosophy. Volume 1: Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of Indian pramana theory, i.e. that part of Indian philosophy concerned with the nature and sources of knowledge. Indian philosophers developed a causal theory of knowledge and acknowledged the existence of a number of valid ways of knowing, including perception, inference and testimony. The Indian pramana theorists thus discussed many issues that have also occupied Western epistemologists, often offering importantly different perspectives on these matters. They also sometimes addressed various interesting questions about knowledge that are unfamiliar to Western epistemologists. The selections in this volume discuss Indian treatments of epistemological topics like the means of knowledge, realism and anti-realism, truth, knowledge of knowledge, illusion and perceptual error, knowability, testimony, scepticism and doubt.

Here are the chief riches of more than 3,000 years of Indian philosophical thought-the ancient Vedas, the Upanisads, the epics, the treatises of the heterodox and orthodox systems, the commentaries of the scholastic period, and the contemporary writings. Introductions and interpretive commentaries are provided.

Classical Indian schools of philosophy undertake major debates on a variety of issues with the formal aim of attaining a supreme end to existence - liberation from the cycle of lives. This book looks at four conceptions of liberation and the way analytic inquiry and philosophical knowledge are held to lead in its attainment. The central motivation of Indian philosophy - the quest for the Highest Good - is recognised but also situated in the rigorous and analytic philosophical activity of these thinkers.

First Published in 2001. While classical Indian philosophy is incredibly rich in rigorous discussion s of topics in epistemology, logic and metaphysics, comparable discussions in the area s of ethics, politics and aesthetics were not as extensive as might have been expected. The selections in this volume discuss Indian treatments of topics in the theory of value like the proper ends of life, the relation of dharma and moksa, liberation and pleasure, the sources of our knowledge of right and wrong, the ethics of non-violence, the status of the supra-moral. egoism and altruism, the theory of rasa, aesthetic experience and catharsis.

First Published in 2001. Part of the Indian Philosophy collection of readings, this volume focuses on Metaphysics. The complement to pramdna theory is prameya theory. Wherea s th e pramdnas are the means of knowledge, the prameyas are the knowables. cognizable entities which constitute the world. With respect to the number and kinds of such entities, there was a very wide variety of opinion among classical Indian philosophers. Moreover, since according to most Indian systems knowledge of reality is at least a necessary condition for liberation , these metaphysical disputes were taken to be of practical as well as theoretical import.