Description
(Text)
This collection is a Festschrift that engages the life-long scholarship of a leading figure in contemporary Indian philosophy, ShashiPrabha Kumar. In particular, this book focuses on the system of Vaisesika, one of the earliest schools of Indian philosophy that competes with Aristotle s physics for a schemata of categories of all that exists. This edited volume brings together a unique array of philosophers and Sanskritists from around the world, each covering some aspect of the scholarly forays of Professor ShashiPrabha Kumar and her fifty years of experience and writing within the field.
The contributors make critical use of categories that arise in the Upanisads and the Vaisesika in charting the fabric of the universe, and examining the concepts of atoms, matter, mind, consciousness, self, cognitive states and absence. This text appeals to interdisciplinary students and researchers working at the cross-roads of philosophy, religion, and Hindu studies.
(Table of content)
1. Introduction.- 2. Particularity and Universality in the Philosophy of Recognition (pratyabhijña) (Gavin Flood).- 3.The Vaisesika Self: the Norms and Agency of Life (Shalini Sinha).- 4. Later Vaisesika: The Seven Category Ontology Reaffirmed (Jonardon Ganeri).- 5. On sapeksa and nirapeksa in the Vaisesikasutra (Katsunori Hirano).- 6. Categories and Principles of Vaisesika (Subhash Kak).- 7. Taxonomical, Ritual, and Spiritual Exercises: A Heuristic Approach to the Pedagogy of the Vaisesikasutra-s (Karl-Stéphan Bouthillette).- 8. A Romanized Transliteration of the Manuscript Of Padãrthadhamzasmzgraha Preserved in Kashimir University (Norihiko Tanaka).- 9. On What Being Is and What There Is Not: Engaging ShashiPrabha Kumar on the Vaisesika (Purushottama Bilimoria).- 10. The Metaphysics of Similarity in Kumarila Bha a s Slokavarttika (Malcolm Keating).- 11. The Fallibilist Epistemology of Gangesa Applied to the Gettier Problem (Stephen Phillips).- 12. The Power of the Unseen: the Concept of adrs a in Nyaya and its Importance for Philosophy of Religion (Agnieszka Rostalska).- 13. Suffering, Death and Transcendence as Human Value (Asha Mukherjee).- 14. Essence and Difference in Indian Philosophy (Ionut Moise).- 15. Heart Meditation: Ramanuja on the Chandogya Up. 3.14.1 4. (Halina Marlewicz).- 16. Debate on the Nature of the Goddess in the Ramanuja School (Gerhard Oberhammer).- 17. On Philosophizing (Ramesh Chandra Sinha).- 18. A Critique of Sankaracarya s Refutation of Vijñanavada (Sujata Purkayastha).- 19. Dignaga's Criticism of the Vaisesika Definition of Perception (pratyaksa) (Victoria Lysenko).- 20. Jayanta on Whether Recognition Refutes Momentariness (Alex Watson).- 21. A Comparative Study of the Concept of Karma and Rebirth in Hinduism and Buddhism (Arvind Sharma).- 22. Concept of Person in the Buddhist School of Thought (Rev. Samdong Rinpoche).- 23. Shadows of Buddhism in Sufism (Lokesh Chandra).- 24. Eternal Veda, Eternal Philosophy? With Special Reference to the Sarvadarsanasa graha (Johannes Bronkhorst).- 25. Can the Vedic Doctrine of the Creative Sacrifice of Purusa Enrich Christianity? (M. Krzysztof Byrski).- 26. The Upanisads: a Personal Appreciation (Nicholas Kazanas).- 27. The Dharmasastric Principles of Rajadharma Advocated by the Rulers of Ancient Assam: Some Inscriptional Evidences (Manjula Devi).- 28. Yogavasis ha Within and Beyond the Orbit of Valmiki-Ramayana (Uma Vaidya).- 29. One and All: aksára in Middle and Late Vedic (Lauren M. Bausch).- 30. Panini 6.1.135 ( ) and Related Rules (George Cardona).- 31. Sanskrit Dictionaries in Modern European Languages and a Proposal for a New Sanskrit-English Dictionary (Oscar Pujol).
