American Indian Thought

American Indian Thought
Author: Anne Waters
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2003-12-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780631223047

This book brings together a diverse group of American Indian thinkers to discuss traditional and contemporary philosophies and philosophical issues. Covers American Indian thinking on issues concerning time, place, history, science, law, religion, nationhood, and art. Features newly commissioned essays by authors of American Indian descent. Includes a comprehensive bibliography to aid in research and inspire further reading.

Indian Philosophy in English

Indian Philosophy in English
Author: Nalini Bhushan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 673
Release: 2011-09-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199773033

This book publishes, for the first time in decades, and in many cases, for the first time in a readily accessible edition, English language philosophical literature written in India during the period of British rule. Bhushan's and Garfield's own essays on the work of this period contextualize the philosophical essays collected and connect them to broader intellectual, artistic and political movements in India. This volume yields a new understanding of cosmopolitan consciousness in a colonial context, of the intellectual agency of colonial academic communities, and of the roots of cross-cultural philosophy as it is practiced today. It transforms the canon of global philosophy, presenting for the first time a usable collection and a systematic study of Anglophone Indian philosophy. Many historians of Indian philosophy see a radical disjuncture between traditional Indian philosophy and contemporary Indian academic philosophy that has abandoned its roots amid globalization. This volume provides a corrective to this common view. The literature collected and studied in this volume is at the same time Indian and global, demonstrating that the colonial Indian philosophical communities were important participants in global dialogues, and revealing the roots of contemporary Indian philosophical thought. The scholars whose work is published here will be unfamiliar to many contemporary philosophers. But the reader will discover that their work is creative, exciting, and original, and introduces distinctive voices into global conversations. These were the teachers who trained the best Indian scholars of the post-Independence period. They engaged creatively both with the classical Indian tradition and with the philosophy of the West, forging a new Indian philosophical idiom to which contemporary Indian and global philosophy are indebted.

A Study of Time in Indian Philosophy

A Study of Time in Indian Philosophy
Author: Anindita Niyogi Balslev
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 8120833740

Since its first publication, A Study of Time in Indian Philosophy has been acclaimed as having successfully shown •the simple falsityê of such clich_s that the Indian view of time is •cyclicê or that it is exclusively •illusoryê. Given the variety of views discussed in this work, it is evident that the theme of time is intimately related to such basic concepts as being and becoming, change and causality, creation and annihilation. It has been therefore, observed that this book makes an excellent introduction to the heart of Indian thought. Based on Sanskrit source material, this book is a unique attempt to presenting a comprehensive review of the widely divergent views about time in Indian thought. Clearly written, it succeeds in setting out the issues of discussion pointedly and cogently. Since the concept of time intervenes with such major concepts as that of causality, being and non-being etc., this book also –serves as a general introduction to the classic heart of Indian Philosophy.” The author –has demonstrated a rare ability to translate technical doctrines from one tradition of thought into the language of another”, and thus has made it possible- for all those who are concerned with the question of time but do not have access in the Indian conceptual world to appreciate the contributions of Indian thought with regard to this complex question. Noteworthy is the fact that this book is the first attempt which –successfully exposes the simple falsity” of such cliches as that the Indian view of time is •cyclic as opposed to the Judaeo-Christian understanding of linear time. A Study of Time in Indian Philosophy, therefore, renders a valuable service to all those who are concerned with cross-cultural and inter religious exchange.

Space, Time and the Limits of Human Understanding

Space, Time and the Limits of Human Understanding
Author: Shyam Wuppuluri
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 524
Release: 2016-12-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319444182

In this compendium of essays, some of the world’s leading thinkers discuss their conceptions of space and time, as viewed through the lens of their own discipline. With an epilogue on the limits of human understanding, this volume hosts contributions from six or more diverse fields. It presumes only rudimentary background knowledge on the part of the reader. Time and again, through the prism of intellect, humans have tried to diffract reality into various distinct, yet seamless, atomic, yet holistic, independent, yet interrelated disciplines and have attempted to study it contextually. Philosophers debate the paradoxes, or engage in meditations, dialogues and reflections on the content and nature of space and time. Physicists, too, have been trying to mold space and time to fit their notions concerning micro- and macro-worlds. Mathematicians focus on the abstract aspects of space, time and measurement. While cognitive scientists ponder over the perceptual and experiential facets of our consciousness of space and time, computer scientists theoretically and practically try to optimize the space-time complexities in storing and retrieving data/information. The list is never-ending. Linguists, logicians, artists, evolutionary biologists, geographers etc., all are trying to weave a web of understanding around the same duo. However, our endeavour into a world of such endless imagination is restrained by intellectual dilemmas such as: Can humans comprehend everything? Are there any limits? Can finite thought fathom infinity? We have sought far and wide among the best minds to furnish articles that provide an overview of the above topics. We hope that, through this journey, a symphony of patterns and tapestry of intuitions will emerge, providing the reader with insights into the questions: What is Space? What is Time? Chapter [15] of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

The First Great Political Realist

The First Great Political Realist
Author: Roger Boesche
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780739106075

This book provides an analysis of one of the ancient world's foremost political realists, Kautilya. Kautilya's treatise Arthashastra stands as one of the great political books of the ancient world, its ideas on the science of politics strikingly similar to those of Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Clausewitz, and even Sun Tzu. The author's commentary on Kautilya's text draws out the essential realist arguments for modern political analysis and demonstrates the continued relevance of Kautilya's work to modern Indian strategic thinking and our understanding of the relationship between politics and economics. Striking a balance between textual analysis and secondary scholarship, this work contributes to the study of ancient Indian history, Eastern political thought, and international relations.

Philosophies of India

Philosophies of India
Author: Heinrich Zimmer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 721
Release: 2020-02-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 069120280X

A Princeton Classics edition of an essential work of twentieth-century scholarship on India Since its first publication, Philosophies of India has been considered a monumental exploration of the foundations of Indian philosophy. Based on the copious notes of Indologist, linguist, and art historian Heinrich Zimmer, and edited by Joseph Campbell, this book is organized into three sections. “The Highest Good” looks at Eastern and Western thought and their convergence; “The Philosophies of Time” discusses the philosophies of success, pleasure, and duty; and “The Philosophies of Eternity” presents the fundamental concepts of Buddhism, Brahmanism, Jainism, Sankhya and yoga, and Tantra. This work examines such areas as the Buddhist Tantras, Buddhist Genesis, the Tantric presentation of divinity, the preparation of disciples and the meaning of initiation, and the symbolism of the mandala-palace Tantric ritual and twilight language. It also delves into the Tantric teachings of the inner Zodiac and the fivefold ritual symbolism of passion. Appendices, a bibliography, and general and Sanskrit indexes are included.

Phenomenology and Indian Philosophy

Phenomenology and Indian Philosophy
Author: D. P. Chattopadhyaya
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2011-05-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0791498824

This book shows the close relation between the phenomenology of the West and the phenomenological approach taken by Indian thinkers, both classical and modern. It illustrates that the underlying spirit of phenomenology and hermeneutics has been consciously followed by Indian philosophers for centuries and is not peculiar to Western thinkers. It also shows that Edmund Husserl and K. C. Bhattacharyya were aware of these parallel trends of thought. Phenomenology and Indian Philosophy addresses not only the basic theme of phenomenology, but its aesthetic, social, psychological, scientific, and technological aspects as well.

Disorienting Dharma

Disorienting Dharma
Author: Emily T. Hudson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2013
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199860785

This book explores the relationship between ethics, aesthetics, and religion in classical Indian literature and literary theory by focusing on one of the most celebrated and enigmatic texts to emerge from the Sanskrit epic tradition, the Mahabharata. This text, which is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important sources for the study of South Asian religious, social, and political thought, is a foundational text of the Hindu tradition(s) and considered to be a major transmitter of dharma (moral, social, and religious duty), perhaps the single most important concept in the history of Indian religions. However, in spite of two centuries of Euro-American scholarship on the epic, basic questions concerning precisely how the epic is communicating its ideas about dharma and precisely what it is saying about it are still being explored. Disorienting Dharma brings to bear a variety of interpretive lenses (Sanskrit literary theory, reader-response theory, and narrative ethics) to examine these issues. One of the first book-length studies to explore the subject from the lens of Indian aesthetics, it argues that such a perspective yields startling new insights into the nature of the depiction of dharma in the epic through bringing to light one of the principle narrative tensions of the epic: the vexed relationship between dharma and suffering. In addition, it seeks to make the Mahabharata interesting and accessible to a wider audience by demonstrating how reading the Mahabharata, perhaps the most harrowing story in world literature, is a fascinating, disorienting, and ultimately transformative experience.