The Denotation of Generic Terms in Ancient Indian Philosophy

The Denotation of Generic Terms in Ancient Indian Philosophy
Author: Peter M. Scharf
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
Total Pages: 392
Release: 1996
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780871698636

This is a print on demand publication. This work deals with a topic to which philosophy, most notably analytic philosophy, has given considerable attention. Indian thinkers discuss the denotation of generic terms in a very sophisticated manner at a very early time. This book seeks to make these discussions available to philosophers today. Tables.

How We Got Here

How We Got Here
Author: C. R. Hallpike
Publisher: Author House
Total Pages: 626
Release: 2008-11-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1467020850

Only 10,000 years ago, our ancestors were small groups of hunter-gatherers, with bows and arrows and stone tools. Today, we live in vast nations with all the power of modern science and industry, and the ability to send men to the Moon and to destroy all life on the planet. In the history of the world, 10,000 years is the blink of an eye, yet it has seen the total transformation of human existence. That extraordinary revolution is just as interesting as the Big Bang, or the origin of life, and this book is a clear and concise explanation of how it happened. Human culture was something completely new in the history of the world, and has evolved in a unique way. Darwin's theory of evolution can tell us nothing at all about this very strange process, that went far beyond any mundane struggle for physical survival by 'naked apes'. The picture of Stonehenge, built with enormous labour for no material reward, illustrates one of the central themes of this book - the fundamental importance of the human imagination to the development of science, that made possiblethe modern mastery of nature.

Against a Hindu God

Against a Hindu God
Author: Parimal G. Patil
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 421
Release: 2009-08-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0231142226

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.

A Vaisnava Poet in Early Modern Bengal

A Vaisnava Poet in Early Modern Bengal
Author: Rembert Lutjeharms
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2018-08-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0192561928

This book examines the practice of poetry in the devotional Vaiṣṇava tradition inspired by Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya (1486-1533), through a detailed study of the Sanskrit poetic works of Kavikarṇapūra, one of the most significant sixteenth-century Caitanya Vaiṣṇava poets and theologians. It places his ideas in the context both of Sanskrit literary theory (by exploring his use of earlier works of Sanskrit criticism) and of Vaiṣṇava theology (by tracing the origins of his theological ideas to earlier Vaiṣṇava teachers, especially his guru Śrīnātha). Both Kavikarṇapūra's poetics as well as the style of his poetry is in many ways at odds with those of his time, particularly with respect to the place of phonetic ornamentation and rasa. Like later early modern theorists, Kavikarṇapūra reaches back to the earliest Sanskrit poeticians whom he attempts to harmonise with the theories current in his time, to develop a new poetics that values both literary ornamentation and the suggestion of emotion through rasa. This book argues that the reasons of and purposes for Kavikarṇapūra's literary innovations are firmly rooted in his unique Vaiṣṇava theology, and exemplifies this through a careful reading of select passages from the Ānanda-vṛndāvana, his poetic retelling of Kṛṣṇa's play in Vṛndāvana.

The Student's Sanskrit-English Dictionary

The Student's Sanskrit-English Dictionary
Author: Vaman Shivaram Apte
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
Total Pages: 680
Release: 1988
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9788120800458

The present Dictionary is designed to meet the long-felt need of the English knowing reader, who is interested in the study of classical as well as modern Sanskrit. It covers a very large field-epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, Puranas and Upapuranas, Smrti and Niti literature, Darsanas or Systems of Philosophy, such as Nyaya, Vedanta, Mimamsa, Sankhya and Yoga, Grammar, Rhetoric, Poetry in all its branches, Dramatic and Narrative literature, Mathematics, Medicine, Botany, Astronomy Music and other technical or scientific branches of learning. Thus it embraces all words occurring in the general post-Vedic literature. It includes most of the important terms in Grammar. It gives quotations and references to the peculiar and remarkable meaning of words, especially such as occur in books prescribed for study in the Indian and foreign universities. It also renders explanation of important technical terms occurring in different branches of Sanskrit learning. To add to its usefulness,