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In
A Time of Novelty, Samuel Wright re-envisions the relationship between philosophy and history in premodern India through study of the tradition of Sanskrit logic between 1500 and 1700 CE. In examining these logicians, Wright expands the ways in which we study philosophical thought by considering philosophy as deeply immersed in the felt experiences of one's life, at the confluence of thinking and feeling.
List of contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- List of Maps
- List of Tables
- English Translations of Sanskrit Titles
- Map 1. Early Modern South Asia: select towns and cities
- Note on Transliteration
- Introduction
- Part I. Newness and Emotion
- Chapter 1 - Doubt
- Chapter 2 - Objectivity
- Part II. Feeling and Reasoning
- Chapter 3 - Happiness
- Chapter 4 - Dying
- Part III. Space and Time
- Chapter 5 - Space
- Chapter 6 - Time
- Conclusion: A Time of Novelty
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Samuel Wright is Assistant Professor at Ahmedabad University. His research area is the history and philosophy of premodern South Asia.
Summary
In A Time of Novelty, Samuel Wright re-envisions the relationship between philosophy and history in premodern India. This relationship is studied through the tradition of Sanskrit logic between 1500 and 1700 CE -- the period in Indian history that witnessed the ascendency of the Mughal Empire. During this period, Sanskrit logicians would refer to themselves and their arguments as 'new,' indicating that the concept of novelty was at the center of their philosophical project. By retaining space for emotion when studying intellectual thought,this book recovers both what it means to “think” novelty and to “feel” novelty for these thinkers.
Focusing on a number of little-known essays by early modern Sanskrit logicians, Wright argues that the concept of novelty is used to forge a new philosophical community in this period where novelty is both an intellectual and affective category. This perspective allows the book to raise questions that have never been asked when studying Sanskrit logic -- questions concerning critical thought, mood, imagination, and manuscript culture. Wright expands the ways in which we study philosophical thought by considering philosophy as deeply immersed in the felt experiences of one's life, at the confluence of thinking and feeling.
Additional text
A Time of Novelty is a significant contribution to the study of the history of Nyāya and Indian philosophy. It also demonstrates a new approach to this study through a sensitive and careful reading of how and why novelty becomes important in early modernity.
