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Peter Adamson and Jonardon Ganeri present a lively introduction to one of the world's richest intellectual traditions: the philosophy of classical India. They begin with the earliest extant literature, the Vedas, and the explanatory works that these inspired, known as Upanisads. They also discuss other famous texts of classical Vedic culture, especially the
Mahabharata and its most notable section, the
Bhagavad-Gita, alongside the rise of Buddhism and Jainism. In this opening section, Adamson and Ganeri emphasize the way that philosophy was practiced as a form of life in search of liberation from suffering. Next, the pair move on to the explosion of philosophical speculation devoted to foundational texts called 'sutras,' discussing such traditions as the logical and epistemological Nyaya school, the monism of Advaita Vedanta, and the spiritual discipline of Yoga. In the final section of the book, they chart further developments within Buddhism, highlighting Nagarjuna's radical critique of 'non-dependent' concepts and the no-self philosophy of mind found in authors like Dignaga, and within Jainism, focusing especially on its 'standpoint' epistemology. Unlike other introductions that cover the main schools and positions in classical Indian philosophy, Adamson and Ganeri's lively guide also pays attention to philosophical themes such as non-violence, political authority, and the status of women, while considering textual traditions typically left out of overviews of Indian thought, like the Carvaka school, Tantra, and aesthetic theory as well. Adamson and Ganeri conclude by focusing on the much-debated question of whether Indian philosophy may have influenced ancient Greek philosophy and, from there, evaluate the impact that this area of philosophy had on later Western thought.
List of contents
- Origins
- 1: Begin at the End: Introduction to Indian Philosophy
- 2: Scriptures, Schools, and Systems: A Historical Overview
- 3: Kingdom for a Horse: India in the Vedic Period
- 4: Hide and Seek: The Upanisads
- 5: Indra's Search: The Self in the Upanisads
- 6: You Are What You Do: Karma in the Upanisads
- 7: Case Worker: Panini's Grammar
- 8: Suffering and Smiling: The Buddha
- 9: Crossover Appeal: The Nature of the Buddha's Teaching
- 10: Carry a Big Stick: Ancient Indian Political Thought
- 11: Better Half: Women in Ancient India
- 12: Grand Illusion: Dharma and Deception in the Mahabharata
- 13: World on a String: The Bhagavad-gita
- 14: Mostly Harmless: Non-Violence
- The Age of the Sutra
- 15: A Tangled Web: The Age of the Sutra
- 16: When in Doubt: The Rise of Skepticism
- 17: Master of Ceremonies: Jaimini's Mimamsa-sutra
- 18: Innocent Until Proven Guilty: Mimamsa on Knowledge and Language
- 19: Source Code: Badarayaa's Vedanta-sutra
- 20: No Two Ways About It: Sakara and Advaita Vedanta
- 21: Communication Breakdown: Bhartrhari on Language
- 22: The Theory of Evolution: isvarakrsna's Samkhya-karika
- 23: Who Wants to Live Forever? Early ayurvedic Medicine
- 24: Practice Makes Perfect: Patañjali's Yoga-sutra
- 25: Where There's Smoke There's Fire: Gautama's Nyaya-sutra
- 26: What You See Is What You Get: Nyaya on Perception
- 27: Standard Deductions: Nyaya on Reasoning
- 28: The Truth Shall Set You Free: Nyaya on the Mind
- 29: Fine Grained Analysis: Kanada's Vaisesika-sutra
- 30: The Whole Story: Vaisesika on Complexity and Causation
- 31: A Day in the Life: Theories of Time
- 32: The Wolf's Footprint: Indian Naturalism
- 33: Mind out of Matter: Materialist Theories of the Self
- Buddhists and Jainas
- 34: We Beg to Differ: The Buddhists and Jainas
- 35: It All Depends: Nagarjuna on Emptiness
- 36: Motion Denied: Nagarjuna on Change
- 37: No Four Ways About It: Nagarjuna's Tetralemma
- 38: Taking Perspective: The Jaina Theory of Standpoints
- 39: Well Qualified: The Jainas on Truth
- 40: Change of Mind: Vasubandhu and Yogacara Buddhism
- 41: Who's Pulling Your Strings? Buddhaghosa on No-Self and Autonomy
- 42: Under Construction: Dignaga on Perception and Language
- 43: Follow the Evidence: Dignaga's Logic
- 44: Doors of Perception: Dignaga on Consciousness
- Beyond Ancient India
- 45: In Good Taste: The Rasa Aesthetic Theory
- 46: Learn by Doing: Tantra
- 47: Looking East: Indian Influence on Greek Thought
- 48: The Buddha and I: Indian Influence on Islamic and European Thought
- 49: What Happened Next: Indian Philosophy After Dignaga
About the author
Peter Adamson received his BA from Williams College and PhD in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. He worked at King's College London from 2000 until 2012. He subsequently moved to the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, where he is Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy. He has published widely in ancient and medieval philosophy, and is the host of the History of Philosophy podcast.
Jonardon Ganeri is a Fellow of the British Academy. He is the author of Attention, Not Self (2017), The Self (2012), The Lost Age of Reason (2011), and The Concealed Art of the Soul (2007). Ganeri's work draws on a variety of philosophical traditions to construct new positions in the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and epistemology. He became the first philosopher to win the Infosys Prize in the Humanities in 2015.
Summary
Adamson and Ganeri present a lively introduction to one of the world's richest intellectual traditions: the philosophy of classical India. They guide us through such famous works as the Vedas and the Upanisads, and tell the stories of how Buddhism and Jainism developed. Anyone curious about South Asian philosophy can start here.
