Kalidas Bhattacharyya. New Perspectives in Indian Philosophy [Ed. Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty]. X+435pp., index. The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, 2023. ₹ 600.00 (paperback). The New Perspectives in Indian Philosophy (henceforth NPIP) edited by Chakraborty is a scholarly collection of philosophical lectures delivered by Kalidas Bhattacharyya (1911-1984) at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture during last two decades of his life. Bhattacharyya continued the philosophical legacy of his father, the notable modern Indian philosopher, Krishna Chandra Bhattacharyya (1875-1949) b ..read more

Binod Kumar Choudhary & Debajyoti Gangopadhyay, Editors. Nalanda Dialogue Series – Volume 1 – Prolegomena to Intercultural Dialogue: Modern Engagement with Indian Knowledge Tradition. Xvi + 273 pp., index. Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, 2022. ₹780 (paperback). The Nalanda Dialogue Series is a collection of dialogues between various scholars of the humanities, sciences and those trained in the “traditional knowledge” of India. The goal of the dialogues is to foster a better understanding of each among both the modern western scientific and philosophical paradigms and the Indian tradition. I think ..read more

In this duology of posts I’m going to respond to Sonam Kachru’s friendly criticism of my own work on Vasubandhu’s Twenty Verses (Vimśikākārikā). But instead of the usual academic practice of arguing against Kachru’s criticisms, I’m going to suggest that Kachru may be right. Or maybe half-right. In any case, his work has helped my own thinking move toward a new insight: I have come to suspect that I made some mistakes in my own earlier work—and maybe these errors are iterations of deeper mistakes that often occur under the banner of “comparative philosophy.” In this first post, I’ll discuss my ..read more

Graham Priest. Capitalism – its Nature and its Replacement: Buddhist and Marxist Insights. Xvii + 234 pp., index. Routledge, 2022. $39.16 (paperback). Graham Priest’s insightful and brilliant new book explores how Buddhist philosophy compliments Marxist (and anarchist) philosophy, providing a path beyond the current capitalist paradigm. It ushers in a new wave of Engaged Buddhism which is informed by the recent scholarly developments in Buddhist philosophy of (i) moral phenomenology (as espoused by Garfield and Heim), (ii) moral particularism, and (iii) free will in Buddhism literature. Priest ..read more

This post is part of a series discussing Arindam Chakrabarti’s Realisms Interlinked. The previous posts are available here, here and here. The last chapter (chapter 16) of the second part is a discussion of the Nyāya theories for the existence of the self and it includes also discussions about the no-ownership theory (mental states don’t need to be *of someone*) and against physicalism (pp. 189–191). I especially enjoyed the discussion about the inner sense faculty (manas, already discussed in chapter 13) and its role as a connector among sense faculties. How else could we compare different se ..read more

Philosophy East and West needs reviewers for the books listed below. Interested reviewers should send a copy of their CV, a representative book review (or other piece of academic writing), and a short statement about their expertise on the book’s matter to c.malcolm.keating@gmail.com. (Anyone interested in reviewing a book not listed is also encouraged to email with the same information. Reviewers should have a Ph.D. in a relevant scholarly field or be a Ph.D. student.) Kataoka, Kei and John Taber, Meaning and Non-existence: Kumārila’s Refutation of Dignāga’s Theory of Exclusion. The ..read more

In Part One, I discussed Sonam Kachru’s criticisms (Kachru 2021) of some of my earlier work on Vasubandhu’s Twenty Verses (Mills 2017). I ended the previous post with a question: what if we were to listen carefully to Vasubandhu in his own terms, and learn from what he has to say? This attitude toward the text can challenge understandings of Western categories. Whereas most pragmatists, phenomenologists, and a certain type of analytic philosopher diagnose external-world skepticism as a metaphysical failure to appreciate the entanglement of mind and world, I think Vasubandhu suggests that entan ..read more

Almost all the chapters I will deal with in this second post (“Part 1” in the book) are about a defence of objects. The next bunch of chapters will be about a defence of subjects and the last one will be about other subjects", meaning not justother stuff” but also literally “other subjects”, like the ‘you’. Basic thesis: Arindam does not keep his card hidden. He speaks of a suicidal movement of our thought about reality''sloping from Naïve-realism to Absolute Skepticism through Idealism”, a suicidal movement that needs to be “blocked” (p. 75). It can be blocked, Arindam says, at three levels ..read more

I recently heard from Malcolm Keating, South Asia Book Review Editor for Philosophy East & West. He said they have the following books available to review. The journal can’t always promise complimentary hard copies, but free e-copies are certain. Please note that authors are welcome to have their publishers get in touch with the journal, too. For more information, contact Malcolm Keating at malcolm.keating@yale-nus.edu.sg. TITLE AUTHOR PUB DATE Buddhism, Meditation, and Free Will: A Theory of Mental Freedom Repetti, Rick Jan 2019 A Time of Novelty: Logic, Emotion, and Intellect ..read more

Main thesis: While we move from realism about objects to realism about subjects and other subjects, Arindam’s commitment to naïve realism decreases. Since I have discussed in the first two previous posts about how Arindam’s methodology makes him do philosophy while talking with other philosophers, let me now say that he is moving from talking mostly with Naiyāyikas to engaging closely with Abhinavagupta. And in fact in his interview with M. Keating Arindam had complained that I had called him a ‘staunch realist’ in a previous post. I now know why, given that he is less of a realist in this sec ..read more