scholarly journals Past Continuous or Present Perfect? Continuity and Change in Contemporary Indian Philosophy

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1087
Author(s):  
Daniel Raveh
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Philosophy ◽  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Present Perfect ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Book Discussion ◽  
Parallel Text ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Contemporary Indian Philosophy ◽  
Perfect Continuity

Contemporary Indian philosophy is a distinct genre of philosophy that draws both on classical Indian philosophical sources and on Western materials, old and new. It is comparative philosophy without borders. In this paper, I attempt to show how contemporary Indian philosophy works through five instances from five of its protagonists: Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya (his new interpretation of the old rope-snake parable in his essay “Śaṅkara’s Doctrine of Maya”, 1925); Daya Krishna (I focus on the “moral monadism” that the theory of karma in his reading leads to, drawing on his book Discussion and Debate in Indian Philosophy, 2004); Ramchandra Gandhi (his commentary on the concept of Brahmacharya in correspondence with his grandfather, the Mahatma, in his essay “Brahmacharya”, 1981); Mukund Lath (on identity through—not despite—change, with classical Indian music, Rāga music, as his case-study, in his essay “Identity through Necessary Change”, 2003); and Rajendra Swaroop Bhatnagar (on suffering, in his paper “No Suffering if Human Beings Were Not Sensitive”, 2021). My aim is twofold. First, to introduce five contemporary Indian philosophers; and second, to raise the question of newness and philosophy. Is there anything new in philosophy, or is contemporary philosophy just a footnote—à la Whitehead—to the writings of great thinkers of the past? Is contemporary Indian philosophy, my protagonists included, just a series of footnotes to classical thinkers both in India and Europe? Footnotes to the Upaniṣads, Nāgārjuna, Dharmakīrti and Śaṅkara, as much as (let us not forget colonialism and Macaulay) to Plato, Aristotle, Kant and Hegel? Footnotes can be creative and work almost as a parallel text, interpretive, critical, even subversive. However, my contention is that contemporary Indian philosophy (I leave it to others to plea for contemporary Western philosophy) is not a footnote, it is a text with agency of its own, validity of its own, power of its own. It is wholly and thoroughly a text worth reading. In this paper, I make an attempt to substantiate this claim through the philosophical mosaic I offer, in each instance highlighting both the continuity with classical sources and my protagonists’ courageous transgressions and innovations.

Coincidences of Comparison

Hypatia ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 224-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rada Iveković
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Philosophy ◽  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
Western Side ◽  
Contemporary Indian Philosophy

Rada Iveković reflects on the significance of modernity in contemporary Indian philosophy. Where the orient has been figured as the other for western philosophers, she asks how Indian philosophy depicts the west, how philosophers such as Kant have been interpreted, and how thematics such as pluralism, tolerance, relativity, innovation, and curiosity about the foreign have been figured in both ancient and contemporary Indian philosophy. While working on the western side with such authors as Lyotard, Deleuze, Serres, or Irigaray, Iveković doesn't exactly indulge in comparative philosophy. Rather, she tries to make the most of the existing “coincidences,” using both western and Asian thought in order to open a new area for the production of concepts and a new field for philosophy in general.

Analysis of Terms as an Instrument of Comparative Philosophy

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4-1) ◽  
pp. 139-153
Author(s):  
Nataliya Kanaeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Philosophy ◽  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
Classical Problem ◽  
Round Table ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Logical Analysis ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Epistemic Culture ◽  
Epistemic Cultures ◽  
Philosophical Texts

The article continues the polemics on the problems of interaction of philosophical cultures in the era of globalization, which was started at the meetings of the Round Table "Geography of Rationality". The author gives answers to critical questions, explains the methodology and principles of her work with Indian philosophical texts. A short research of the meta-term "cognitive subject" is an example of her methods. The analysis of cognitive subject aimed to justify the absence of the concepts of reason and rationality in Indian epistemic culture, the cornerstones of Western epistemic culture, since Modern times. The justification was carried out by comparing the generalized model of the cognitive subject, abstracted from the writings of empiricists and rationalists of the XVII–XVIII centuries, with the generalized models of the cognitive subject, reconstructed on the basis of authoritative writings of three variants of Indian epistemological teachings: Advaita Vedānta, Jainism and Buddhism. From the author's point of view, the absence of the concepts of reason and rationality in India leads to the non-classical problem of pluralism of epistemic cultures, and the exploration of the meta-term "cognitive subject" allows us to find, on the one hand, intersections in the contents of epistemologies in Indian philosophy and Western metaphysics of Modern times, and on the other, their incompatible contents, which are specific manifestations of pluralism of epistemic cultures. For her reconstruction of the cognitive subject models the author takes the principle of "double perspective" in combination with the methods of hermeneutical and logical analysis of philosophical terms. The principle determinates the consideration of the theoretical object from two sides: European and Indian. Having appeared in the Western epistemic culture, these methods effectively work to objectify the results of socio-humanitarian research, thanks to which they are becoming increasingly widespread among non-Western cross-cultural philosophers. When the author applies the method of logical analysis to justify the absence of the concepts of reason and rationality in India, she is guided by the rules of logical semantics and the principles of semiotics. The compared terms, Western and Indian, are considered as signs with their own meanings and senses. The senses are understood as sets of predicates important for solving the author’s task. The author of the article, taking into account the experience of famous philosophers, negatively assesses the possibility of solving the problem of unambiguously correct translation.

JOHN DUNS SCOTUS ON HUMAN BEINGS IN THE STATE OF INNOCENCE

Traditio ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 289-310
Author(s):  
ERNESTO DEZZA
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
John Duns Scotus ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
Duns Scotus ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Theological Orientation ◽  
New Interpretation

The present article presents the theory of the Franciscan master John Duns Scotus (1265/66–1308) on the so-called “state of innocence,” namely the condition in which human beings lived before the first sin. The state of innocence is characterized by the gift of original justice, guaranteeing harmony between the soul's powers and immortality. Derived from traditional Christian anthropology, Scotus's description offers a chance for dialogue with the masters of the second half of the thirteenth century, among them Henry of Ghent, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure. Because of the theological orientation of Scotus's explanation, human beings as outlined by him are simultaneously naturally good and in need of divine gifts to reach their very end. Through a new interpretation of modality, Scotus's position is better able to express certain conditions related to power/possibility within the state of innocence.

Contemporary Indian Philosophy

1977 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 223
Author(s):  
Donald H. Bishop ◽  
Margaret Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
Contemporary Indian Philosophy

‘A polyphonic tale’: Arendt, Cavarero and storytelling in Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell (2012)

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-89
Author(s):  
Silvia Angeli
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Close Link ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Adriana Cavarero ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Way

This article proposes a reading of Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell (2012) through the work of Hannah Arendt and Adriana Cavarero. Far from being a simple homage to her late mother Diane, Polley’s film is a ‘polyphonic tale’, a complex and multi-layered narrative which allows for an exploration of the many functions of (cinematic) storytelling. Highlighting the close link between relating narratives and personal identity, the film sheds light on both the innate desire for biography that characterizes us as human beings and the complex and dynamic relationship between storytellers and listeners. The way we tell stories affects the narrator(s), their audience and the fabric of the story itself in a process that ensures both continuity and change. Referring to Arendt’s notion of political storytelling, I conclude by suggesting that Stories We Tell, like the Greek polis, functions as an ‘organized remembrance’, a community whose purpose is to preserve fragile human deeds and words from oblivion.

The Prologue as a Paschal Hymn

2019 ◽  
pp. 245-270
Author(s):  
John Behr
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Gospel Of John ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Third ◽  
John The Baptist ◽  
The World ◽  
In Christ ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
The One

On the basis of the analysis of the Gospel of John given so far, and in particular the celebration of Pascha that began with him, this chapter offers a radically new interpretation of the Prologue to the Gospel of John. Rather than a pre-existing hymn to the Word adopted and modified by the Evangelist, or a Prologue to the Gospel written by the Evangelist himself, explaining how the Word became flesh as the prelude to the narrative that follows, it is argued that the Prologue is best understood as a Paschal hymn in three parts. The first verse celebrates the one who is in first place, the crucified and exalted Jesus Christ, on his way to God, and as himself God. Verses 1:2—5 speak not of creation and the presence of the Word in creation before his sojourn on earth, but of how everything that occurs throughout the Gospel happens at his will, specifically the life that comes to be in him, a light which enlightens human beings, that is, those who receive and follow him. The third part, verses 1:6—18, are a chiastically structured celebration of what has come to be in Christ, where 1:14, ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt in us’ refers to the Eucharist, the flesh that he now offers to those who receive him and so become his body, following on from baptism in verses 1:12–13; the chiastic center of this section is 1:10–11, his rejection by the world but reception by his own, and the beginning and end of this section is the witness provided by John the Baptist.

Tocqueville on Religion, the Enlightenment, and the Democratic Soul

2015 ◽  
Vol 109 (3) ◽  
pp. 523-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
AARON L. HEROLD
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Religious Psychology ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
New Political Science

This article proposes a new interpretation of Tocqueville's thought, one that focuses on his account of religious psychology. From his observations of America, Tocqueville concludes that human beings have a natural hope for immortality—a hope that is driven by a paradoxical but ineradicable desire to affirm and forget oneself simultaneously. Tocqueville formulates this insight as a critique of the Enlightenment thinkers who laid the foundations for liberal democracy; I argue that he crafts his “new political science” to provide healthy outlets for the religious hopes whose existence these thinkers largely denied and whose anomalous presence in the United States has accordingly led to unforeseen dangers. Tocqueville's analysis not only helps us understand and begin to remedy those dissatisfactions that characterize democracy today but it also reveals his theoretical depth, political moderation, and sober assessment of our moral psychology in a way not seen before.

Contemporary Indian Philosophy

1976 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-388
Author(s):  
John B. Chethimattam ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
Contemporary Indian Philosophy
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