Philosophy in Classical India: An Introduction and Analysis

by Ganeri; Jonardon

• ISBN13: 9780415240345
• ISBN10: 0415240344
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781134551637
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-29
• Publisher: Routledge
• More Book Details
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Summary

Original in content and approach,Philosophy in Classical Indiafocuses on the rational principles of Indian philosophical theory, rather than the mysticism usually associated with it. Ganeri explores the philosophical projects of a number of major Indian philosophers and looks into the methods of rational inquiry deployed within these projects. In so doing, he illuminates a network of mutual reference and criticism, influence and response, in which reason is simultaneously used constructively and to call itself into question.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(6)
The motive and method of rational inquiry	7	(35)
Early recognition of a `practice of reason'	7	(3)
Rationality in the Nyayasutra	10	(5)
Rationality and the ends of life	15	(2)
Perception	17	(5)
Mind, attention and the soul	22	(3)
Rationality and extrapolation	25	(3)
Rationality and debate	28	(7)
Reason, scripture and testimony	35	(2)
Reason's checks and balances	37	(5)
Further reading	40	(2)
Rationality, emptiness and the objective view	42	(29)
Thought and reality	42	(1)
Emptiness and the objective view	43	(4)
Rationality in Madhyamaka	47	(4)
On causation	51	(7)
The impossibility of proof	58	(5)
A new paradox of motion	63	(3)
Self-refutation	66	(5)
Further reading	68	(3)
The rational basis of metaphysics	71	(26)
Order in nature	71	(1)
The categorial hierarchy	72	(5)
The structure of the world	77	(2)
The taxonomy of natural kinds	79	(3)
Absence as a type of entity	82	(3)
Higher-order absence	85	(4)
Navya-Nyaya logic	89	(2)
Number	91	(6)
Further reading	95	(2)
Reduction, exclusion and rational reconstruction	97	(31)
How to practise poverty in metaphysics	97	(1)
A skeletal ontology	98	(2)
Marking and similarity	100	(4)
The role of language in conceptual construction	104	(2)
The exclusion theory of meaning	106	(5)
Sentence meaning	111	(3)
Conditions on rational extrapolation	114	(4)
Reasoning from specifics	118	(3)
Are reason-target relations law-like?	121	(2)
The problem of grounding	123	(5)
Further reading	126	(2)
Rationality, harmony and perspective	128	(23)
A rationality of reconciliation	128	(1)
The many-sided nature of things	128	(2)
Disagreement defused	130	(4)
The epistemology of perspective	134	(3)
The logic of assertion	137	(4)
Assertion and the unassertible	141	(3)
The mark of a good reason	144	(3)
Integration and complete knowledge	147	(4)
Further reading	149	(2)
Reason in equilibrium	151	(18)
Reason and the management of doubt	151	(2)
The burden of proof	153	(2)
Criteria for rational rejection	155	(3)
Supposition and pretence	158	(1)
A new doxastic ascent	159	(3)
Epistemic equilibrium	162	(7)
Further reading	167	(2)
Notes	169	(15)
Texts	184	(8)
Bibliography	192	(11)
Index	203