1st Edition
Categorisation in Indian Philosophy Thinking Inside the Box
It is by fitting the world into neatly defined boxes that Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain philosophers were able to gain unparalleled insights into the nature of reality, God, language and thought itself. Such categories aimed to encompass the universe, the mind and the divine within an all-encompassing system, from linguistics to epistemology, logic and metaphysics, theology and the nature of reality. Shedding light on the way in which Indian philosophical traditions crafted an elaborate picture of the world, this book brings Indian thinkers into dialogue with modern philosophy and global concerns. For those interested in philosophical traditions in general, this book will establish a foundation for further comparative perspectives on philosophy. For those concerned with the understanding of Indic culture, it will provide a platform for the continued renaissance of research into India's rich philosophical traditions.
Biography
Jessica Frazier is a Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, and Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent. She is the author of Reality, Religion and Passion: Indian and Western Approaches in Gadamer and Gosvami and author/editor of The Continuum Companion to Hindu Studies, as well as the founding and managing editor of The Journal of Hindu Studies.
’This is a learned and insightful collection of papers, focussed on a theme - categorisation - that has become widely recognized as both culturally informative and philosophically important. Given the range and sophistication of categorisation in the classical Indian tradition, this volume is timely and illuminating. The essays do a fine job of introducing, exploring, and interpreting a myriad of texts and practices of categorisation, and will be of interest not only to specialists and students of Indian philosophy but to those interested more generally in the comparative study of philosophical traditions.’ Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Lancaster University, UK 'This wonderful book about classification in Indian philosophy goes to the heart of questions about how we understand the world and the nature of rationality itself. The book is truly interdisciplinary with contributions from philosophers and philologists; it breaks new ground in understanding the concerns of Indian philosophy and their contemporary relevance.' Gavin Flood, Oxford University, UK
