Subject Code: HS4L011 Subject Name:  Indian Philosophical Perspectives on Substance L-T-P: 3-0-0 Credit: 3

Pre-Requisite(s): Prior exposure is not required

Objective of Course:

This course is designed to make the students familiar with philosophical approaches to a problem on which modern physics has made many original and experimentally tested contributions: the problem of Substance. The concepts and methods of Ancient Indian philosophical and pre-philosophical thought are applied to this problem, taking into account wider philosophical perspectives from Europe (Aristotle) and India (late Vedic texts, Sāṁkhya, Vaiśeṣika, Vedānta). This course can be followed after, or parallel to, the course “Introduction to Indian philosophy”.

Suggested Books:

  • Aubenque, Pierre. Le problème de l’être chez Aristote. Essai sur la problématique aristotélicienne. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France.
  • Bronkhorst, Johannes. A Śabda Reader: Language in Classical Indian Thought. Translated and edited by Johannes Bronkhorst. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Bronkhorst, Johannes.. Language and Reality: On an Episode in Indian Thought. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
  • Halbfass, Wilhelm.. India and Europe: An Essay in Philosophical Understanding. Indian Edition. (First edition: Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.) Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass., 1990
  • Halbfass, Wilhelm. 1992. On Being and What There Is. Albany: State University of New York Press., 1992
  • Hattori, Masaaki. 1968. Dignāga, On Perception, being the Pratyakṣapariccheda of Dignāga’s Pramāṇasamuccaya. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press., 1968
  • Houben, Jan E.M. 1995. The Saṁbandha-samuddeśa (chapter on relation) and Bhartrhari's philosophy of language. Gonda Indological Series, 2. Groningen: Egbert Forsten., 1995
  • Jambuvijaya, Muni (ed.). 1966, 1976, 1988. Dvādaśāraṁ Nayacakraṁ of Ācārya Śrī Siṁhasūri Gaṇi Vādi Kṣamāśrama; part 1 (1-4 Aras); part 2 (5-8); part 3 (9-12). Bhavnagar : Sri Jain Atmanand Sabha., 1976
  • Knight, David M. 1970. Classical Scientific Papers – Chemistry, Second Series: Papers on the Nature and Arrangement of the Chemical Elements, Arranged and Introduced. London: Mills and Boon., 1970
  • Oldenberg, Herman. 1919. Weltanschauung der Brāhmaṇa-texte: Vorwissenschaftliche Wissenschaft. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht., 1919
  • Owen, Joseph. 1951. The Doctrine of Being in the Aristotelian Metaphysics: A Study in the Greek Background of Mediaeval Thought. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies., 1951
  • Poortman, J.J. (transl. N.D. Smith) 1978. Vehicles of consciousness : the concept of hylic pluralism (ochēma). Volumes I-IV. Utrecht: The Theosophical Society in the Netherlands, in association with the Theosophical Publishing House., 1978