Advaita Epistemology and Metaphysics: An Outline of Indian Non-Realism

by Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad

Overview

Based on original translations of passages from the works of three major thinkers of the classical Indian school of Advaita (Sankara, Vacaspati and Sri Harsa), but addressing issues found in Descartes, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Wittgenstein and contemporary analytic philosophers, this book argues for a philosophical position it calls 'non-realism'. This is the view that an independent, external world must be assumed if the features of cognition are to be explained, but that it cannot be proved that there is such a world, independently of an appeal to cognition itself. This position is constructed against idealist denials of externality, realist arguments for an independent world and the sceptical denial of the coherence of cognition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138878945
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/10/2015
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Introduction Section I: Sankara: Externality 1. Sankara and the philosophical framework of Advaita 2. Sankara, Vasubandhu and the idealist use of dreaming 3. Sankara, dreaming and non-realism Section II: Vacaspati: Determinacy 1. Vacaspati on anirvacaniyatva Section III: Sri Harsa: Existence 1. Knowledge and Existence 2. The non-realist critique of Existence Discursive Appendix: Reading Sri Harsa through 20th century anti-sceptical naturalism Section IV: Applying Non-Realism 1. Causal connections, cognition and regularity: comparativist remarks on David Hume and Sri Harsa 2. Immediacy and the direct theory of perception: problems with Sri Harsa

Editorial Reviews

'The credit goes to Chakrabarthi Ram-Prasad to have been able to produce a full-length book on Advaita Vedanta written in a thoroughly analytical style that transcends geographical barriers in philosophy.' - Philosophy East and West

'The credit goes to Chakrabarthi Ram-Prasad to have been able to produce a full-length book on Advaita Vedanta written in a thoroughly analytical style that transcends geographical barriers in philosophy.' - Philosophy East and West

From the Publisher