Book Description

The present volume appears to be the first general introduction, for English-reading students, to that which, in Indian tradition, corresponds to 'philosophy' in British and probably in most other English-speaking universities. It shows how Indian philosophers have posed such questioins as whether we can be sure we 'know' anything, whether words 'mean' anything, whether it is possible to generalise from observed regularities in nature and whether there is anything in nature, or in 'reality', corresponding to our concept of a 'class'. It traces the sustained and rigorous analysis of such philosophical problems through many centuries, indicating in outline the interrelationships of ideas and 'schools' and development of the theory of knowledge, formal logic and other analytical investigations. The closely related development of science in India is also indicated. This does not imply that Indian philosophy is the same as 'Western' philosophy or part of it, which would make it redundant and uninteresting. It is interesting in that it discusses similar philosophical problems in different ways, as philosophers elsewhere have. But there is the problem of translation, obvious in most books on Indian tradition, especially if we compare any two of them. This Course is based only on original Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit sources translated by the author.