Ramkrishna Bhattacharya The Concise Oxford Dictionary (on CD-Rom, 11th ed. 2004) defines rationalism as “the practice or principle of basing opinions and actions on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response.” This is not the only meaning of the word. In philosophy the same term suggests “the theory that reason rather…
V. Brodov The founder of the Samkhya1 philosophical system and the author of the Samkhya-sutra was, as is generally believed, Kapila (c. 6th-5th centuries B. C.). The Samkhya-sutra was lost, so that we have to use later sources – Isvarakrishna Samkhya Karika (3rd-4th centuries C. E.), Vacaspati Misra’s Samkhya Tattva Kaumudi (9th century), and others.…
<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} span.st {mso-style-name:st;} span.transformat {mso-style-name:transformat;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> Ramkrishna Bhattacharya The notes propose to throw light on certain aspects of materialism in ancient India and point…
V. Brodov Elements of Materialism in the Nyaya Philosophy The Nyaya (Sanskr. “rule”, “substantiation”, “method”, “logical inference”, “introduction to a subject”, “deduction”, “logic in general”) is a philosophical system or school that took shape approximately at the end of the 1st century C. E. Gotama (c. 3rd century B. C.) is regarded as the originator…
V Brodov Brhaspati (c. 7th-6th century B. C.) is believed to be the founder of the Charvaka Lokayatika School and the author of its Sutras. The Charvakas Lokayatikas are materialist philosophers. It would be a rude error, however, to restrict the Brhaspati line to the materialism of the Charvakas Lokayatikas. That would mean narrowing down…
Donald H Bishop Donald H Bishop wrote this essay as an introduction to the section, The Heterodox Schools, of the book Indian Thought – An Introduction, edited by him and published in 1975. At the time of the publication of the book, the author was with College of Sciences and Arts, Washington State University. We upload this essay as…
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya The title of the paper may sound odd to some, for Marx, in spite of his encyclopedic learning, was not at all conversant with the Indian philosophical tradition. Yet there are a few points in Marx’s works that may be of use in relation to the reconstruction of the materialist tradition in Indian…
Dipak Nandy (This essay first appeared in Marxism Today in its January 1962 issue) The Vice-President of India, Mr. Radhakrishnan, recently stated that “the characteristic of Indian thought is that it has paid greater attention to the inner world of man than to the outer world”. Indeed, the course of Indian thought, as told in…
Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya [This essay was first published as part of a collection of essays, Indian Thought – An Introduction, edited by Donald H Bishop, and published in 1975. Background Lokayata Epistemology Social Ethics Consciousness Lokayata and Indian Materialism] I. Background It is generally assumed that Indian materialism can be discussed today only on the basis of…
<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:HiddenHorzOCl; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:"Hidden Horz OCR"; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p.Default, li.Default, div.Default {mso-style-name:Default; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt;…