The first half of the title 'Remodelling Indian Thoughts' may appear to be strange to any orthodox scholars of Indian philosophy for they would point out that each of the systems is an integrated holistic system, having metaphysics, epistemology, psychology and ethics of their own. None of them can be considered in isolation. So there is no question of 'remodelling' them. But challenging such an orthodox belief has been the objective of Professor Bimal Krishna Matilal's philosophical career, in whose memory this anthology is being dedicated. Well-versed in orthodox tradition of Indian philosophy, and having training in Western analytic philosophy, under the guidance of scholars like Ingalls, WVO Quine, Professor Matilal felt that the discussions found in the texts and commentaries of different philosophical schools of India can be looked upon as providing an alternative model to the problems of modern analytical philosophy, be it in the field of epistemology or logic or morality. It has been one of his aims to show that from the early days of Indian philosophy emphasis has been laid on three factors for knowing the reality - sravana, manana, and nididhyasana to listen from the preceptor about the Reality, then to rationalize it and ultimately meditate on it. The preceptor himself is believed to be one who has directly realized the Reality. But what he has experienced himself cannot be taught to his disciples. So, what he does to make his disciple have an understanding of the reality in order to feel interested to pursue the path, is to explain to his students with anecdotes and narratives rather than employ rational arguments. The disciple first listens to those anecdotes and narratives, and then he tries to rationalize what he has heard from the preceptor and then meditate on it. Emphasis on this manana or rationalization later developed into the study of logic or tarkasastra. When, on the basis of investigation into reality, there arose different schools of philosophical thought, logic was used as a method in a debate situation, to refute the views of the opponents and to establish opinions of their own. Accordingly, logic in India developed in two directions one as a method of argumentation (vada) and the other as a part of epistemology (pramanasastra) where it is seen as the study of inference pattern and inference is regarded as a variety of valid cognition (prama). It is out of this idea that logically derived inferences or their conclusions are pieces of valid as well as sound cognition that the dissociation between soundness and validity which is generally drawn in Western Logic is not admitted in the context of Indian logic.
Hindu (1749)
Philosophers (2299)
Aesthetics (321)
Comparative (66)
Dictionary (12)
Ethics (42)
Language (350)
Logic (77)
Mimamsa (55)
Nyaya (131)
Psychology (475)
Samkhya (58)
Shaivism (65)
Shankaracharya (233)
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