Classical Indian Philosophy for Analytic Philosophers: Part I

Join us this Thursday for an unprecedented Meetup event that will offer a rigorous and insightful examination of the intersection between Classical Indian philosophy and Analytic philosophy. Professor Stephen Phillips (PhD, Harvard) will be joining us to give the first part of a special two-part lecture series, entitled “Classical Indian Philosophy for Analytic Philosophers.”

Stephen Phillips is Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin, a sanskritist and philosopher who is the author of eleven books including (most recently) a three-volume translation of the gargantuan 1871-page Tattva-cintā-maṇi, entitled Jewel of Reflection on the Truth about Epistemology (Bloomsbury: 2020) and The Metaphysics of Meditation: Sri Aurobindo and Ādi Śaṅkara on the Īśā Upaniṣad (Bloomsbury: now in press).

Professor Phillips’ teaching style, characterized by its warm and accessible approach, accommodates diverse interests and levels of expertise, making it an enriching experience for both the seasoned expert and the philosophical novice alike. His illuminating overview of the fundamental topics at work in philosophical method generally is sure to leave attendees feeling informed, refreshed, and inspired.

Part I: “Nyāya’s Externalist Theory of Knowledge”

Part One will cover the Nyāya school’s epistemology along with a little metaphysics in the context of refutations of Buddhist positions, Yogācāra in particular.

Nyāya is a philosophical system that challenges the stereotype of Indian philosophy as mystical and idealist. It is founded on the Nyāya-sūtra, a text from around 100 CE, and is broadly realist about everyday objects.

Nyāya champions a default of everyday knowledge without justification, identifying “knowledge sources,” identification of which establishes knowledge of knowledge, that is to say, certification, at a second level where philosophic discourse occurs.

The lecture will delve into philosophical methods in classical Indian philosophy—including arguments for knowledge without justification, the principle of “innocence unless reasonably challenged,” the conditions for defeating a knowledge claim, and the three sources of knowledge in classical Indian philosophy.

Along the way, we will explore the metaphysical assumptions surrounding the very possibility of knowledge, and how we know what we know.

We will discover that key issues in Nyaya epistemology resonate strongly with a wide range of hot topics in Analytic philosophy. Upon the conclusion of this event, we will have explored many key concepts running through the entire Western philosophical tradition, and will have gained a deeper understanding of the broader philosophical landscape.

Part II: “Ethics, Yoga, and the Metaphysics of Meditation”

Part Two (in two weeks) discusses the Bhagavad Gītā and other yogic texts—along with character ethics, conventionalism, and intuitionism in the classical Indian context.

METHOD

Watch this video before the event:

• Classical Indian Philosophy for Analytic Philosophers, Part I

About Our Guest Expert

Stephen Phillips is highly acclaimed for his pioneering and exhaustively annotated and indexed translations of late classical Sanskrit philosophical texts.

In addition to these seminal works, beginners and intermediate philosophical readers may also enjoy these more accessible titles:

• Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy (2009), winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title book award;
• Epistemology in Classical India: The Knowledge Sources of the Nyaya School (2013);
• The Nyaya-sutra: Selections with Early Commentaries (2017);
• God and the World’s Arrangement (2021);
• and the massively popular Introduction to World Philosophy: A Multicultural Reader (2009, with Dan Bonevac).

I should mention that Classical Indian Metaphysics: Refutations of Realism and the Emergence of “New Logic” (1995) stands as an unparalleled scholarly achievement in its field and is available for free borrowing on [Archive.org](https://archive.org/details/classicalindianm00phil/mode/2up).