The anthology Alternative Standpoints: A Tribute to Kalidas Bhattacharyya is a tribute to Prof. Kalidas Bhattacharyya, the eminent thinker of twentieth-century India, on his birth centenary by his students. A distinguished philosopher and an academician, Prof. Bhattacharyya presented philosophy in an original way with scientific spirit. He was essentially a metaphysician and his metaphysics was deeply rooted in the traditions of Advaita Vedanta and Shaivism. His ultimate concern was to present a theory of freedom and a theory of the possibility of realizing that freedom. In this collection eminent scholars have written on different aspects of his philosophy. This anthology is divided into four parts – the first one concentrating on his metaphysics, the second part dealing with his views on freedom, the third one with education and science and the fourth one is a reminiscence of his student and his family members. In short this anthology tries to present a picture of Kalidas Bhattacharyya as a philosopher and also as a man within the two covers. This volume is expected to familiarize students and present-day philosophers the persona of Prof. Bhattacharyya and his philosophical positioning and pedagogical skillset.
Kalidas Bhattacharya’s Notion of Swing in Standpoints
Jigmey Dorje Lama Research Scholar, Department of Philosophy & Comparative Religion, Visva- Bharati, Santiniketan
Kalidas Bhattacharyya. New Perspectives in Indian Philosophy
[Ed. Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty].
The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, 2023.
Freedom, Transcendence, and Identity: Essays in Memory of Professor Kalidas Bhattacharyya
Editor Pradip Kumar Sengupta Contributors Kalidas Bhattacharya, Indian Council of Philosophical Research Publisher Motilal Banarsidass Publishe, 1988 ISBN 8120805283, 9788120805286
Contemporary Vedanta Philosophy I
George Burch
Contemporary Vedanta Philosophy II
George Burch
Contemporary Vedanta Philosophy Continued
George Burch
Kalidas Bhattacharyya and the logic of Alternation
Three Absolutes and Four Types of Negation Integrating Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya’s Insights?
By Stephen Kaplan Book The Making of Contemporary Indian Philosophy Edition 1st Edition First Published 2023 Imprint Routledge Pages 14 eBook ISBN 9781003153320
Study on Four Logical Alternatives (catuṣkoṭi and catuṣkoṭi-vinirmukta) in Indian Mādhyamika School
Publication Category Philosophers of Modern India Publication Author Kalidas Bhattacharyya Publication Language English Publisher Name Das Gupta & Co.Ltd. Publication Place Calcutta No. of Pages 167
This book by Kalidas Bhattacharyya considers the relation between Consciousness and it’s Object. Once we ask the question “Is there anything intermediate between consciousness and object?”, we come up with the answer “Content”. Now, what is this Content and is there such an intermediate thing between Consciousness and Object? This is a question that needs to be answered. This book explores the relationship between Objectsand Consciousnessvia the idea of Content. The book is divided into two chapters. This first chapter is on “Object and Content”. The second is on “Relation”. The first chapter deals with:
Analysis of Thought and Memory
Analysis of Perception: Idealism and Realism
Analysis of Perception – Illusion as to Judgment
Some Theories of Illusion Examined
Content and Object as Alternatives
Criterion of Reality
Real and Non-Real Appearances
The second chapter deals with
The Notion of Relation
Classification of Relations
The So-called Puzzles of Relation
Relation – Is it Subjective, Objective or Dialectical?
External and Internal Relation
Some Theories of Relation
Self, knowledge, and freedom: essays for Kalidas Bhattacharyya.
Bhattacharya, Kalidas ; Mohanty, Jitendranath & Banerjee, S. P. (eds.) (1978).
Kolkata: World Press.
THE VISVA-BHARATI JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY
Kalidas Bhattacharyya Memorial Number
Bulletin of The Department of Philosophy & Religion
The Concept of the Absolute and Its Alternative Forms
Key Terms
Absolute
Brahman
Maya
Truth, Value and Freedom
K. C. Bhattacharyya
Three Absolutes
Four Negations
Mobius Strip
Trefoil Knot
Researchers
Kalidas Bhattacharyya
Gopinath Bhattacharyya
Bina Gupta
Stephen Kaplan
George Burch
Krishna Chandra Bhattacharyya (KC Bhattacharyya)
Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Abstract
Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya, one of the preeminent Indian philosophers of the 20th century, proposed that the absolute appears in three alternative forms – truth, freedom and value. Each of these forms are for Bhattacharyya absolute, ultimate, not penultimate. Each is different from the other, yet they cannot be said to be one or many. He contends that these absolutes are incompatible with each other and that an articulation of the relation between the three absolutes is not feasible. This paper will review Bhattacharyya’s presentation of the absolute in its alternative forms and will place these abstractions within the context of three specific religious traditions that he sees illustrating his point. Then, using a model based upon holography, I will illuminate with ‘concrete images’ that which Bhattacharyya could deductively formulate but could not logically integrate. Holography, the process by which three‐dimensional images are produced from an imageless film – a film in which each part can reproduce the whole – will be used as a heuristic device to illuminate the simultaneous and mutually interpenetrating existence of the absolute in three forms. This model will illumine how these three forms can be conceived of as not the same yet not other and how these forms can be incompatible as absolutes, but metaphysically inseparable.
Notes
Correspondence to: Stephen Kaplan, Department of Religious Studies, Manhattan College, Manhattan College Parkway, Riverdale, New York 10471, USA. Email: stephen.kaplan@manhattan.edu; Tel: +1‐718‐862‐7113.
There appears to be some discrepancy in the presentation of his last name. The two volumes edited by his son, Gopinath Bhattacharyya, use a double ‘y’ while other texts use a single ‘y’. In what follows, I will use the double ‘y’ but will also follow the format of authors who use a single ‘y’ when quoting from such texts.
In the foreword to Burch (Citation1972), Clarke makes the following point about the logic of Burch’s proposal, which is essentially indebted to and an expansion of Bhattacharyya’s proposal. About the proposal in general Clarke says: ‘The thesis proposed by the book is a truly radical one, so radical, in fact, that one experiences a kind of intellectual vertigo as he slowly awakens to what the author is really saying. The thesis … the Absolute is not one but many …’ (CitationClarke, 1972, p. 1). And Clarke adds: ‘This, of course, does not prove it is not true in some domain unreachable in my logic, but only that I cannot see any way of affirming it as intelligible, not because I see it as mystery but as contrary to intelligibility.’ (CitationClarke, 1972, p. 4). Kadankavil (Citation1972), pp. 181 ff. also finds difficulty with K.C.B.’s logic of alteration understood as a logic of exclusive disjunction.
This paper will draw primarily from two works – ‘The Concept of the Absolute and its Alternative Forms’ and ‘The Concept of Philosophy’, approximately written at the same time, 1934–1936. One should also see ‘The Concept of Value’ and ch. 7, ‘The Nature of Yoga’, in ‘Studies in Yoga Philosophy’, found in Vol. I of his collected works (Bhattacharyya, Citation1956). The nature of the absolute and its alternative form is also related to a number of other topics such as his theory of negation and the notion of the indefinite.
Before proceeding any further, I should note that the holographic model is drawn from my new book, Different Paths, Different Summits: A Model for Religious Pluralism (CitationKaplan, 2002). First, I would like to express my appreciation to Rowman and Littlefield for the use of certain passages. Second, I must admit that when I wrote this book, I had not read Bhattacharyya’s articles on this topic. I had studied a number of other pieces by K.C.B. and had used his theory of fourfold negation in the formulation of my model. Likewise, I had not read the work of Burch who has written some of the clearest expositions on K.C.B. and who has also developed the notion of the absolute and its alternative forms in his own writings. These oversights in my research have ruined any claims that I might make to originality of thought, but, on the other hand, they have produced intellectual allies. Third, I must thank Professor Raimundo Panikkar whose personal correspondence about my book led me to reexamine Bhattacharyya’s writings and to discover his notion of the absolute and its alternative forms (April 2002). Finally, I would like to thank Richard Goldman (Ithaca, NY) for his assistance in wrestling with K.C.B. and the nuances of his thought.
It should be noted that here, as in the other two modes of consciousness, Bhattacharyya distinguishes a realistic view and an idealistic view. While a full discussion of this distinction is beyond the scope of this paper, it may be noted that in the case of willing, K.C.B. says: ‘That we objectively act to be subjectively free, that the good will and nothing but the good will is the value for which we will an act – the view, in fact, of Kant – may be called the idealistic view in this connexion. The realistic view here then would be that we act for an objective end and not for the subjective end of being free; and an extreme form of the view may be conceived that we objectively act in order that we objectively act for everymore’ (CitationBhattacharyya, 1958, p. 137).
‘Holographic film typically has a resolution of 2500 to 5000 lines per millimeter (10−3m), in contrast to standard photographic film, which has about 200 lines per millimeter. The higher resolution is achieved by using smaller grains of the photosensitive silver in the emulsion. The smaller grains are less sensitive to light and decrease the “speed” of the film substantially’ (CitationIovine, 1990, p. 1).
A laser is a single frequency light source that is in phase – in other words, the light waves are in step with each other. (Light from an ordinary light bulb is neither in phase nor single frequency.) The hologram records not only the varying intensities of the light as it reflects off the object, as does a photograph, but it also records the phase relations of the light reflecting off the object.
The use of these terms is indebted to David Bohm, the renowned physicist. Bohm developed a very different holographic model with a different understanding of the relation between the two domains. His model is a scientific model and it is also a model for the ultimacy of undivided wholeness. In spite of the significant debt that my project owes to Professor Bohm, my project aims at resolving problems in religious thought, not physics. This project also imagines a plurality of ultimate answers, corresponding to Bhattacharyya’s threefold formulation of the absolute, not just one absolute.
For an extended analysis of these three traditions, one is referred to Kaplan (Citation2002, ch. 5).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Stephen Kaplan
Correspondence to: Stephen Kaplan, Department of Religious Studies, Manhattan College, Manhattan College Parkway, Riverdale, New York 10471, USA. Email: stephen.kaplan@manhattan.edu; Tel: +1‐718‐862‐7113.
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Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Source: Revisiting K. C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the absolute and its alternative forms: a holographic model for simultaneous illumination
“The Concept of the Absolute and Its Alternative Forms”
Source: “The Concept of the Absolute and Its Alternative Forms”
Source: “The Concept of the Absolute and Its Alternative Forms”
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Key Sources of Research
Revisiting K.C. Bhattacharyya’s concept of the Absolute and its alternative forms: A holographic model for simultaneous illumination
Authors: Stephen Kaplan
July 2004
Asian Philosophy 14(2):99-115 DOI:10.1080/0955236042000237354
“The Concept of the Absolute and Its Alternative Forms”.
Bhattacharyya, K.C..
Search for the Absolute in Neo-Vedanta, edited by George Bosworth Burch, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1976, pp. 175-196. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824887025-006
This book engages in a dialogue with Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya (K.C. Bhattacharyya, KCB, 1875–1949) and opens a vista to contemporary Indian philosophy.
KCB is one of the founding fathers of contemporary Indian philosophy, a distinct genre of philosophy that draws both on classical Indian philosophical sources and on Western materials, old and new. His work offers both a new and different reading of classical Indian texts, and a unique commentary of Kant and Hegel. The book (re)introduces KCB’s philosophy, identifies the novelty of his thinking, and highlights different dimensions of his oeuvre, with special emphasis on freedom as a concept and striving, extending from the metaphysical to the political or the postcolonial. Our contributors aim to decipher KCB’s distinct vocabulary (demand, feeling, alternation). They revisit his discussion of Rasa aesthetics, spotlight the place of the body in his phenomenological inquiry toward “the subject as freedom”, situate him between classics (Abhinavagupta) and thinkers inspired by his thought (Daya Krishna), and discuss his lectures on Sāṃkhya and Yoga rather than projecting KCB as usual solely as a Vedānta scholar. Finally, the contributors seek to clarify if and how KCB’s philosophical work is relevant to the discourse today, from the problem of other minds to freedoms in the social and political spheres.
This book will be of interest to academics studying Indian and comparative philosophy, philosophy of language and mind, phenomenology without borders, and political and postcolonial philosophy.
An Introduction to Indian Philosophy: Perspectives on Reality, Knowledge, and Freedom
By Bina Gupta
Thinkers of the Indian Renaissance
By S A Abbasi
The Fundamentals of K.C. Bhattacharyya’s Philosophy
PUBLISHER: INDIAN COUNCIL OF PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH (ICPR), D. K. PRINTWORLD PVT. LTD. AUTHOR: KALIDAS BHATTACHARYYA LANGUAGE: ENGLISH EDITION: 2016 ISBN: 9788124608418 PAGES: 220
Three Absolutes and Four Types of Negation Integrating Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya’s Insights?
By Stephen Kaplan Chapter in Book The Making of Contemporary Indian Philosophy Edition 1st Edition First Published 2023 Imprint Routledge Pages 14 eBook ISBN 9781003153320
This title of this chapter ends with a question mark. Did Bhattacharyya elucidate the relationship between his theories of the absolute in three alternatives and his theory that all philosophical thinking is rooted in different types of negation, specifically four types of negation? This chapter examines the key points in Bhattacharyya’s exposition of the four different types of negation. Each type of negation, understood in terms of removing illusion, leads to a different type of philosophy; hence understanding the different forms of negation provides insight into the fundamental differences in philosophical schools. The next challenge is illuminating Bhattacharyya’s formulation of three absolutes – the absolutes related to knowing, willing, and feeling – namely, truth, freedom, and value. Bhattacharyya declares that these absolutes are incompatible with each other, and he does not hide their incompatibility behind a facade of penultimacy. One might assume that his fourfold schema of negations would map onto his three absolutes since he sees each as fundamental to philosophical thinking. But how? How does the three map onto the four and the four map onto the three? That is the challenge this chapter engages, and the answer will be multivalent.
“Contemporary Vedanta Philosophy, I.”
Burch, George.
The Review of Metaphysics 9, no. 3 (1956): 485–504.
Daya Krishna’s essay ‘K.C. Bhattacharyya: A Philosophical Overview’ is a compilation of a few paragraphs written by him on K.C. Bhattacharyya (KCB) in two chapters on contemporary Indian philosophy in his books Indian Philosophy: A New Approach (1997) and Developments in Indian Philosophy from Eighteenth Century Onwards (2002). Daya Krishna revisits KCB’s three absolutes and their alternation, and the subject–object relationship at the heart of KCB’s formulation. Original as ever, Daya Krishna depicts KCB’s philosophical project as based on an ‘inverted Hegelian dialectic’, which ‘moves through what may be called a process of identification and de-identification, where each step of de-identification reveals the earlier identification to have been both voluntary and mistaken’. This dialectic, he adds, is rooted in Sāṃkhya philosophy, ‘but it has been given a new turn by K.C. Bhattacharyya’. Daya Krishna does not merely explain this ‘new turn’, but moreover, takes issue with KCB. First, he reminds KCB that even according to his own premises, identification is as free an action as de-identification. Hence, just like KCB’s prescribed de-identification, it conveys a sense of freedom. Second, Daya Krishna appeals for re-identification after de-identification, as he puts it, revealing his own conviction that freedom is found in the back and forth of engagement and disengagement, namely both in engagement and in disengagement at one’s will.
K.C. Bhattacharyya and Spontaneous Liberation in Sāṃkhya *
ByDimitry Shevchenko Book The Making of Contemporary Indian Philosophy Edition 1st Edition First Published 2023 Imprint Routledge Pages 16 eBook ISBN 9781003153320
‘Chapter Four Sri Aurobindo and Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya: Relation between Science and Spiritualism’,
These Studies in Phi1osoplr represents all the published and only a few unpublished writings of Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya. These published writings date back 1908, but his characteristic philosophical position assumes definite shape in the writings during the years 1928-36. The publications of the period outnumber and far our weigh those that fall during the previous twenty years Of the twenty- one tracts published first in two separate Volumes, which in this edition appear as bound together in one, fourteen belong to this period, the others covering the previous years.
Prof Bhattacharyya had a deep study of an dent Indian philosophy, particularly of Advaita Vedanta, Sankhya, Yoga and Jam Philosophies. Vol 1, contains Prof. Bhattacharyya’s constructive interpretation of these systems. He was also well-versed in classical German Philosophy, particularly that of Kant. Hi vast and deep study provided the intellectual background in the light of which his profoundly original mind could go on with the work of construction. He constructed a new system of his own which however is not easy to comprehend. VOL II contains all the basic writings in which Prof. Bhattacharyya’s philosophy has been formulated. In the Introduction to this Volume the Editor has usefully analysed the Author’s philosophical position in some detail.
Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya was born on 12th May, 1875. He graduated with triple Honours in 1896 and was awarded the P.R.S. of the Calcutta University in 1901. His academic record during the School and College periods was uniformly excellent.
Bhattacharyya joined the Education Department of Government of Bengal as a lecturer in Philosophy in 1898 and after serving with great distinction as a teacher of Philosophy in about all the Government Colleges of Bengal, he retired in 1930. He joined the Indian Institute of Philosophy at Amalner as its Director and remained there from 1933 to 1935. He was the George V Professor of Mental & Moral Philosophy at the Calcutta University from 1935 to 1937. He died on 11th December, 1940.
Prof. Bhattacharyya possessed a profoundly original mind and an acute analytical intellect. He will always be held in high esteem by the successive generations of thinkers for his significant contribution to Philosophy. Editor’s Preface to Vol. I
These ‘Studies in Philosophy’ represent all the published and only a few of the unpublished philosophical writings of Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya. There remains over an immense mass of manuscripts which will, perhaps, remain unpublished for all time to come.
The present volumes comprise the following tracts: –
Vol. I
1. Studies in Vedantism (Published in 1907) 2. 2. Sankara’s doctrine of Maya ( ,, 1925) 3. The Advaita and its spiritual significance ( ,, 1936) 4. Studies in Samkhya Philosophy (Unpublished) 5. Studies in Yoga Philosophy ( ,, ) 6. The Jaina theory of Anekanta (Published in 1925) 7. The Concept of Rasa (Unpublished)
Vol. II
1. The Subject as Freedom (Published in 1930) 2. The Concept of Philosophy ( ,, 1936) 3. The Concept of the Absolute and its alternative forms ( ,, 1934) 4. Studies in Kant (Unpublished) 5. Some aspects of negation (Published in 1914) 6. The place of the indefinite in Logic ( ,, 1916) 7. Definition of ‘Relation’ as a category of existence (Unpublished) 8. Fact and thought of fact (Published in 1931) 9. Knowledge and Truth ( ,, 1928) 10. Correction of error as a logical process ( ,, 1931) 11. The false and the subjective ( ,, 1932) 12. The objective interpretation of percept and image ( ,, 1936) 13. The Concept of Value ( ,, 1934) 14. The reality of the future (Unpublished)
Each of the above tracts is preceded by an Analysis. The first one was made by the author himself and the others have been done by the editor. Of the foot notes those marked in numerals are by the editor.
In presenting these studies the editor is happy to offer his most grateful thanks to the enterprising publisher. Sree Sushil Kumar Basu, the proprietor of Messrs. Progressive Publishers. It was he who very generously volunteered to undertake the publication of the book and see it through the press.
My warm thanks are also due to Professor G. R. Malkani. the Director of the Indian Institute of Philosophy, Amalner (Bombay) for his ready permission to reprint ‘The Subject as Freedom’ which was originally published by the Institute; to Dr. S. Radhakrishnan and Messrs. George Allen & Unwin Ltd. for their kind permission to reprint from their- ‘Contemporary Indian Philosophy’ the essay ‘‘[he Concept of Philosophy’; and to the R. K. Mission for their permission to reprint ‘The Advaita and its spiritual significance’ which first appeared in their ‘Cultural Heritage of India’. The editor is also obliged to a pupil of his and to his daughter for their assistance in preparing the copy for the press.
It is very much regretted that a number of typographical errors have crept in spite of earnest endeavours to avoid them. In the ‘Errata’ at the end of the volume, only the major errors have been listed and corrected. Editor’s Preface to Vol. II
The second volume of Studies in Philosophy is now presented after about twenty months since the issue of the first volume. For this inordinate delay the Editor alone is responsible. The Publisher tried his level best to expedite the publication, but owing to a number of circumstances which were beyond the control of the Editor, it was not found possible to bring it out at an earlier date.
This volume contains the fourteen tracts mentioned in the Preface to Vol. I, but in a slightly varied order. As in the case of the other volume, the order is not a chronological one.
In (I) The Subject as Freedom, the author works out his conception of Spiritual Psychology and the theory of the subject as freedom, and attempts to trace out the progressive stages of cognitional freedom. In (2) The Concept of Philosophy we have an analysis of the nature of philosophy and the conception of Philosophy as symbolic thinking not amounting to knowledge. (3) The Concept of the A absolute and its Alternative Forms elaborates the doctrine of the trinal absolute. (4) In Knowledge and Truth, we have an analysis of the distinctive level of consciousness occupied by theory of knowledge and of the theory of the mutual implication of knowledge and truth. (5) Fact and Thought of Fact attempts to give a definition of fact without assuming any fact and seeks to establish the position that fact does not admit of an impersonal definition. (6) In Correction of Error as a Logical Process, the author develops the Advaita theory of illusion and emphasises that correction is an epistemic function without any unitary logical content and that falsity has no reference to the time- position of cognition. In (7) The False and the Subjective, the author elaborates the thesis that the false and the subjective imply one another. In (8) Some Aspects of Negation, the author presents a nonsubjectivistic interpretation of the position that ‘truth is manifold’ and tries to establish that there are radically different types of logic based on incommensurable views of negation. (9) Place of the bide finite in Logic lays down the thesis that the indefinite is not merely a subjective entity and that logic should find a place for the absolute indefinite.
(10) In Definition of Relation as a Category of Existence, an attempt has been made to formulate a definition of ‘relation’ in purely objective terms as against the subjectivistic interpretation of Green and others. In (II) Objective Interpretation of the Percept and Image, an attempt has been made to translate the subjective terms ‘perceived’ and ‘un-perceived’ into objective terms. (12) In Reality of the Future the author develops the thesis that the reality of the future expected on a known ground cannot be said to be an object of knowledge and that the future is real only to will and to faith. (13) The Concept of Value gives an analysis of the concept of value in its different forms, and establishes the position that value is absolute and that speak ability of value as information is a necessary illusion. (l4) The Studies in Kant gives us a speculative interpretation of a number of Kantian themes. As with the other constructive interpretations contained in Vol. I, we have here also quite a large number of improvisations.
In the Introduction to this volume, the Editor has made an attempt to analyse the major philosophical doctrines of Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya. The analysis has been done, as far as possible, in the author’s own words. This is for two reasons: first, the Editor was not sure that he had got at the exact logic of Krishnachandra’s writings in a large number of places; secondly, and this is to some extent connected with the first, he felt that his own language was far less effective and elegant than that of the author, even when the latter’s manner of presentation was quite thoroughly severe.
The Editor regrets that he has not been able to capture the inspiration or the insight that saturates almost all the writings of his father. It is because of this that he has all along felt that it was presumptuousness on his part to have undertaken this editorial work.
The Editor feels that he would be failing in gratitude if he did not emphasis that all the credit for this publication belongs to his friend, Sri Sushil Kumar Basu of Progressive Publishers. The under- taking would never have been completed but for his unfailing generosity, constant encouragement and spirit of dedication.
Contents
Volume I
Preface to the Second Edition
v
Abbreviations
xvi
Editor’s Introduction to vols. I & II
xvii
1. Studies in Vedantism
Introduction
1
Analysis
7
Text: Ch. I. An Approach Through Psychology
11
Ch. II. Vedantic Metaphysics
31
Ch. III. Vedantic Logic
69
2. Sankara’s Doctrine of Maya
Analysis
93
Text
95
3. The Advaita and Its Spiritual Significance
Analysis
109
Text
113
4. Studies in Sankhya Philosophy
Preface
127
Analysis
129
Text: Ch. I. Pain as Evil
135
Ch. II. Reflection as a Spiritual Function
143
Ch. III. The Body of the Self
151
Ch. IV. Causal and Non-Causal Manifestation
158
Ch. V. Time, Space and Causality
165
Ch. VI. The Objective Tattvas
173
Ch. VII. The Objective Tattvas (Contd.)
181
Ch. VIII. The Self or Purusa
190
Ch. IX. Prakrti
198
Ch. X. Relation of the Gunas
207
5. Studies in Yoga Philosophy
Analysis
215
Text: Ch. I. Sankhya and Yoga
221
Ch. II. ,, ,, (Contd.)
231
Ch. III. ,, ,, (Contd.)
240
Ch. IV. Buddhi-Vrtti
251
Ch. V. ,, ,, (Contd.)
262
Ch. VI. Five Levels of Buddhi
273
Ch. VII. The Nature of Yoga
283
Ch. III. The Kinds of Yoga
293
Ch. IX. The Procedure of Yoga
305
Ch. X. The Notion of Isvara
317
6. The Jaina Theory of Anekanta
Analysis
329
Text
331
7. The Concept of Rasa
Analysis
347
Text
349
Vol. II
1. The Subject as Freedom
Analysis
367
Text: Ch. I. The Notion of Subjectivity
381
Ch. II. Psychic Fact
396
Ch. III. Bodily Subjectivity (The Body as Perceived and Felt)
412
Ch. IV. Bodily Subjectivity (Contd.) (Knowledge of Absence as a Present Fat)
417
Ch. V. Psychic Subjectivity (The Image)
424
Ch. VI. Psychic Subjectivity (Contd.) (Thought)
431
Ch. VII. Spiritual Subjectivity (Contd.) (Feeling)
435
Ch. VIII. Spiritual Subjectivity (Contd.) (Introspection)
442
Ch. IX. Spiritual Subjectivity (Contd.) (Beyond Introspection)
446
Ch. X. The Subject as Freedom
450
2. The Concept of Philosophy
Analysis
457
Text
462
3. The Concept of the Absolute and its alternative forms
Analysis
483
Text
447
4. Knowledge and Truth
Analysis
509
Text
513
5. Fact and Thought of Fact
Analysis
529
Text
531
6. Correction of Error as a logical process
Analysis
543
Text
545
7. The false and the subjective
Analysis
55
Text
557
8. Some Aspects of Negation
Analysis
567
Text
569
9. Place of the Indefinite in Logic
Analysis
583
Text
587
10. The Definition of relation as a category of existence
Brahman: Absolute Consciousness in Advait (Non Dual) Vedanta Philosophy
Key Terms
Brahman
Maya
Witness Consciousness
Non-dual (Advait) Vedanta Philosophy
Philosophy
Vedic Philosophy
Subject Object
Subject Subject
Subject Meta-Subject
Absolute Consciousness
Phenomenal Consciousness
Turiya
Awareness
Adi Shankara
Sakshi
Akash and Prakash
Mayavad
Truth, Value and Freedom
Source: “Contemporary Interpretations of Shankara’s Advaita and the Affirmation of the World.”
Bhattacharyya’s most remarkable idea is his notion of the Absolute as alternation. Instead of the Hegelian absolutization of the Absolute, he chose the dialectics of alternation both at transcendental and empirical levels of reality. The triple functions of consciousness in relation to its contents are: knowing, feeling, and willing. Each of them has its own formulation of the Absolute, namely truth, value, and freedom respectively. When cognition is given importance, the Absolute is viewed as truth; when emotion (devotion) is given importance, it is viewed as value; and when volition is given importance, it is viewed as freedom. These conceptions of the Absolute cannot be unified into one, because each is Absolute in turn.7 For Bhattacharyya, this alternation is not just our symbolic speakingabout the one Absolute in three distinct ways, but the very constitution (dynamics) of the Absolute.8
Source: “Contemporary Interpretations of Shankara’s Advaita and the Affirmation of the World.”
The idealist view of life and reality, which Radhakrishnan calls religion of the spirit, perceives the universe as ultimately spiritual. Brahman (Atman/ the Spirit) being the ultimate truth and the universe its self-manifestation, the spirit is our deepest self.
Radhakrishnan wanted all historical religions to transform themselves into the religion of the spirit, a spiritual vision that transforms the world and ensures human unity, universal moral order, and world peace.
Radhakrishnan tried to work out a positive account of the world by interfacing three concepts – Brahman (the Absolute), Ishvara (God), and the world. Brahman considered in its self-identity as pure consciousness is beyond all distinctions, qualifications, and descriptions. This one, absolute being, however, manifests itself as the world. The world is just one possibility of Brahman’s self-manifestation; other possibilities we may not know.
Brahman in its relation to the world is Ishvara (God). Ishvara is Brahman’s creative aspect, conceived as creator, redeemer, and judge. Immanent in the world, Ishvara guides and transforms it. Ishvara lasts as long as the world-process lasts. Although the transformation of the world is God’s action, it is essentially linked with human transformation. Despite limitations, human evolution and progress is teleological and moves toward a greater good.10 Human calling is to co-operate with the divine plan for the world’s transformation.
Typical of an Advaitin, Radhakrishnan held that our deepest self (atman) is identical to the transcendental Self (Atman) and is above transmigration. What is subject to transmigration is jiva, the empirical self. The world-process lasts until all jivas are liberated.11 When all jivas are liberated, the world will be transformed into Brahma-loka (the kingdom of God). The world and all jivas become one with God and God will be all in all. And finally the Brahma-loka, along with Ishvara, will lapse into Brahman. Thus Brahman remains the beginning and the end of the world. If and when another world-process begins is left to the freedom of Brahman.
“Contemporary Interpretations of Shankara’s Advaita and the Affirmation of the World.”
Source: “Contemporary Interpretations of Shankara’s Advaita and the Affirmation of the World.”
Source: “Contemporary Interpretations of Shankara’s Advaita and the Affirmation of the World.”
Source: “Contemporary Interpretations of Shankara’s Advaita and the Affirmation of the World.”
Source: “Contemporary Interpretations of Shankara’s Advaita and the Affirmation of the World.”
Source: “Contemporary Interpretations of Shankara’s Advaita and the Affirmation of the World.”
Source: “Contemporary Interpretations of Shankara’s Advaita and the Affirmation of the World.”
Source: “Contemporary Interpretations of Shankara’s Advaita and the Affirmation of the World.”
Source: “Contemporary Interpretations of Shankara’s Advaita and the Affirmation of the World.”
Advaita and the philosophy of consciousness without an object
Source: Advaita and the philosophy of consciousness without an object
Source: Advaita and the philosophy of consciousness without an object
Source: Advaita and the philosophy of consciousness without an object
Source: Advaita and the philosophy of consciousness without an object
Source: Advaita and the philosophy of consciousness without an object
Source: Advaita and the philosophy of consciousness without an object
Source: Advaita and the philosophy of consciousness without an object
Source: Advaita and the philosophy of consciousness without an object
Source: Advaita and the philosophy of consciousness without an object
Source: Advaita and the philosophy of consciousness without an object
Source: Advaita and the philosophy of consciousness without an object
My Related Posts
You can search for these posts using Search Posts feature in the right sidebar.
Transcendental Self in Kant and Shankara
Ether in Kant and Akasa in Prasastapada: Philosophy in comparative perspective
God, Space and Nature
Purush – The Cosmic Man
The Transcendental Self
Ervin Laszlo and the Akashic Field
Five Types of Systems Philosophy
Hua Yan Buddhism : Reflecting Mirrors of Reality
Indira’s Pearls: Apollonian Gasket, Circle and Sphere Packing
Process Physics, Process Philosophy
Networks and Boundaries
Networks and Hierarchies
Myth of Invariance: Sound, Music, and Recurrent Events and Structures
Sounds True: Speech, Language, and Communication
Consciousness of Cosmos: A Fractal, Recursive, Holographic Universe
Fractal and Multifractal Structures in Cosmology
Cantor Sets, Sierpinski Carpets, Menger Sponges
Fractal Geometry and Hindu Temple Architecture
Rituals | Recursion | Mantras | Meaning : Language and Recursion
From Systems to Complex Systems
Hierarchy Theory in Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Theories of the Self
Theories of Consciousness
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Self and Other: Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity
A Calculus for Self Reference, Autopoiesis, and Indications
Individual Self, Relational Self, and Collective Self
Semiotic Self and Dialogic Self
Drama Therapy: Self in Performance
Narrative Psychology: Language, Meaning, and Self
Mind, Consciousness, and Quantum Entanglement
Geometry of Consciousness
The Harmonic Origins of the World
From Individual to Collective Intentionality
Lifeworld, System, and Intersubjectivity: Jurgen Habermas’ Communication Theory of Society
Intersubjectivity in Buddhism
Meditations on Emptiness and Fullness
Charles Sanders Peirce’s Continuum
What and Why of Virtue Ethics ?
The Aesthetics of Charles Sanders Peirce
Individual, Relational, and Collective Reflexivity
Semiotics and Systems
Dialogs and Dialectics
Phenomenological Sociology
Phenomenology and Symbolic Interactionism
Aesthetics and Ethics
Maha Vakyas: Great Aphorisms in Vedanta
On Synchronicity
Truth, Beauty, and Goodness
Indra’s Net: On Interconnectedness
On Holons and Holarchy
Levels of Human Psychological Development in Integral Spiral Dynamics
The Great Chain of Being
Cyber-Semiotics: Why Information is not enough
Integral Philosophy of the Rg Veda: Four Dimensional Man
Systems View of Life: A Synthesis by Fritjof Capra
Society as Communication: Social Systems Theory of Niklas Luhmann
Truth, Beauty, and Goodness: Integral Theory of Ken Wilber
Key Sources of Research
“Mind/Consciousness Dualism in Sā̇ṅkhya-Yoga Philosophy.”
“Contemporary Interpretations of Shankara’s Advaita and the Affirmation of the World.”
Kaipayil, Joseph.
In Reason: Faithful and True (Essays in Honour of George Karuvelil), edited by Thomas Karimundackal and Dolichan Kollareth, 293-302. Pune: Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 2020.
1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA;
2Laboratory for Information Design and Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA †Vaibhav Tripathi, http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7520-4188 *Correspondence address. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, 64, Cummington Mall, Rm 149, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Tel: +1 857-253-8491; E-mail: vaibhavt@bu.edu
Subjects: Asian Religion And Philosophy Series: SUNY series in Religious Studies Paperback : 9780791412824, 285 pages, December 1992 Hardcover : 9780791412817, 285 pages, January 1993
Henry More; Isaac Newton; Spirit of Nature; aether; pneuma; gravitation
Ralph Cudworth, Henry More, John Smith and George Rust
Francis Glisson
Baruch de Spinoza
Hylozoism
Descartes
Cartesian Dualism
Spinozist Monism
Consciousness
Vedic Philosophy
Advait Vedanta Philosophy
Sankara’s Vedanta
Trika Philosophy
Ralph Abraham
Sisir Roy
Christian Hengstermann
Jonathan Duquette
Paul Schweizer
Prof. K. Ramasubramanian
God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
Source: God, space and the Spirit of Nature: Morean trialism revisited
God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Source: God or Space and Nature? Henry More’s Panentheism of Space and Panpsychism of Life and Nature
Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Source: Is Space Created? Reflections on Sankara’s Philosophy and Philosophy of Physics (Philosophy East and West, 2010)
Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Source: Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Source: Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Source: Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Source: Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Source: Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Source: Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Source: Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Source: Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Source: Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Source: Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Source: Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Source: Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Source: Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Source: Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
My Related Posts
You can search for these using Search Posts feature in right sidebar.
Purush – The Cosmic Man
The Transcendental Self
Ervin Laszlo and the Akashic Field
Five Types of Systems Philosophy
Meditations on Emptiness and Fullness
Charles Sanders Peirce’s Continuum
Hua Yan Buddhism : Reflecting Mirrors of Reality
Indira’s Net: On Interconnectedness
Indira’s Pearls: Apollonian Gasket, Circle and Sphere Packing
Space in relation to God or Absolute in the Thought of Henry More and Śaṅkara: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy (Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2013)
‘9 Newton’s Ontology of Omnipresence and Infinite Space’,
Mcguire, J. E., and Edward Slowik,
in Daniel Garber, and Donald Rutherford (eds), Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy Volume VI, Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy (Oxford, 2012; online edn, Oxford Academic, 24 Jan. 2013), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659593.003.0009, accessed 22 Mar. 2024
This chapter explores the first British account of absolute time or duration, developed in the mid-seventeenth century by the Cambridge Platonist Henry More. It explores the evolution of More’s views on time; the relationship More perceives between time, duration, and God; and the motivations underlying More’s views. It argues that, as More’s views developed across the course of his career, an asymmetry emerged in his mature work with regard to divine presence: God is extendedly present in space, yet holenmerically present in time. The chapter concludes with a note on the influence More may have wielded over later British thinkers.
‘Newton’s De Gravitatione on God and his Emanative Effects’,
Isaac Newton’s space and time absolutism is infamous, and would prove hugely influential. This chapter explores Newton’s early manuscript De Gravitatione, and asks two questions of it. First, what are time and space? In answer, it builds on John Carriero’s 1990 ‘Causation’ reading, arguing that Newton was drawing on Henry More’s account of emanative causation. It goes on to read Newton as holding that time and space are real but not really distinct from God, and they should be understood as incorporeal dimensions. Second, how is God present in time and space? It answers that Newton’s God is holenmeric, not extended.
Henry More had an odd idea. Thinking about space, he realized it was invisible, for we see things in space but not space itself. It’s also immaterial, for matter exists in space but space is not itself material–try to grab it and it slips through your fingers. Space was also infinite and transcendent yet nonetheless omnipresent, for we cannot go anywhere except in and through space. But this was exactly how More saw God; God is invisible, immaterial, infinite, and transcendent, yet also omnipresent above, beyond, and within us. If God was somehow linked to space, he could be truly present while remaining immaterial, upholding the creator-creature distinction. He’d be near to us but would not be identical with us, just as space is distinct from the objects occupying it while remaining intimately close to those objects. What if space was, in some sense, divine? Odder still, Newton soon erected his new physics upon More’s idea. Indeed, there’s real evidence that the modern scientific world was unwittingly grounded upon this theistic metaphysic. Of course, modern physics shed these underpinnings in the nineteenth century, and was itself relativized by Einstein in the twentieth. Yet this book seeks to reappraise More’s odd idea. Is divine space theologically orthodox? Can it provide a new argument for the existence of God? And does it have any philosophical merit for us post-Einstein–a Space God for a Space Age?
Boundaries, Extents and Circulations: An Introduction to Spatiality and the Early Modern Concept of Space.
Jonathan Regier, Koen Vermeir.
Vermeir, Koen and Regier, Jonathan. Boundaries, Extents and Circulations. Space and Spatiality in Early Modern Natural Philosophy,
Abstract: The paper presents the notion of “Spirit of Nature” in Henry More and describes its position within More’s philosophical system. Through a thorough analysis, it tries to show in what respects it can be considered a scientific object (especially taking into account the goals of More’s natural philosophy) and in what respects it cannot. In the second part of this paper, More’s “Spirit of Nature” is compared to Newton’s various attempts at presenting a metaphysical cause of the force of gravity, using the similarities between the two to see this notorious problem of Newton scholarship in a new light. One thus sees that if Newton drew from Stoic and Neo-Platonic theories of aether or soul of the world, we need to fully acknowledge the fact that these substances were traditionally of a non-dualistic, half-corporeal, half-spiritual nature. Both More’s “Spirit of Nature” and Newton’s aether can thus be understood as different attempts at incorporating such a pneumatic theory into the framework of modern physics, as it was then being formed.
Henry More on Space and the Divine
JD Lyonhart
MonoThreeism
An Absurdly Arrogant Attempt to Answer All the Problems of the Last 2000 Years in One Night at a Pub
Absolute Space and the Structure of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta Philosophy
Paul Schweizer Institute for Language, Cognition and Computation School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
paul@inf.ed.ac.uk
Published in Kumar Sarma, S. (ed.), Dynamics of Culture, pp. 32-46. New Delhi: Param Mitra Prakashan (2016). ISBN 818597070-X.
Abstract: The paper examines the analysis of the fundamental structure of consciousness as developed in Śaṅkara’s Advaita Vedānta philosophy, and compares this highly influential Indian view with a predominant analysis in the Western tradition, viz., the Phenomenological theory of consciousness developed by Brentano and Husserl. According to the Phenomenological account, all mental states are intentional, and hence consciousness must always be directed towardsome object. In sharp contrast, Śaṅkara holds pure, undirected consciousness to be fundamental, while consciousness of a particular object is a secondary mode. In expositing the contrast between these two accounts, I draw on deep structural parallels that characterize the Newtonian versus Leibnizean theories of physical space. Śaṅkara’s notion of pure consciousness is highly analogous to the classical Newtonian conception of absolute space, and this conception provides a powerful and illuminating model of the Indian view. In contrast, Husserl’s notion of intentional consciousness closely parallels the Leibnizean relational account of physical space.