Philosophers of Modern India
Phenomenology and Indian Philosophy
Phenomenology and Indian Philosophy is a collection of essays edited by D.P.Chattopadhyaya, Lester Embree and J.N.Mohanty. There are twenty-six essays in this volume and all the essays deal with several aspects of phenomenological philosophy and study these insights from the perspective of classical Indian philosophical standpoint. The last essay in this volume, authored by D.P.Chattopadhyaya, contains a philosophical evaluation of the salient points that emerge from the essays in the collection.
Phenomenology: East and West (Essays in Honor of J.N.Mohanty)
Phenomenology: East and West is a collection of essays on the philosophy of J.N.Mohanty. This book is edited by Frank M.Kirkland and D.P.Chattopadhyaya. All the essays deal with various aspects of Mohanty’s philosophical views ranging from his exploration of theory of meaning to articulating the possibility of transcendental philosophy.
Philosophical Foundation of Bengal Vaisnavism
In this book, written by Sudhir Chandra Chakrabarti, one finds a detailed exploration of the philosophical ideas as found in the Vaiṣṇava philosophical school of Bengal. The philosophy of achintyabhedābheda has been explained. The nature of bhakti as the means of attaining the ultimate goal of human life viz. Love for God has been elucidated. The aesthetic significance of the conception of Krṣṇa as the embodiment of all rāsas have been presented. The fifteen chapters in the book are 1. The attitude towards epistemology, 2. The psychological basis of knowledge and the nature of the error, 3. A synoptic view of Bengal Vaiṣṇavism, 4. Jīva Goswamin’s conception of Bhagavat, 5. The Bhagavat as the Ground of Jīva-śakti and Māya-śakti, 6. The doctrine of Causation in Bengal Vaiṣṇavism, 7. Kriṣṇa and His incarnations, 8. Bhakti, the means of God-Realisation, 9. The supreme realisation, 10. Bengal Vaiṣṇavism and Kierkegaard’s Existentialism, 11. The Place of Ethics in Bengal Vaiṣṇavism, 12. Acintya-Bhedābheda, 13. Rāsa (Relish), 14. Christianity and Bengal Vaiṣṇavism, 15. Conclusion.
Philosophy and Religion
The present book is a collection of essays written by J.L.Mehta. The essays are attempts to understand and interpret various aspects of classical Indian philosophical, religious and cultural ethos. Being inspired by Heideggerian hermeneutics, the author tries to disclose the hidden ideas present in different ancient Indian philosophical-religious ideas. All these essays interpret the historicity of some salient ideas and bring out their significance to the modern reader.
Philosophy of Science Phenomenology and the Other Essays
Philosophy of Science, Phenomenology and Other Essays is a collection of essays written by D.P.Chattopadhyaya. There are twenty-one essays in this volume. All the essays harp on several questions related to philosophy of science. The essays are divided into six sections: 1. Science and Consciousness, 2. Aspects of Knowledge, 3. Phenomenology of Knowledge and Freedom, 4. On Being and Becoming, 5. Causation and Freedom of Action and 6. Some ideas of Sri Aurobindo.
Philosophy, Logic and Language
This book by Kalidas Bhattacharyya is a collection of essays on different topics. However, the first seven essays and the eleventh one do have a thematic unity. They are in one way or another linked to the questions regarding the nature and method of philosophy – a theme that we find often in the writings of Kalidas Bhattacharyya. Essays 1 to 5 and essay 6 are directly concerned with the role of language and logic in philosophical reflections. He touches upon Logical Positivism and Analytical Philosophy in this regard.
The other key issue that Bhattacharyya considers here is the nature of Self. In particular, Bhattacharyya has been keen on exploring the nature of the self we refer to by the pronoun “I” and its relation to the other selves.
The concept of God also finds its place in two of his essays here. Bhattacharyya also discusses the problem of freedom in almost all the essays, in particular the ones on self. One interesting yet rather divergent topic that is discussed by Bhattacharyya is the idea of the Given and its Appearance. Two essays are on specific philosophers – one on Rabindranath Tagore and another on Basanta Kumar Mallik.
The Essays are:
- Is Philosophy Linguistic Analysis
- The Business of Philosophy
- Language, Logic and Fact
- Objective Attitude and Idealism Proper
- Thought and its Validity
- The Given and its Appearance
- The Nature of Reflection in Metaphysics
- Modern Psychology and Hindu Thought
- Self and Others
- The Concept of Self in Buddhism
- Formal and Actual Freedom
- Approaches to Spiritual Life
- Studies in Ethical Theory
- A Modern Defense of Orthodoxy
- Rabindranath on Religion
- An Aspect of Mallik’s Philosophy
- Classical Philosophies of India and the West
- An Outline of Indian Philosophy
Pracin Bharater Dandaniti (প্রাচীন ভারতের দণ্ডনীতি)
The present book is a detailed exposition of the Science of Statecraft in classical India. There are ten chapters in the book. Some of the chapters deal with the Science of Statecraft as found in the two epics viz. Rāmāyṇa and Mahābhārata. Some chapters are devoted to the discussion of Statecraft as found in classical Sanskrit Literature.
Radhakrishnan (Centenary Volume)
Radhakrishnan: Centenary Volume is edited by G. Parthasarathi and D.P.Chattopadhyaya. This book was published as part of a programme undertaken by the Government of India to pay respect to Radhakrishnan on his birth centenary. The book is divided into two parts: 1. The Philosopher and Religion and Spirit and 2. The Universalist and the World Statesman. The first part contains essays on Radhakrishnan’s understanding of Vedānta, Buddhism and religion in general. In the second part, all the essays deal with the role of Radhakrishnan as a statesman.
Rashvihary Das on Advaitism
This book has two parts. In the first part, Das elucidates the main arguments offered by Suresvara in his Naiskarmasiddhi. Suresvara, being a direct disciple of Saṅkara, is one of the most authentic representatives of Advaitism. This leads Das to explain the main arguments of Suresvara, which actually would present the main contentions of the Advaita position. In the second part, Das offers his understanding of avidyā, one of the central themes of Advaita philosophy.
Realism: Responses and Reactions
Realism: Responses and Reactions is a collection of essays, edited by D.P.Chattopadhyaya, Sandhya Basu, Madhabendra Nath Mitra and Ranjan Mukhopadhyay, in memory of Pranab Kumar Sen. The articles in this collection deal with the philosophical questions that Pranab Kumar Sen has discussed in his various papers.
Related Multiplicity
In this book, written by B.K.Mallik, one finds a presentation of the metaphysics of History as developed by the author. This book is divided into three parts: 1. Prologue and 2. Evidence and 3. Reviews. In the first part, the author locates his views from a historical perspective. In the second part, the author presents his interpretation of history citing evidence in his support. In the last part, the author responds to some reviews that were published in some journals where the author’s views on the idea of Negative have been criticised on several grounds.
Religion Philosophy and Science: A Sketch of a Global View
Religion, Philosophy and Science are a discourse on the history and interactions of different civilizations across the time. D.P.Chattopadhyaya, the author of this book, explores how different civilizations came in contact with each other resulting in the spread of science taking different forms in different places. Chattopadhyaya also constructs a philosophy of dialogue that emerges from this civilizational exchange.
Rupa, Rasa o Sundar: Nandantattver Bhumika
Rupa, Rasa and Sundar is a Bengali book written by D.P.Chattopadhyaya. In this work, the author presents his news on three major aspects of aesthetic appreciation, viz. rupa, rasa and Sundar. There are eight chapters that deal with various aspects of aesthetic understanding. This book is an introduction to Aesthetics as D.P.Chattopadhyaya understands it.
Search for the Absolute in Neo-Vedanta
This book by the legendary K.C. Bhattacharyya is a collection of three essays which belong to three distinct phases of the development of KCB’s philosophical thought. In these phases he defines the Absolute as Indefinite, then the Absolute as Subject, and then the Absolute as Alternation. The essays are
- The Place of the Indefinite in Logic
- The Subject as Freedom
- The Concept of the Absolute and its Alternative Forms
Societies and Cultures
Societies and Cultures is a collection of eight essays dealing with several aspects of man’s existence and his place in society. D.P.Chattopadhyaya, in this book, explores the various dimensions of man and his evaluation of the society that he lives in. The chapters in the book throw light on the issues that are central to the philosophy of history like the objectivity of history, the paradox of violence, the relation between ethics and religion etc.
Sri Aurobindo and Karl Marx (Integral Sociology and Dialectical Sociology)
Sri Aurobindo and Karl Marx: Integral Sociology and Dialectical Sociology is a revised edition of D.P.Chattopadhyaya’s earlier book titled History, Society and Polity. In this book, the author adds a postscript consisting of three new chapters. This book reflects Chattopadhyaya’s more developed understanding of Aurobindo and Marx.
The Art of the Conceptual
This is a collection of essays on different aspects of philosophy, written by Daya Krishna. The essays are divided into three sections: 1. Logic and Epistemology, 2. Moral Philosophy and 3. Social, Political and Economic Philosophy. These essays give an overview of Daya Krishna’s philosophical insights into some of the salient questions in philosophy in general.
The Chief Currents of Contemporary Philosophy
The present book, authored by D.M.Datta, is an exhaustive analysis of the main trends in the philosophical world as found in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The book is divided into thirteen chapters: 1. Neo-Hegelian Idealism, 2. Italian Idealism, 3. Indian Idealism, 4. Pragmatism, 5.The Philosophy of Bergson, 6. Realism, 7. The Philosophy of Sense-Data, 8. Emergent Evolution, 9. Whitehead’s Philosophy of Organism, 10. Logical Positivism and Analysis, 11. The Philosophical Aspects of Marxism, 12. Existentialism, 13. Japanese Philosophy of Zen and Mu (Nothingness). In the Appendix, the author presents the views of some modern Indian philosophers like Rabindranath Tagore and M.K.Gandhi. Thus the book presents the salient theses of some of the philosophical schools of Europe, America, India and Japan.
The Concept of Philosophy
The present book, written by Nikunja Vihari Banerjee, is an attempt to formulate the very idea of philosophy mainly banking on the philosophy of K.C.Bhattacharyya. The book is divided into six chapters: 1. Introduction, 2. Philosophy and Science, 3. The Epistemological Background, 4. Empirical Thought and Philosophical Thought, 5. What then is Philosophy? and 6. Conclusion. The author presents K.C.Bhattacharya’s idea of philosophy as distinct from science and elaborates on the concept of philosophy as an independent spiritual activity.
The Fundamentals of Religion
The present book, written by Nalinikanta Brahma, undertakes a detailed study of the essence of all religions. The author classifies all the religions under three groups: 1. Impersonal, 2. Personal and 3. Supra-Personal. The doctrines and beliefs of all the great regions have been presented in terms of this classification. The author makes a critical assessment of the objections to religion as advanced by Russell, Freud and Marx. The author defends what he calls “ Supre-Personal Religion”. The book ends with an analysis of the possibility of a universal religion.
The Nyāya Theory of Knowledge
The present book is a detailed exposition of Nyāya epistemology. The book contains twenty chapters: 1. Introduction, 2. The nature and forms of knowledge, 3. Valid knowledge and its method, 4. The factors of valid knowledge, 5. The test of truth and error, 6. The definition of perception, 7. The psychology of perception, 8. Ordinary perception and its objects, 9. Three modes of ordinary perception, 10. Extraordinary perception, 11. The nature of inference, 12. The grounds of inference, 13. Classification and Logical forms of inference, 14. The fallacies of inference, 15. The nature and forms of upamāna, 16. Upamāna as an independent source of knowledge, 17. The nature and classification of śabda, 18. Of words, 19, Of sentences, 20. Other sources of knowledge. This book thus offers an analysis of the different pramāṇas accepted by Nyāya.
The Philosophy of Kalidas Bhattacharyya
This book on the Philosophy of Kalidas Bhattacharyya was edited by Daya Krishna with the assistance of A.M. Ghose and P.K. Srivastava. This Volume came out as a part of the Indian Philosophical Quarterly Publication. This can be seen as reflections on the final formulation of Kalidas Bhattacharyya’s entire philosophical position. This is a Festschrift volume in honour of Kalidas Bhattacharyya. The contributors have written on the philosophical works of Bhattacharyya to which he has responded in the end. The volume includes the following essays:
- K.L. Sharma – “A Step Beyond K.C. Bhattacharyya
- Daya Krishna – “Kalidas Bhattacharyya and the Logic of Alternation”
- S. K. Chattopadhyaya – “Alternative Standpoints of Philosophy
- K.K. Bagchi – “Subjective and Objective Attitudes as Alternatives – A Study of Kalidas Bhattacharyya’s View of ‘Knowledge – Object Unity’”
- N.K. Sharma – “Kalidas Bhattacharyya’s Philosophy of Absolute Alternatives”
- R.S. Bhatnagar “Philosophy and Meta-Philosophy – Study of a Fundamental Dichotomy in Kalidas Bhattacharyya’s Thought”
- Yogesh Gupta – “Presuppositions of Science and Philosophy – A Critical Note on the Notion of Metastudy in Kalidas Bhattacharyya’s Philosophy”
- M.K. Bhadra – “Kalidas Bhattacharyya’s View of Freedom and Existentialist Thought”
- R.P. Pandey – “Kalidas Bhattacharyya and the Indian Concept of Man”
- K.J. Shah – “Religion – Sophisticated and Unsophisticated”
- Kalidas Bhattacharyya – My Reflections
The Philosophy of Martin Heidegger
The present book is a detailed exposition of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger written by J.L.Mehta. The book is divided into three parts. The first part offers an introduction to Heidegger’s thought. The second part offers an analysis of the main themes that Heidegger deals with in his Being and Time. In the third part, Mehta situates Heidegger in the context of Western Metaphysical tradition and brings out the philosophical significance of his thoughts.
The Philosophy of Science
The present book, written by Pravas Jivan Chaudhury, contains essays on different aspects of the philosophy of science. The author presents his views on the problem of induction, the nature of scientific explanation, science and normative ethics, the problem of free-will etc. The author presents his analysis of the quantum theory in science and its epistemological significance. In some cases, the author sheds new light on the Indian philosophical perspective.