Kalidas Bhattacharyya
Alternative Standpoint in Philosophy
This is one of the most seminal works of Kalidas Bhattacharyya. Bhattacharyya speaks of the constant need that philosophers have felt to justify their work and their discipline. Bhattacharyya thinks that the modern defense of Philosophy is only possible through what he calls logic of alternation. Bhattacharyya’s position is that we can provide Philosophy with such a defense only by attempting a novel understanding of the knowledge-object unity. Bhattacharyya claims that this attempt is ingrained in the very being of all the important Indian systems of thought. This book is both a historical and comparative study of the basis of all Philosophy. The book has four chapters. Chapter One is on “Knowledge of Object” where the close unity of knowledge and its object is emphasized. In this connection, Bhattacharyya discusses subjective and objective attitudes and also the contradiction between subjectivity and object. Chapter Two is on “Types of Philosophy”. In this chapter, Bhattacharyya tries to show that the Unity of Knowledge and Object is Unrejectable and their unity is inevitable. Those who reject the knowledge-object unity do so because they think that such a unity would definitely lead to some kind of contradiction. But Bhattacharyya would like to show that this contradiction too is not rejectable. Actually, the Unity that he speaks of is a Disjunctive Unity. This disjunctive unity actually indicates that we have to stand alternatively on the subjective and the objective attitudes and reach a kind of dialectical unity. He then goes on to speak of the subject-object and the absolute as alternatives. In Chapter Three, “Cognition Feeling and Conation” Bhattacharyya takes up these three notions which seem to be opposed to each other. The first three chapters are analyses of these notions while the last section sees Cognition, Feeling and Conation as Alternatives. In Chapter Four Bhattacharyya considers “Further Alternatives” such as Jñāna Bhakti and Karma. He speaks of the three kinds of infinity in this chapter. The book ends with the idea of the Ultimate Alternation.
Gopinath Kaviraj’s Thoughts – Towards a Systematic Study
This book by Kalidas Bhattacharyya is a collection of Mahamahopadhyay Gopinath Kaviraj Memorial lectures delivered by Kalidas Bhattacharyya in the year 1980. Bhattacharya here explores the works of Gopinath Kaviraj written in the later years of his life. Kaviraj was an extraordinary scholar who was well-versed in both the philosophical and religious literature of India as well as the west. Above all, he was a sādhana. He was principally a Śaiva, particularly of the monistic kind, However, as Bhattacharyya claims, this Śaiva doctrine received certain innovative twists in the hands of Kaviraj and became a kind of Śaiva Dualism. Kaviraj was equally interested in Tantra, Yoga, Mahāyāna Buddhism, Gauḍiya Vaiṣnavism and also Śankara’s Advaita Vedānta. In this book, Kalidas Bhattacharyya explores the notion of Transcendence and the justification of this notion that we find in the works of Gopinath Kaviraj. He discusses the different regions of Transcendence and finally goes on to discuss the idea of Pūrṇatā or Ultimate Perfection as developed by Kaviraj.
Kalidas Bhattacharya Racanasangraha (কালিদাস ভট্টাচার্য রচনাসংগ্রহ)
This is a collection of essays written by Kalidas Bhattacharyya and edited by Santwana Majumdar. In some of the essays, the author offers his explanation of the nature of man and his duty. There are essays that analyse the philosophies of some contemporary Indian thinkers. The book ends with presenting his views on the status of educational institutions in India.
Object Content and Relation
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 Objects and Consciousness via 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 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
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