philosophy
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.
Classical Indian Philosophies: Their Synthesis in The Philosophy of Sri Ramakrishna
In this book, Satischandra Chatterjee, presents the salient views of different classical Indian philosophical systems and shows how these divergent views could be synthesized in the philosophy of Ramakrishna. The book contains ten chapters: 1. Introduction, 2. The Cārvāka Philosophy, 3. The Bauddha Philosophy, 4. The Jaina Philosophy, 5. The Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika Philosophy, 6. The Sāṃkhya-Yoga Philosophy, 7. The Mīmāṃsā Philosophy, 8. The Vedānta Philosophy, 9. The Synthesis of the Systems and 10. The Philosophy of Ramakrishna. The author argues how on the basis of the idea of adhikāri-veda the divergent views of the different philosophical systems could be synthesised and the author takes cues from the ideas advocated by Sri Ramakrishna in this attempt.
Cultural Otherness and Beyond
Cultural Otherness and Beyond is a collection of essays on philosophy of culture. This volume is edited by Chhanda Gupta and D.P.Chattopadhyaya. There are eleven essays in this volume, all dealing with the very idea of culture and nature of understanding a culture. This brings in the idea of exchange among different cultures where the concept of other plays an important role.
Facts of Buddhist Thought
The present book comprises three chapters: 1. Pratītyasamutpāda in Buddhist philosophy, 2. The Mādhyamika and the philosophy of language and 3. Idealism and Absolutism - A Buddhist synthesis. In the first chapter A.K.Chatterjee, the author, traces the theory of pratītyasamutpāda from the Abhidharmika stage through Mādhyamika and Yogācāra interpretations. In the second chapter, the author defends the Mādhyamika position in terms of metalanguage and object-language distinction. The third chapter takes up the issue of Yogācāra idealism in terms of sahopalambha-niyama and shows how idealism culminates in Absolutism.
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
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 Problems of Philosophy
The present book is an introduction to the main issues dealt with in Western philosophy. This book is divided into eleven chapters: 1. The concept of philosophy, 2. Philosophy, science and religion, 3. The methods of philosophy, 4. The nature of knowledge, 5. The relation of knowledge to object, 6. Objects of knowledge as constructions, 7. Sense-data and the perception of objects, 8. The nature and tests of truth and error, 9. The theory of external relations, 10. The theory of Internal Relations, 11. The nature of universals, and 12. thought and reality.
The Vyakti-Viveka (Part-1) व्यक्ति-विवेक:
This book, written by Mahima Bhaṭṭa, has been explained in Bengali by Bishnupada Bhattacharya. In this book, the author criticizes the Dhvani theory propounded by Ānandavardhan. Mahima Bhaṭṭa, like fellow Kashmir thinkers, was influenced by the philosophy of Pratyabhijñā. Mahima Bhaṭṭa was also well acquainted with the works of Diṅnāga and Dharmakīrti. The central contention of Mahima Bhaṭṭa, which has been explained in this book, is that Dhvani theory and vyāñjanā relation could be included in inferential knowledge. Mahima Bhaṭṭa argues that words have only the power of meaning and nothing else is required to account for the denotative power.
