142178 KO Colloquium on the philosophies and religions of South Asia for advanced students (2023W)

After the distribution of the initially relevant materials and planning of the individual meetings, we will discuss various issues relevant to two PhD projects and an MA project on the history of Indian philosophy. In the course of the meetings, specific aspects of this project will be discussed in terms of its structure and organization as well as source material and content, and from the theoretical–methodological points of view. Especially, immediately pertinent basic research questions will be addressed. This procedure will include oral presentations, the critical reading of selected passages from the relevant Sanskrit literature and the discussion of secondary literature.
(1) The Beginning of the Vaiśeṣikasūtra(s) (PhD thesis)
In this thesis, the introductory sūtras of the Vaiśeṣikasūtra, the foundational work of classical Vaiśeṣika composed ca. in the first two centuries CE, as well as the introductory portions, including the opening and closing auspicious and praising stanzas, in the extant commentaries on the Vaiśeṣikasūtra ranging from Candrānanda’s commentary (before the 10th c.) and the two commentaries by Bhaṭṭavādīndra (especially the voluminous and little-studied Tarkasāgara) (13th c.) to Śaṅkaramiśra’s Upaskāra (15th c.), are being examined with a view to the conceptualization of the origin of this tradition of philosophy of nature from various angles, such as the identity and name(s) of its traditional author, his legendary background and life-style, his motivation for composing the Sūtra, its purpose and ethical-soteriological relevance, its early transmission, religious aspects and affiliation, etc. This material is being supplemented by the evidence found in other available literature of Vaiśeṣika, such as especially the Padārthadharmasaṃgraha by Praśastapāda (ca. 6th c.) and its medieval commentaries, that is, the Vyomavatī (ca. 9th c.) and the Nyāyakandalī (second half of the 10th c.) (with later sub-commentaries), and by references in the literature of other philosophical traditions and in non-philosophical literature. Furthermore, the elaborated conceptualizations and ideas are being related to the traditional ideas of the origin of selected other philosophical traditions of the classical period. In the colloquium, selected passages still to be determined will be presented, jointly read and discussed.
(2) Conflicting Accounts of Perception in the South Asian Buddhist Epistemological Tradition:
The Case of Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika (PhD thesis)
Among the wide range of issues pertaining to the topic of perception contained in South Asian philosophical literature, one matter discussed in large part between Buddhists and Naiyāyikas as well as Vaiśeṣikas is the relationship between the objects experienced in a perceptual awareness-event and its cause. Both camps of thinkers hold the position that the ultimate constituent factors making up the physical world are indivisible units of matter, atoms. And yet, at the same time, they both argue that atoms themselves cannot be perceived. As a result, they are forced to explain how it can be that perceptual awareness-events reveal apparently large objects like pots, tables, and chairs. In connection with this, there was also a need to explain how these apparently large objects received their colors.

Early discussions that begin to touch on relevant aspects can be found in the *Mahāvibhāṣā, and, more clearly, in Nyāyasūtra 2.1.33-36 and 4.2.4-17. In Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa(bhāṣya), composed ca. near the end of the 4th century CE, one finds a more philosophically mature discussion (3.100ab) indicating that, by this time, both Buddhists and "others" (who Yaśomitra, ca. 7th century CE, identifies as Vaiśeṣikas) were acutely aware of these problems and various solutions thereto. The Naiyāyikas Pakṣilasvāmin Vātsyāyana (ca. 5th century CE) and Uddyotakara (ca. 6th century CE), responding to criticisms of the kind levelled by Vasubandhu, develop further the (ctd.)