180127 SE Introduction to Indian philosophy (2023S)
Continuous assessment of course work
Labels
Registration/Deregistration
Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).
- Registration is open from Mo 13.02.2023 09:00 to Su 19.02.2023 23:59
- Registration is open from Th 23.02.2023 09:00 to Mo 27.02.2023 23:59
- Deregistration possible until Fr 31.03.2023 23:59
Details
max. 30 participants
Language: English
Lecturers
Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N
Weekly on Tuesdays, 11:30-13:00
- Tuesday 07.03. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Tuesday 14.03. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Tuesday 21.03. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Tuesday 28.03. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Tuesday 18.04. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Tuesday 25.04. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Tuesday 02.05. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Tuesday 09.05. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Tuesday 16.05. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Tuesday 23.05. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Tuesday 06.06. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Tuesday 13.06. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Tuesday 20.06. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Tuesday 27.06. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
Information
Aims, contents and method of the course
Assessment and permitted materials
All seminar participants must orally present a text that is provided on Moodle for the course. The oral presentations should elaborate the most important ideas of the text for all seminar participants, question them critically and contextualize them historically.
The texts should be recorded orally in advance as audio files and send to the course instructor (arno.boehler@univie.ac.at), who will make them available on Moodle. File name: DATE_NAME_SE_Deliverables:
1) Oral presentation (15 minutes) + written submission of the presentation (approx. 4 pages).
2) An audio recording of this presentation must be emailed to the instructor a few days prior to the presentation of the paper. The audio file is the second part of your seminar performance.
3) The third criterion for evaluation is active participation in the seminar discussions.
With your registration you automatically agree that your written partial performances will be examined by means of Turnitin.
The texts should be recorded orally in advance as audio files and send to the course instructor (arno.boehler@univie.ac.at), who will make them available on Moodle. File name: DATE_NAME_SE_Deliverables:
1) Oral presentation (15 minutes) + written submission of the presentation (approx. 4 pages).
2) An audio recording of this presentation must be emailed to the instructor a few days prior to the presentation of the paper. The audio file is the second part of your seminar performance.
3) The third criterion for evaluation is active participation in the seminar discussions.
With your registration you automatically agree that your written partial performances will be examined by means of Turnitin.
Minimum requirements and assessment criteria
The final grade is composed of: 1) oral presentation + written text (40%), 2) audio file (20%), 3) active participation in the group discussions (40%). Grading scale: 0-50% = unsatisfactory. 51-63 points = sufficient. 64-76 points = satisfactory. 77-89 points = good. 80-100 points = very good. To pass the seminar, > 50% must be achieved. In case of an excused absence (max. 2 per semester) you are asked to inform the course instructor in time.
Examination topics
All seminar participants must orally present a text that is provided on Moodle for the course. The presentations should elaborate the most important ideas of the text for all seminar participants, question them critically and contextualize them historically. The orally presented texts should be sent in advance as audio files to the course instructor (arno.boehler@univie.ac.at), who will make them available on Moodle. File name: DATE_NAME_SE_
Reading list
Basic texts (obligatory literature. PDF’s provided on Moodle, Literature Folder)
• Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1998): The Secret of the Veda, VOLUME 15 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. Pondicherry.
• Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1999): The Synthesis of Yoga, VOLUMES 23 and 24, THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. Pondycherry.
• Skora, Kerry Martin: The Pulsating Heart and Its Divine Sense Energies. Body and Touch in Abhinavagupta's Trika Śaivism, Numen, Vol. 54, No. 4, Religion through the Senses (2007), 420–458. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27643281.Additional texts (recommended)
• Bäumer, Bettina (2016): Die flüssige Natur ästhetischer Erfahrung. Polylog 35, 89–95.
• Böhler, Arno und Loughnane, Adam und Parkes, Graham (2015): „Performing Philosophy in Asian Traditions.“ Performance Philosophy Journal Vol 1, 133–147.
• Muller-Ortega, Paul Eduardo (1989): The Triadic Heart of Siva. State University of New York Press: New York.
• The Aphorisms of Shiva (1992): The SivaSūtra with Bhāskara’s Commentary, the Vārttika Translated with Exposition and Notes by Mark S. G. Dyczkowski. Foreword by Pual E. Muller-Ortega, SUNY Series in Tantric Studies. State University of New York Press: New York.
• The Stanzas on Vibration (1992): Translated with Introduction and Exposition by Mark S. G. Dyczkowski. New York: University Suny Press.
• White, David Gordon (2000): Tantra in Practice: mapping a Tradition. In: ders. (Hg.): Tantra in Practice. Princeton University Press: Princeton / Oxford.
• White, David Gordon (1991): Tantra in Practice. Princeton Readings in Religions. Princeton University Press: Princeton.
• Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1998): The Secret of the Veda, VOLUME 15 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. Pondicherry.
• Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1999): The Synthesis of Yoga, VOLUMES 23 and 24, THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. Pondycherry.
• Skora, Kerry Martin: The Pulsating Heart and Its Divine Sense Energies. Body and Touch in Abhinavagupta's Trika Śaivism, Numen, Vol. 54, No. 4, Religion through the Senses (2007), 420–458. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27643281.Additional texts (recommended)
• Bäumer, Bettina (2016): Die flüssige Natur ästhetischer Erfahrung. Polylog 35, 89–95.
• Böhler, Arno und Loughnane, Adam und Parkes, Graham (2015): „Performing Philosophy in Asian Traditions.“ Performance Philosophy Journal Vol 1, 133–147.
• Muller-Ortega, Paul Eduardo (1989): The Triadic Heart of Siva. State University of New York Press: New York.
• The Aphorisms of Shiva (1992): The SivaSūtra with Bhāskara’s Commentary, the Vārttika Translated with Exposition and Notes by Mark S. G. Dyczkowski. Foreword by Pual E. Muller-Ortega, SUNY Series in Tantric Studies. State University of New York Press: New York.
• The Stanzas on Vibration (1992): Translated with Introduction and Exposition by Mark S. G. Dyczkowski. New York: University Suny Press.
• White, David Gordon (2000): Tantra in Practice: mapping a Tradition. In: ders. (Hg.): Tantra in Practice. Princeton University Press: Princeton / Oxford.
• White, David Gordon (1991): Tantra in Practice. Princeton Readings in Religions. Princeton University Press: Princeton.
Association in the course directory
Last modified: Tu 14.03.2023 11:29
This seminar is about introducing you to essential basic concepts of Indian philosophy from the perspective of three different traditions of Indian philosophy.
In the first seminar units (block 1) we will focus on basic philosophical concepts such as truth & untruth, being & becoming, consciousness & matter from the context of the oldest of all Vedas, the Ṛgveda (ca. 1500 BCE). Central to the understanding of these concepts is the "&" which mediates between binary concepts and whose seat is called to be the "heart" (hṛdaya), since all binary structures converge in the "heart": being & non-being, microcosm & macrocosm, etc. As the "middle-between-two", the heart is said to be the place of a universal synthesis of all conceivable dualities.
In this context the word "heart" primarily does not denote an organ, neither of a human nor of any other organimus, but rather what we can call with Leibniz "monad": Namely the seat of a circle, who's center is our own psychomental awareness and who's environment is nothing less than the world that surrounds the lived-body of our being-in-the-world.
In a second block of seminar units, we will analyze these same concepts from the perspective of Kashmiri Shivaism (flowering 9th-11th CE) in order to give you a sense and concept of how central basic concepts of Indian philosophies have been preserved, but also transformed, over more than ~2,500 years in the history of Indian philosophies.
In a final, third block, we will examine these same basic concepts again from the neo-Vedantic perspective of Sri Aurobindo's "Intergral Yoga" (19th-20th CE). Aurobindo's "Synthesis of Yoga" is particularly suitable for an introduction to Indian philosophy because Aurobindo, raised in England and socialized there in an academically Western way, had to re-appropriate, not to say re-learn, the spiritual traditions of Indian philosophies himself after his return to India. His "Integral Yoga" can therefore not only be read as an explicit re-reading and re-appropriation of classical Indian traditions of philosophy; it also represents a creative resignification of these traditions, in which Aurobindo claims to envisage a spirituality still in the process of unfolding and therefore of be-coming: Namely a spirituality of the future that Aurobindo envisaged and aknowledged to be one of a gnostic heart to come.