Philosophy

1.  The  term  ‘description’  is  used  here  in  order  to  avoid  speaking  of ‘history’,  an  idea  which  has  been  objected  to.  Though  we do  not  consider the  objection  sound,  we prefer  to  avoid  a  futile  controversy  here. 2.  The  aim  we wish  to  propose,  then,  is  to  ‘describe’  or  report,  to  those outside  the  Indian  tradition,  or  untrained  in  the  disciplines  of  the  Indian classics  and  sciences,  what  has  been  said  by  Indian  philosophers.  The aim  not  here  proposed  would  be  to  develop  Indian  philosophy  further, or  to  compare  and  event...

The  term  'ontology' came  to  be  used  to  indicate  the  most general  part  of  metaphysics in  seventeenth-century  Europe,  although  for  the  origin  of  ontology  as  a  general  theory  of real  entities,  or  as  a  theory  of being as  being,  one  has to  go back  to  Aristotle  as  well as to  the  pre-Socratic philosophers  of ancient  Greece. Aristotle  did  not  use  the  term  'ontology'  just  as he  did  not  use the  term  'logic' either.  But the  history  of logic  as  well as  ontology  in  the Western  tradition  seems to  start  with  him.  Aristotle  talks  about  a  'first  philosophy', whi...

The sams aric identity of self – ineluctably locked into an epistemological and ontological duality with the objective world – is ingeniously captured by Patanjali (the reputed author of (theYoga-S utras or YS, ca second-third century CE) in the expression cittavrtti. Being by nature an extrinsic identity of self and fraught with affliction (kle sa),cittavrtti is rooted in ignorance (avidy a) and as such can be characterized as impermanent (anitya), impure (asuci), dissatisfaction (duhkha) and non-self (an atman)(YS II, 5). Clearly then the yogin must learn to distinguish between extrinsic and intrinsic identity of self, between citta vrtti and purusa.By locating the cause and functioning of affliction within the mind (citta) itself, Yoga asserts that there is a way to overcome misidentification with the modifications (vrtti) of the mind and “achieve” emancipation from the afflictions which permeate our everyday modes of perception, experience (bhoga) and livelihood. For example, Pata...