Philosophy in Classical India by Jonardon Ganeri

Philosophy in Classical India by Jonardon Ganeri

What are the goals of the major Indian philosophers and what are the methods of rational inquiry used in their pursuit? Philosophy in Classical India is a much-needed introduction to the philosophical texts, traditions and arguments of Indian philosophy. Philosophical rather than mystical or religious in approach and assuming no prior knowledge of key texts, Jonardon Ganeri examines the following topics:

• the motive and method of rational inquiry: the early Nyāya
• rationality, emptiness and the objective view: the philosophy of Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka Buddhism
• the rational basis of metaphysics: Vaiśeṣika metaphysics
• reduction, exclusion and rational reconstruction: the philosophy of Diṅnāga’s Yogācāra Buddhism
• rationality, harmony and perspective: Jaina epistemology and metaphysics
• reason in equilibrium: Gaṅgeśa’s new Nyāya
• balance and repost: public reason in Theravāda Buddhism
• practical reasoning in Mīmāṃsā and the Dharmaśāstra

This second edition has been substantially updated, with the addition of new chapters on Theravāda and Mīmāṃsā.

All chapters and further reading have been updated to reflect changes in scholarship and the publication of new editions and translations of primary texts, making Philosophy in Classical India an ideal introduction to Indian philosophy from the perspective of analytical philosophy.

Jonardon Ganeri read mathematics at Cambridge before pursuing graduate studies in philosophy at London and Oxford. He is the author a dozen books about Indian philosophy. He joined the Fellowship of the British Academy in 2015 and won the Infosys Prize in the Humanities the same year, the only philosopher to do so. He delivered the 2024 John Locke Lectures at the University of Oxford, entitled Seeing and Subjectivity (Ganeri, 2027). He is currently Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto.