Monthly Archives: June 2014
Hayagrīva in Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta texts —UPDATED
In post-Vedānta Deśika (traditional dates 1269-1370) Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta texts Hayagrīva seems to have assumed the function Gaṇeśa has in all other texts, namely he is invoked at the beginning as the God of learning, protecting the intellectual enterprise one is about to undertake.
(Musée Guimet, Cambodia)
Veṅkaṭanātha’s Buddhist quotes
Veṅkaṭanātha (also known as Vedānta Deśika) quotes relatively often from Buddhist texts, especially from Pramāṇavāda ones (as was possibly customary within Indian philosophical circles. Does it mean that he could still directly access Pramāṇavāda texts? Or does he depend on second-hand quotations?
Editing proofs
I am still very busy with the corrections of the proofs of the volume I edited on textual reuse in Indian Philosophy (see here). This made me reflect on how to correct proofs.
Hyphenation in transliterated Sanskrit texts
If you use a South Asian script like Devanāgarī, then you will follow its conventions for hyphenation. If not, you might find the following rules helpful:
Studio of Fedele Fischetti
Yes, with Michael Dummett’s death the “linguistic turn” in analytic philosophy has come to an end.
Yes, the new dominant trend is the move towards neurosciences, which are used to deal with issues in philosophy of mind, (cognitive) linguistics, (cognitive) semantics, morality, etc.
For whom do we write?
Last week, I was having dinner (by chance) with some of the world experts in my field. We discussed conference-styles and one of them suggested that a talk should have three parts:
Textual Reuse for Classicists
RETHINKING TEXT REUSE AS DIGITAL CLASSICISTS
DH 2014, Lausanne, 10 July 2014, 09:00-10:30
Amphimax, room 410
Text reuse – the meaningful reiteration of text, usually beyond the simple repetition of common language – is a broad concept that can naturally be understood at different levels and studied in a large variety of contexts. This panel will gather researchers from different projects focussing on text reuse in the field of Digital Classics with the aim of discussing the possible approaches to and understandings of the notion. It will also bring together current efforts and lay the ground for further research.
Conveners:
Aurélien Berra (Université Paris-Ouest & EHESS)
Matteo Romanello (German Archaeological Institute & King’s College London)
Alexandra Trachsel (University of Hamburg)
Invited participants:
Monica Berti (University of Leipzig)
Chris Forstall (University at Buffalo, SUNY)
Annette Geßner (University of Leipzig)
Charlotte Tupman (King’s College London)
For more information and the panel’s programme, please visit this site.
What is the difference between nouns and verbs (according to Mīmāṃsā authors)? Diaconescu vs. Clooney
What do nouns mean? And what is the difference between nouns and verbs? Pūrva Mīmāṃsā authors are rightly known as having conceived the first textual linguistics in South Asia. In this sense, their theory differs from the Vyākaraṇa one, as it does not start with basic forms having already underwent an analysis (vyākaraṇa), but rather with complex textual units, the sacrificial prescriptions of the Brāhmaṇas.
PhD, Post-Doc and other research grants in Buddhist Studies
The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation initiated a program – channeled through ACLS – in Buddhist Studies last year, supporting dissertation fellowships, postdoctoral fellowships, collaborative research grants and distinguished visiting professorships.
Finally an interesting blog-post saying some basic things about the relation between philosophy and physics, explaining that “being useful” is not tantamount to “being useful to my current calculations” and that, accordingly, many physicists criticising philosophy are just misunderstanding their target.
I would have added something more regarding the epistemology of the issue, but for that have a look at the interesting comments (e.g., one says that philosophy is useful for asking questions, but lousy for answering them…).