Trans-ducere: reflections and practices of translations of Sanskrit texts

Rome, December 22 2024

9–11: Alessandro Graheli, Mukula’s Abhidhāvṛttamātṛkā

11.10–1.10: Daniele Cuneo, Maṇika’s Abhinavarāghavānandanāṭaka (1)

1.10–2.10: lunch break

2.10–4.10: Camillo Formigatti, Maṇika’s Abhinavarāghavānandanāṭaka (2)

4.20–6.20: Marco Ferrante, Vākyapadīya, section on sphoṭa

December 23, 2024:

9–11: Federico Squarcini (tbd)
11.10–1.10: Elisa Freschi, Rāmānuja’s Śaraṇāgatigadya

Live updates here.

I think that it would be delusional to think that philosophy of the last, say, twenty years, is, by coincidence the best philosophy ever produced by humans and that therefore exposing oneself to just those twenty years means blindfolding oneself and risking to mistake one’s prejudices for genuine philosophical “intuitions”. Therefore, I think that it is key to read texts written in different time-periods and coming from different philosophical traditions. With “texts” I mean primary texts (at least in translation), not just summaries of them in English.

To make an easy example: A contemporary scholar of, say, cosmopsychism who has never read Abhinavagupta or Utpaladeva may have heard about their philosophical positions and incorporate a paragraph on one or the other in their last article. But given that this engagement is based only on hearsay and not on a direct engagement with Utpaladeva or Abhinavagupta’s thought, the potential of Utpaladeva or Abhinavagupta’s thought to trigger a real rethinking of cosmopsychism is lost and they are used only to confirm the contemporary scholar’s own views. 

For instance, “material cause” and “efficient cause” are Aristotelian categories and superimposing them on Vedānta in an uncritical way risks leading to fundamental misunderstandings. The antidote? Reading Sāṅkhya, Nyāya and Vedānta theories of causation, so as to. understand similarities, but also differences with the Aristotelian paradigm.

There might come a time when secondary literature on, e.g., causation in Sanskrit philosophy or on specific authors will be enough. But we are not there yet. Only a few texts have been edited among the millions of manuscripts that await an edition, a small percentage of these have been translated, and even less have been properly studied. At this stage, any conclusion reached by secondary literature is preliminary at best.

In his monograph on prescriptions, he implemented a revolutionary approach to deontics, interpreting prescriptions as sheer descriptions of state of affairs, namely the instrumentality relation holding between the seemingly enjoined action and the agent’s desired result. “Do X if you desire Y” is therefore nothing but “X is an instrument to Y”.
Similarly “Don’t do X” is nothing but “X is an instrument for an undesirable outcome”. However, in the case of prohibitions, the undesirable outcome is incommensurably greater than any possibly reachable desired output.

In this way, he could achieve multiple goals (in increasing order of importance for Maṇḍana),
1. treat prescriptive statements as if they were descriptive, thus allowing for a smooth interaction among them,
2. make space for non-prescriptive statements in the Vedas (wheras Kumārila and Prabhākara claimed that the Vedas contain only prescriptive statements),
3. allow for a general theory of human motivation as based on rationally conceived goals.

At the same time, Maṇḍana did not want to break up with the previous Mīmāṃsā tradition and its distinction among three types of duties. His reduction might have led to the conclusion that all duties are just based on instrumentality and have therefore no different degree of obligatoriness, but Maṇḍana’s attempt was based on the idea that instrumentality was the real core of the notion of obligatoriness, not an alternative notion. Thus, it should have been able to make sense of the entire Mīmāṃsā deontic building.
Consequently, Maṇḍana kept fixed duties as fixed, but needed therefore something to be fixedly desirable as their coveted result. What could this have been? Maṇḍana discussed and eliminated various options. Happiness, for instance, would not be enough, because though people generally desire happiness, they might be too lazy to undertake cumbersome actions to achieve it. By contrast, reduction of pain is considered to be a universally desirable output and one which would motivate even lazy agents. Thus, Maṇḍana settles for reduction of bad karman as the output of fixed duties, because of the present unpleasant outcomes of bad karman (such as present suffering) and because bad karman will hinder one’s future enterprises. In this way, Maṇḍana could distinguish between elective duties (bound to specific desires and outputs) and fixed and conditional ones (bound to the reduction of bad karman, which is generally desirable).

The core of his solution for the Śyena problem centers on the rationality of the agents involved: No one would want to obtain a small benefit in exchange for the negative output (the always undesirable bad karman) of transgressing a prohibition.

Even though later Mīmāṃsā authors generally disagreed with Maṇḍana’s solution, they often incorporated some elements of it within their own schemes (e.g., the Bhāṭṭa Mīmāṃsā Pārthasārathi incorporated the awareness of instrumentality in his teaching of prescription, see Freschi 2012). Several Vedāntic schools also took advantage of his solution for justifying their reading of the Vedas as (also or chiefly) descriptive.

Unfortunately, he does not seem to elaborate thereon. Vācaspati elaborates extensively and discusses absent pots on the floor, the sheer floor and all we know after Kumārila. Why does Uddyotakara not elaborate thereon?

Probably because someone else (who?) in the tradition had mentioned this possibility and so readers would have understood what he meant by the mention of the sixth kind of contact.

Moreover, is Uddyotakara’s viśeṣaṇaviśeṣyabhāva the same as what will be later known as saṃyuktaviśeṣaṇatā ‘the fact of being an attribute of something being in contact [with the sense faculties]’?

1. you will develop and teach a course in the Bachelor of Philosophy and/or a relevant Master track, preferably in the field of non-Western philosophy
2. you will do research, preferably in the field of non-Western philosophy, resulting in publications in academic journals and academic lectures, and (preparing) grant applications
3. you undertake activities for valorization in the field of your research and teaching, e.g. in the shape of public lectures

• you have a PhD in philosophy and enjoy a good research reputation, as shows from publications in (national and) international media
• you have ample experience in leading philosophy research projects and supervising PhD students
• you have demonstrable experience in translating the results of your research for a broader audience
• you have ample teaching experience and are an inspiring teacher
• you have excellent command of the English language
What are we offering? This chair by special appointment (“bijzondere leerstoel”) is a rotating chair. Appointment will be for a period of 2,5 years, with the possibility of a second appointment for another 2,5 years. This chair is non-salaried and is supported with an annual bench fee of € 2.500,-.
As desired by the chair holder, work for this chair can either be concentrated in a couple of shorter periods, or spread over the entire period. The appointment is for 8 hours a week on average. In accordance with VU policy, this chair is open only to external candidates.
Additionally, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam offers excellent fringe benefits and various schemes and regulations to promote a good work/life balance, such as: a wide range of sports facilities which staff may use at a modest charge (Thanks to Catarina Dutilh Novaes for pointing out this position).

https://workingat.vu.nl/ad/bijzonder-hoogleraar-actuele-themas/xdayuc

]]> https://elisafreschi.com/2019/12/10/professor-by-special-appointment-diversifying-philosophy-amsterdam/feed/ 0 3243 https://elisafreschi.com/2019/11/16/associate-professor-of-south-asian-philosophy-and-religion-in-naples-italy/ https://elisafreschi.com/2019/11/16/associate-professor-of-south-asian-philosophy-and-religion-in-naples-italy/#respond Sat, 16 Nov 2019 19:56:32 +0000 elisa freschi http://elisafreschi.com/?p=3208 A position for Associate Professor in History, Religion and Philosophy of South Asia at the University “L’Orientale” in Naples has recently been advertised, here.

Non-Italian scholars are encouraged to apply, but the application is only written in Italian. Colleagues in Italy told me that this does not mean that one needs to perfectly know Italian, although one needs to declare to have some knowledge of it, and named several colleague who never learnt Italian and still teach in English after several years.

It is a position especially meant for Philosophies and Religions in South Asia in a University which has a strong South Asian component, with people working on, e.g., Hindī, Tibetan, history and epigraphy based primarily on Sanskrit sources, Buddhist manuscripts and philosophy, Sanskrit tantric philosophy.

Since it is an Associate position, it is expected that candidates are either already professors or have an “Habilitation” or the like.

UPDATE: Duties include 120 hours of teaching per academic year. One needs to present up to ten publications. No recommendation letters are required. Deadline: 11.12.2019

Please feel free to ask me in case you cannot make sense of the Italian application.

]]> https://elisafreschi.com/2019/11/16/associate-professor-of-south-asian-philosophy-and-religion-in-naples-italy/feed/ 0 3208 https://elisafreschi.com/2018/10/25/9th-coffee-break-conference-in-oxford/ https://elisafreschi.com/2018/10/25/9th-coffee-break-conference-in-oxford/#respond Thu, 25 Oct 2018 12:22:57 +0000 elisa freschi http://elisafreschi.com/?p=2895 The next CBC will take place in Oxford, Wolfson College, 4–6.12.2018. You can learn the names of the speakers and everything else here and in this flyer.

General title: Science and Technology in Premodern Asia

THEMES
Grammar
Music
Medicine
Astronomy & Mathematics Technology & Applied Science

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Christopher Minkowski (Boden Professor
of Sanskrit, Oxford)
4-6 Dec 2018

PRESENTERS
Eyad Abuali
Victor d’Avella
Camillo Formigatti
Yuto Kawamura
Matthew Kimberley
Jacob Olley
Avital Rom
Shishir Saxena
Jasdip Singh
Paolo Visigalli
Alasdair Watson
Richard Williams
(and more to come)

]]> https://elisafreschi.com/2018/10/25/9th-coffee-break-conference-in-oxford/feed/ 0 2895 https://elisafreschi.com/2018/09/21/looking-at-the-structure-of-temples/ https://elisafreschi.com/2018/09/21/looking-at-the-structure-of-temples/#respond Fri, 21 Sep 2018 13:11:13 +0000 elisa freschi http://elisafreschi.com/?p=2837 Gerald Kozicz sent me a link to a new website he has been intensely working on. The website offers the chance to look at shrines and temples in the Himālayas (better: from Himachal) from different points of view. Not only you can see photos from different perspectives, but you can see the shrine being built in front of your eyes, layer after layer and focus on its different structural elements.
This also means that you are likely to better understand what the experience of believers entering the temple was, which is one of my main reasons for being impressed by Gerald’s work.

You can read more about Kozicz’ work on this blog, here. Don’t miss especially this post on the “Laternendecke”.

]]> https://elisafreschi.com/2018/09/21/looking-at-the-structure-of-temples/feed/ 0 2837 https://elisafreschi.com/2017/11/30/linguistics-in-the-premodern-world-just-nonsense/ https://elisafreschi.com/2017/11/30/linguistics-in-the-premodern-world-just-nonsense/#comments Thu, 30 Nov 2017 11:05:25 +0000 elisa freschi http://elisafreschi.com/?p=2637 Patrick O’Donnell, who also contributed to the Indian Philosophy blog, recently published an interesting response to the above argument, as found in this article by Gaston Dorren. Dorren’s main claim is:

While all disciplines attract the occasional eccentric, it seems that two fields exert a particularly strong pull: historiography and linguistics.

Now, it would be fine to say that many excentric thoughts have been uttered about languages wihout any basis. I would add that many excentric thoughts have been uttered also about many other topics, say ways to salvation, but less us live it aside.
The main point is that Dorren does not say that the topic of language, but that linguistics itself is “a magnet for dilettantes and crackpots”. You would think that Sanskrit authors working on language do not belong to either category, but here is all what Dorren has to say about them:

Other cultures were equally self-complacent. In the last centuries BCE, the people of North India felt that their Sanskrit was nothing less than divine, and 1,000 years later the Arabs would feel likewise about the language of the Quran. For the Chinese, civilising the neighbouring peoples was practically tantamount to familiarising them with the only great language. The French of the Enlightenment, not to be outdone, deemed their language better than divine – it was logical. […]
Speakers of big languages are not the only ones to get carried away by love for their lingo. Quite a few people in Tamil Nadu in South India used quite literally to consider the Tamil language a goddess, and some still do.

Look, I enjoyed Dorren’s discussion about how many people described their own language as the oldest or the best and I can see that in some cases these theories where the only ones about language in a given context. But it is hard to conclude from these wishful thinkings about Sanskrit to the conclusion that one can close the chapter of Indian linguistics (as a scholarly field) in this way.

]]> https://elisafreschi.com/2017/11/30/linguistics-in-the-premodern-world-just-nonsense/feed/ 2 2637