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Teaching religious texts in a respectful way?

A colleague working in an area with a strong Indian minority sent me the following question:

Some of our Indian students have difficulty with how certain Sanskrit texts are taught. They are frustrated that we treat, e.g., the Rāmayāṇa as literature, and the Bhagavad Gītā as philosophy, and feel that this does not show respect to the texts. Our instructors have tried to challenge everyone to consider their definitions of what texts count as religious, whether from ancient Greece, China, or India, but some students still find these approaches to be disrespectful. I wonder if you have any thoughts about how to engage with students coming from (I’m guessing) relatively conservative Hindu contexts who are being taught their favorite religious texts in a non-religious way. Do you have any strategies for helping them feel less alienated? Or for demonstrating respect for the texts even while applying critical reading strategies?

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Defending Atheism?

Julian Baggini is certainly right that being an atheist does not necessarily mean being an associate of the holocaust. Still, in order to defend atheism from the accusation of having been the cause of mass murders in the 20th century, Baggini seems to go very far:

[R]eligion is by nature not only divisive, but divisive in a way which elevates some people above others. It is not too fancicul, I think, to see how the centuries of religious tradition in Western society made possible the kind of distinction between the superior Aryans and the inferior others which Nazism required. (Baggini, Atheism, 2003, p. 86)

If Baggini is right, any thought implying distinctions (such as Plato’s utopian Republic) would lead to this kind of effect. And supporters of Christianity could claim that they were the ones who said that we are all children of God… Again, I am led to think that putting the history of atheism in a wider context, e.g., taking India and China into the picture would help enhancing the debate.

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Research associates in Hamburg

Following the approval of the Cluster of Excellence “Understanding Written Artefacts”, the University of Hamburg invites applications for 55 new positions for research associates. The initial fixed term is three years. The application deadline is 16 November 2018.

Further information and calls for applications: https://www.written-artefacts.uni-hamburg.de/en/vacant-positions.html

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6 ys post doc position in intercultural philosophy (Vienna)

I apologise for the late posting and hope it might be interesting for some readers.

University Assistant (post doc)
at the Department of Philosophy

Reference number: 8994

The advertised position is located at the Department of Philosophy which is part of the Faculty of Philosophy and Education. The Department of Philosophy at the University of Vienna is large in international comparison and its members are active within a considerable variety of research areas. The department furthermore offers a range of courses reflecting the breadth of the fields of philosophy while upholding the highest standards within each specialized subject area. Special focus is placed on gaining insight and developing competences in order to contribute to the discussion of current philosophical problems. This intention to acknowledge new philosophical developments and tasks is reflected in a number of co-operations and research fields of the department.

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How to organise translations or editions of the same text in a bibliography?

Suppose you want to refer to n-translations or editions of the Rāmāyaṇa or of the Vigrahavyāvartanī, what would you do? I can think of two solutions

  1. You refer to only a couple of translations among the many texts you refer to. In these cases, I would order them (just like I do for all texts) according to the name of the editor–translator.
  2. You write a study specifically on a given text and need to quote many translations or editions. In these cases, I would suggest having a separate section of your bibliography dedicated to just that. Within the separate section, I would again order editions and translations according to the name of the editon, but one could also use the name of the author, if he is a historical person. I would strongly discourage from using the name of authors like Vyāsa for the alphabetical order.

What do readers do?

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Maṇḍana on fixed sacrifices

The eight century philosopher Maṇḍana tried to streamline the distinction among various types of sacrifices he inherited from the Mīmāṃsā school. The Mīmāṃsā distinguishes between:

  • fixed sacrifices one has to perform throughout one’s life
  • occasional sacrifices one performs when the occasion arises (e.g., the birth of a son)
  • elective sacrifices one performs in order to obtain a coveted result

It is also noteworthy that the auxiliary acts of fixed and occasional sacrifices can be performed “as much as one can”, whereas auxiliaries of elective sacrifices need to be performed exactly as prescribed.
The motivator of the former two groups seems to be the fact that the Veda prescribes them, whereas the motivator of the latter group seems to be the fact that one desires their result. But this is weird, given that they are enjoined by prescriptions which have a comparable form. Maṇḍana tried to find a way to have the same motivator for all. This is how he develops his argument:

  1. Prima facie view: The motivator can only be the fact that one desires a given result. In the case of fixed sacrifices, the result needs to be something one desires fixedly, like happiness.
  2. This hypothesis does not stand to reason, because the following three aspects of fixed sacrifices remain irreconcilable, namely their being fixed, their having a result and the fact that their auxiliaries needs only to be performed as much as possible. In fact, if they need to have a result, they cannot be fixed, since one would cease performing them as soon as one’s desire for them were appeased.
  3. Hence, the desire for the result can be the motivator for the actively undertaking of sacrifices, whereas the fear for a sanction needs to be the motivator for the not-ceasing to perform them.
  4. Final view: No, the above contradiction can be avoided because the fixedness is not just something one arrives at pragmatically, due to the fact that one happens to desire happiness all the time. Rather, their fixedness is prescribed in the Veda, hence it is surely not the case that it ceases. Consequently, one just needs to correctly identify a desire which never ceases, and this is the desire to eliminate accumulated bad karman. People who are currently suffering will be keen in eliminating bad karman in order to eliminate the cause of their sufferings. And people who want to achieve new goals will also want to eliminate bad karman, since they know that this could hinder them.
  5. Thus, it is true that all sacrifices are motivated by desire. The desire motivating fixed sacrifices never ceases and needs to be identified as the destruction of bad karman, because its fixed nature is itself prescribed by the Veda.

As often the case, the pars destruens is almost more interesting than the pars construens.

Jugendfreundschaften, wie Blutverwandtschaften, haben den bedeutenden Vorteil, daß ihnen Irrungen und Mißverständnisse, von welcher Art sie auch seien, niemals von Grund aus schaden, und die alten Verhältnisse sich nach einiger Zeit wieder herstellen.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Die Wahlverwandtschaften (dtv Gesamtausgabe, 1963), 183
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About the International Association of Sanskrit Studies

The following petition has been recently posted on the Indology mailing list:

Dear Colleagues,

A number of Sanskrit scholars plan to present the following letter to the International Association of Sanskrit Studies. We think it’s important that everyone in the field of Sanskrit studies who is concerned about its future should have the opportunity to read it and add his or her voice. If you would like to add your name, send a message to iassletter@gmail.com (not to me, please). After a week or two, the list will be finalized and presented to the IASS.

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Coffee Break Conference, Oxford 2018 Call for papers

We invite proposals for papers for the 9th Coffee Break Conference, which will be hosted at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, 4-6 December 2018.

The theme of the conference this year is “Science and Technology in Premodern Asia.” We welcome proposals of papers on the topics of (1) Mathematics & Astronomy and (2) Technology & Applied Science, both in premodern Asia. The papers can be based upon all research methods; cross-cultural or cross-disciplinary approaches are especially welcome. Doctoral students are also invited to submit proposals.

Before the conference, papers and handouts will be pre-circulated among all the participants. Each speaker will be allotted 20 minutes for the paper and another 20 minutes for discussion.

We will be able to cover the 3-night accommodation in Oxford for every participant. We may also have funding to partly cover travel expenses (in principle, only within Europe), but we expect participants to pay for most of their other expenses. There are no registration fees for the conference.

We are delighted to announce that our keynote speaker for the conference will be Prof. Christopher Minkowski, Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford.

If you would like to give a paper on the theme of Mathematics & Astronomy, please send a title and abstract (max. 300 words) to Matt Kimberley, Matt.Kimberley@bl.uk, by 31 October.

For papers on the theme of Technology & Applied Science, please send a title and abstract (max. 300 words) to Dr. Jonathan Duquette, jonathan.duquette@orinst.ox.ac.uk, by 31 October.

Further information about the conference will soon be available.

For any other question, please contact Yiming Shen (yiming.shen@wolfson.ox.ac.uk) or Dr. Jonathan Duquette (jonathan.duquette@orinst.ox.ac.uk).