In the first post of this series, I discussed the importance of studying Mīmāṃsā within Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta and especially within the work of Veṅkaṭanātha. This post focusses on the importance of a specific work by Veṅkaṭanātha, namely his Seśvaramīmāṃsā (henceforth SM).
Full Professorship (W3) in “Classical Indology” in Heidelberg
The South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University (Germany) invites applications for a position ranked as a
Full Professorship (W3) in “Classical Indology” (Succession to Prof. Dr. Axel Michaels) to be filled by October 2016.
Why studying Mīmāṃsā within Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta: An easy introduction for lay readers
The Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta is a philosophical and theological school active chiefly in South India, from the last centuries of the first millennium until today and holding that the Ultimate is a personal God who is the only existing entity and of whom everything else (from matter to human and other living beings) is a characteristic.
Hugo David’s review of Duty, language and exegesis in Prābhākara Mīmāṃsā
This post is part of a series dedicated to a discussion of the reviews of my book Duty, language and exegesis in Prābhākara Mīmāṃsā. For more details on the series, see here. For the first post (on Andrew Ollett’s review) of the series, see here. For the second post (dedicated to Taisei Shida’s review), see here. As already hinted at, I welcome comments and criticism.
Hugo David’s review is (to my knowledge) the only one in French. It is encouraging that great work is still done in languages other than English, but I will allow myself some longer summaries of it, for the sake of readers who may not know French. (I beg the reader’s pardon for my translations, which do not convey the elegance of David’s original French).
Department Chair at the University of North Texas, departm. of Philosophy and Religion
The University of North Texas Department of Philosophy and Religion invites applications for Department Chair. The department chair position is a 12-month appointment, beginning fall 2016. It is anticipated that the new chair will build upon the department’s existing strengths, while working together with faculty to envision a vibrant and sustainable future. Teaching responsibilities are two courses a year. Rank and salary are commensurate with qualifications and experience. Salary and benefits are competitive. The position reports to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Details at:
https://facultyjobs.unt.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/position/JobDetails_css.jsp?postingId=167136
Junior Professorship (W1) for Contemporary Indian Studies
I received the following ad through Indology
Via this link you can access information on a new professorship in Contemporary Indian Studies at the University of Bonn in Germany.
The advertisement is in German only but any translation programme should do to understand the basics if you don’t know German. It’s for a German ‘W1-Professorship’ which is a junior position only requiring an excellent PhD but not a Habilitation which is normally needed. Applicants should be specialised in an aspect of the culture, history, political or social science of India and have a modern South Asian language (preferably Hindi/Urdu). Further information can be obtained from Prof. Konrad Klaus, the Professor of Sanskrit at Bonn University (konrad.klaus@uni-bonn.de). The application deadline is 15th January 2016.
Taisei Shida’s review of Duty, language and exegesis in Prābhākara Mīmāṃsā
This post is part of a series dedicated to a discussion of the reviews of my book Duty, language and exegesis in Prābhākara Mīmāṃsā. For more details on the series, see here. For the first post of the series, see here. As already hinted at, I welcome comments and criticism.
Among the various reviews, Taisei Shida’s one is surely the most precise. He
Kumārila on sentence-meaning: Mahābhāṣya opponents?
At the beginning of his chapter on sentence meaning, Kumārila sets the problem of what is the meaning-bearer in the case of a sentence (see this post). Later in the chapter, he will discuss sphoṭa, apoha and then present his abhihitānvayavāda, but first he discusses in general the possibility of a sentence-meaning. There can be no sentence-meaning out of the sum of the word-meanings, since those are instantaneous and cannot connect (kā 6–8). The same applies to their cognitions (kā 9). Further, neither words (pada) nor the concepts evoked by them (tadbuddhi) can really connect, so that a sentence-meaning is stricto sensu impossible.
Woody Allen’s “The Irrational Man” between existentialism and reuse
Woody Allen’s last movie, The Irrational Man (henceforth TIM) keeps on discussing about luck and case, a topic which was at the center of his Match Point (MP). In both movies, the “villains” end up being punished, in a (too) straightforward way in TIM and in a subtler one in MP. Notwithstanding that, one of the strengths of TIM is that the condemnation of the villain is so straightforward, that one is lead to suspect that his punishment only happened by chance and not as a result of justice. If you are interested in the topic and can read Italian, you can read my analysis of MP in the light of Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta here.
If you don’t know Italian, you might have missed that the climax scene of TIM is a quotation* of the corresponding climax scene of Il Vedovo, a 1959 movie by Dino Risi, which also elaborates on the topic of trying to organise the perfect murder of an unpleasant person. The main difference lies in the fact that W. Allen sympathises with the prospective murderer (a philosophy professor who dislikes Kant’s Categorical Imperative and is fond of Sartre) much more than D. Risi, whose commedy really has no hero.
*I do not think it is a simple reuse of a convenient device. The similarity is so striking that the director surely intended his public to recognise what he was doing. In this sense, the movie presupposes a public of connaisseurs (along the public of people paying the tickets). I discuss the terminology related to reuse in the Introduction of a forthcoming volume edited by me and Philipp Maas. Its basic ideas can be read here (where “pragmatic reuse” stands for what we later labelled “simple reuse”).