Table Of ContentCategorisation in indian PhilosoPhy
dialogues in south asian traditions:
religion, PhilosoPhy, literature and history
Series Editors
laurie Patton, duke university, usa
Brian Black, lancaster university, uK
Face-to-face conversation and dialogue are defining features of South Asian
traditional texts, rituals and practices. Not only has the region of South Asia
always consisted of a multiplicity of peoples and cultures in communication with
each other, but also performed and written dialogues have been indelible features
within the religions of South Asia; Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and
Islam are all multi-vocal religions. Their doctrines, practices, and institutions have
never had only one voice of authority, and dialogue has been a shared tactic for
negotiating contesting interpretations within each tradition.
This series examines the use of the dialogical genre in South Asian religious and
cultural traditions. Historical inquiries into the plurality of religious identity in
South Asia, particularly when constructed by the dialogical genre, are crucial
in an age when, as Amartya Sen has recently observed, singular identities seem
to hold more destructive sway than multiple ones. This series will approach
dialogue in its widest sense, including discussion, debate, argument, conversation,
communication, confrontation, and negotiation. it will aim to open up a dynamic
historical and literary mode of analysis, which assumes the plural dimensions of
religious identities and communities from the start. In this way the series aims
to challenge many outdated assumptions and representations of South Asian
religions.
Categorisation in
Indian Philosophy
Thinking Inside the Box
Edited by
JeSSIcA FrAzIer
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, UK and University of Kent, UK
© Jessica Frazier and the contributors 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Jessica Frazier has asserted her right under the copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
to be identified as the editor of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing company
Wey court east 110 cherry Street
Union road Suite 3-1
Farnham Burlington, VT 05401-3818
Surrey, GU9 7PT USA
england
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
categorisation in Indian philosophy : thinking inside the box / edited by Jessica Frazier.
pages cm. – (Dialogues in South Asian traditions: religion, philosophy, literature, and
history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4094-4690-3 (hardcover) – ISBN 978-1-4094-4691-0 (ebook) – ISBN 978-
1-4094-7455-5 (epub) 1. Indian philosophy. 2. categories (Philosophy) I. Frazier, Jessica,
1975- editor of compilation.
B5131.c38 2014
181'.4–dc23
2013051042
ISBN 9781409446903 (hbk)
ISBN 9781409446910 (ebk – PDF)
ISBN 9781409474555 (ebk – ePUB)
V
Printed in the United Kingdom by Henry Ling Limited,
at the Dorset Press, Dorchester, DT1 1HD
Contents
List of Figures vii
Contributors ix
Foreword: Remarks on the Philosophical Use of Categories by Gavin Flood xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Abbreviations xv
1 Introduction: The Importance of ‘Thinking Inside the Box’ 1
Jessica Frazier
2 Vyākaraṇa: Bhāva as the Ultimate Category 11
Eivind Kahrs
3 Nyāya: Pramāṇa (Knowledge-Generators) as Natural Kinds 27
Stephen Phillips
4 Sāṃkhya: The Analysis of Experience in Classical Sāṃkhya 41
Mikel Burley
5 Vedānta: Metaphors for the Category of Existence 59
Jessica Frazier
6 Early Vaiśeṣika: The Concept of Categories in Vaiśeṣika
Philosophy 89
Shashiprabha Kumar
7 Later Vaiśeṣika: The ‘Seven Category Ontology’ Reaffirmed 101
Jonardon Ganeri
8 Madhyamaka:
Conventional Categories in Madhyamaka Philosophy 115
Jan Westerhoff
9 Jainism: From Ontology to Taxonomy in the
Jaina Colonisation of the Universe 133
W.J. Johnson
vi Categorisation in Indian Philosophy
10 Historical Perspectives:
The Origin of Categories in Indian Philosophy 147
Johannes Bronkhorst
11 The Order of Things:
The Goals and Categories of Categorisation in India 153
Jessica Frazier
Bibliography 163
Appendices 177
Index 187
List of Figures
4.1 Prakṛti and the emergent principles, understood as an analysis of
experience (arrows indicate direction of synchronic conditionality
rather than material causation) 58
7.1 The Vaiśeṣika world 109
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Contributors
Johannes Bronkhorst is Emeritus Professor at the University of Lausanne.
Mikel Burley is Lecturer in Religion and Philosophy at the University of Leeds.
Gavin Flood is Professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion at
the University of Oxford, and Academic Director of the Oxford Centre for
Hindu Studies.
Jessica Frazier is Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent, and
Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Religious Studies.
Jonardon Ganeri is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sussex, Brighton,
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Monash University, Melbourne and Visiting
Professor at Kyunghee University, Seoul.
W.J. Johnson is Reader in Indian Religions at Cardiff University.
Eivind Kahrs is Reader in Sanskrit at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow
of Queens’ College.
Shashiprabha Kumar is Professor and Chairperson of the Special Centre for
Sanskrit Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Stephen Phillips is Professor of Philosophy and Asian Studies at the University
of Texas at Austin.
Jan Westerhoff is Lecturer in Religious Ethics and Fellow and Tutor at Lady
Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.
