Is interdisciplinarity easier for scholars of South Asian studies? On the 5th Coffee Break Conference

Last week in Rome the 5th Coffee Break Conference took place. During his introductory speech Andrew Ollett asked why was such a project, with an explicit emphasis on a interdisciplinary approach, born exactly among scholars and students of South Asian studies. Please read the rest at my new blog, here.

Kumārila on sentence meaning

Who are the opponents in Kumārila's Ślokavārttika (henceforth ŚV), chapter on sentence-meaning? And did the ŚV set the standard for all further discussions on the topic?
Please read the rest at my new blog, here.

Is Vyāḍi meant when Jayanta refers to “exclusion”?

Is Jayanta referring to Vyāḍi when he lists various positions at the beginning of his discussion about the sentence-meaning, in his Nyāyamañjarī, book 5? Read the answer at my new blog.

Who invented the apoha theory? On Kunjunni Raja 1986

Who invented the apoha theory? If you, like me, are prone to answer "Dignāga" and to add that Dignāga (as shown by Hattori) was inspired by Bhartṛhari's theory and that Dharmakīrti and Dharmottara later fine-tuned Dignāga's one, you are ready to have your view challenged by K. Kunjunni Raja's article in Buddhist Logic and Epistemology (ed. by B.K. Matilal and R.D. Evans, 1986). Please read the rest at my new blog, here.

Sucarita Miśra on apoha —On Kataoka 2014a

Who is the most productive scholar on Indian Philosophy? Kei Kataoka is surely in the top-10 (have a look at his publications here).
He has just published a critical edition of the apoha section of Sucarita’s commentary on the Ślokavārttika. Please read the rest at my new blog, here.

Who studied Mīmāṃsā deontics?

Since Mīmāṃsā (both in its Bhāṭṭa and in its Prābhākara subschools) focused primarily on the exegesis of the prescriptive portion of the Vedic Sacred Texts, the Mīmāṃsā texts offer richly developed discussions of deontic issues, both from a linguistic and from a logic point of view. Unfortunately, the lack of philosophically accessible translations has made most of such discussions remain confined to Sanskritists. Please read the rest at my new blog, here.

Possible applications of Mīmāṃsā deontics: on Chaudhuri and Vardi

There are fields in which the contribution of applied ethics and deontics are more than needed, such as that of the programming of artificial intelligence connected to robots which might interact with human beings. Chaudhuri and Vardi (their article can be downloaded here) quote the following case: (please read the rest at my new blog, here).