________________________________________ From: INDOLOGY <[email protected]> on behalf of Howard Resnick via INDOLOGY <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, June 8, 2024 5:41:52 PM To: Brendan S. Gillon, Prof. Cc: Indology List Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] nyaya and regress
Thanks Brendan. That was my impression, regarding itaretarāśṛaya and anavasthā. Interestingly, in recent Western epistemology, coherentism, which is essentially itaretarāśraya, has been put forward as perhaps the major challenger to various versions of foundationalism, the Aristotelian escape from an infinite regress of proofs, anavasthā, through a self-evident foundation, svataḥ pramāna, a notion found in various places in Indian philosophy. Ironically, coherentists praise the itaretarāśraya as epistemically sufficient. They cite images like a spider’s web, or other networks, where all the parts, depending on each other, form a holistic truth system. This coherentist hallmark of “a system of mutually supporting beliefs," seems to literally translate itaretarāśraya. It strikes me, though, that coherentism itself rests upon an obvious foundation -- the belief that coherence somehow indicates veracity. As we know, many conceptual, dialectic, and analytic elements in Indian intellectual history have much to say to Western philosophy, in this case to epistemology. Thanks again for the valuable help. Best wishes, Howard On Jun 8, 2024, at 5:07 PM, Brendan S. Gillon, Prof. via INDOLOGY <[email protected]> wrote: The quick answer is that itaretarāśṛaya is akin to circularity and anavasthā to infinite regress. Brendan Gillon On 2024-06-08 12:02, Howard Resnick via INDOLOGY wrote: Thank you Madhav for this information, and thank you for bringing to mind my first and much appreciated Sanskrit professor, Hartmut Scharfe, whom I studied with as an undergraduate at UCLA. Regarding itaretarāśṛaya, often taken to mean ‘mutual dependence’, can this be seen as an indirect or oblique indication of infinite regress, by way of an apratiṣṭhāna, foundationless, situation? Thanks and best wishes! Howard On Jun 8, 2024, at 11:07 AM, Madhav Deshpande <[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]> wrote: Another source for discussions of topics like Anavasthā and Itaretarāśraya may be Hartmut Scharfe's book: "Die Logik im Mahābhaāṣya," Berlin 1961. Madhav M. Deshpande Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India [Residence: Campbell, California, USA] On Sat, Jun 8, 2024 at 6:47 AM Howard Resnick via INDOLOGY <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Thank you Philipp. Very helpful. All the best, Howard On Jun 8, 2024, at 3:00 AM, Philipp Maas via INDOLOGY <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Dear Howard, On anavasthā and related terms in various systems of thought, see also Oberhammer, G. (1991). Terminologie der frühen indischen Scholastik in Indien. Vol. 1. A-I. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, p. 32f. Best wishes, Philipp __________________________ Prof. Dr. Philipp A. Maas Professor for Modern Indology Institute of Indology and Tibetology Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich ___________________________ https://spp1448.academia.edu/PhilippMaas Am Di., 4. Juni 2024 um 11:05 Uhr schrieb Howard Resnick via INDOLOGY <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>: Dear Scholars, Does the nyāya system speak about the problem of an infinite regress of proofs? Aristotle famously identifies and then avoids this problem through the notion of a self-evident foundation or starting point of knowledge. In Western epistemology, this strategy is often called foundationalism. Is there anything at all similar or analagous in nyāya or other Indian schools? The Caitanya-caritāmṛta several times affirms that the Veda is ’self-evident’, svataḥ pramāṇa, but the term is not used there as a general or secular epistemic strategy. Is the CC simply repeating a well-known epistemic principle? All help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Howard _______________________________________________ INDOLOGY mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology _______________________________________________ INDOLOGY mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology _______________________________________________ INDOLOGY mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology _______________________________________________ INDOLOGY mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology -- Brendan S. Gillon email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Department of Linguistics McGill University tel.: 001 514 398 4868 1085, Avenue Docteur-Penfield Montreal, Quebec fax.: 001 514 398 7088 H3A 1A7 CANADA webpage: http://webpages.mcgill.ca/staff/group3/bgillo/web/ _______________________________________________ INDOLOGY mailing list [email protected] https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology _______________________________________________ INDOLOGY mailing list [email protected] https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
